DACA’s future/Prepared for disaster?
On the Friday, September 8th 2017 edition of WITF’s Smart Talk:
This week President Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program was installed by former President Obama to protect young adults brought to the U.S. illegally as youths from deportation. Obama was criticized for enacting the program via executive order.
About 800,000 young people are registered for the program which allows them to legally work and attend school. Those that fall under DACA will have a six-month grace period before their protected status is terminated.
The president wants Congress to address DACA during those six months. Trump claims to support the DACA recipients, insisting the program needs to be voted into law to maintain legal legitimacy. A day after the announcement was made, Trump tweeted that he would be willing to address the issue if Congress was unable to pass legislation.
The message is troubling to the DACA participants, known as “DREAMers,” who are unsure of their future in America. Many of them have no memory of life in their native country or have any ties at all.
Friday’s Smart Talk discusses what lies in store for DREAMers in Central Pennsylvania with Carrie Carranza, Legal Immigration Counselor and Program Advocate with Church World Services in Lancaster. We’ll also speak with Carlos Apolfo Gonzalez, a coordinator with the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition and a DACA participant about his concerns as well as his hope for a positive solution to the issue.
We’re also joined by with Jill Family, a Widener University Commonwealth Law Professor of Law and Government, about the legal options for DREAMers and how they can protect themselves until the program can be renewed.
Jill Family – Widener University Commonwealth Law Professor of Law and Government / Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez – Advocacy Coordinator, Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition; DACA participant / Carrie Carranza – Legal Immigration Counselor and Program Advocate, Church World Services in Lancaster
Also on the Friday program — as Hurricane Irma bears down on the United States this weekend the question arises as to whether the U.S. is prepared for disasters like Irma or Hurricane Harvey that flooded Texas and the Gulf Coast tw weeks ago.
Robert Wheelersburg (Ph.D.) worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and now teaches at Elizabethtown College, including a course on emergency operations in disaster response.
Robert P. Wheelersburg, Ph.D. – Professor of Anthropology, Elizabethtown College
emails
– Im sure this will be addressed, but it is very important that the DACA kids know to renew their DACA status if their status expires before March 5, 2018. They have until October 7, 2017 to renew or they are out of luck. Their renewal will be valid for 2 years.
If current DACA recipients have DACA work cards that expire after March 5, 2018 they cannot renew and their status expires the date on their work cards. – Troy
