America is Sending Dreamers Mixed Signals
By: Hugo Guerrero
Tags: Politics, DACA, American Politics, Texas, Dreamers

By Hugo Guerrero

“They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper” (Obama 2012). Former President Barack Obama was referring to young people who were illegally brought to the United States by their parents. Until in 2012, when President Obama signed an executive order establishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), the undocumented youth (known as “Dreamers”) had no protections from deportation. DACA gave Dreamers a renewable two-year permit to legally reside and work in the United States as long as they were under 30 before 2012, have no criminal record and pursuing an education.

President Trump has been openly against DACA and attempted to terminate it. However, on June 18th, 2020 the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration’s efforts to end DACA. The 5–4 decision was significant because it sided with Dreamers, but did not prohibit President Trump from attempting to end the program again. The next day, President Trump announced on Twitter that his administration would not stop attempting to end DACA. This ongoing conflict has threatened the lives of nearly 700,000 people and could have serious social and economic ramifications for not just Dreamers but their families and communities.

Texas is home to the second highest population of Dreamers and has been at the forefront against the program. In 2016, Texas unsuccessfully sued the United States calling DACA unconstitutional. Now there’s a court case and Texas submitted an amicus curiae brief, backed by more than nine states, arguing for DACA’s termination. How can this be the case if across the United States, DACA appears to have bipartisan support? Comparing the public stances of Congress members, from districts along the Texas-Mexico border, and throughout the state, to their voting record on Dreamer legislation may shed some light.

Dreamers have National and Congressional support. NPR surveys concluded that two-thirds of Americans believe Dreamers should be granted citizenship (Montanaro 2018). NPR noticed sharp divides based on political parties and they increased when polling at the state level. The University of Texas and the Texas Tribune conducted a poll in 2017 revealing that 59% of Texans want to prevent the deportation of Dreamers (Ross 2017). The University of Texas later asked about the termination of DACA and found that 61% of Texans support the continuation of DACA (Texas Politics Project 2018).

Twenty out of thirty-five (57%) of Texas Congress members support Dreamers (Livingston, et al 2017). It’s safe to assume that Dreamers have bipartisan support from Texas Congress members because of the twenty, nine are Republican and ten are Democrats. Congress members of the five districts along the Mexico border and five Congress members of districts throughout the state will be analyzed.The data analyzed from each district consists of representatives’ years in office, party affiliations, Dreamer population in their district, and their votes on Dreamer Legislation. That data is grouped by the districts touching the border and districts throughout Texas.

Six Democrats and four Republicans were analyzed. The most recent count that determined how many Dreamers lived in each district was in 2017. Dreamer population in the ten districts are represented by Figure 1 and Figure 2. The Border Districts generally have more DACA recipients, however some districts in the Houston area, like that of Rep. Jackson Lee, or Rep. Green also have a high Dreamer population. Data also showed that all of the Congress members with Border Districts openly supported Dreamers, no matter their party. In the other group only the Democrats supported them. This is probably because Republicans generally consider there to be more pressing issues on the topic of immigration than DACA.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Next are the number of bills that have been proposed that are similar to the DREAM Act or DACA and voting records. There have been three bills proposed that would grant Dreamers citizenship: the DREAM Act (2010), Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018, and the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019. Dream Act/DACA related legislation votes and support can be seen in Figure 3 and Figure 4. Of the three pieces of legislation presented, two were Democrat led and one was Republican led (the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018). The division was among party lines, Republicans only voted for the Republican sponsored bills and Democrats only voted for their bills. It is significant to note that, in the case of the Republican sponsored legislation, no Democrat voted in favor of this bill and 48% of Republicans also voted against it.

While every Congress member has at least one vote in support of Dreamers, partisanship ideologies prevented these three bills from passing. Republicans feel like the most recent Democratic proposed legislations are too ambitious and grant broad amnesty. In reality, only the Democratic sponsored legislation, the 2010 Dream Act and the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 exclusively targeted children who were brought by their parents. The only Republican sponsored bill was a bill that offered Dreamers a green card, repealed the Immigration Lottery, mandated DNA samples for families immigrating together, and appropriated funds to build a southern border wall. No Democrat voted in favor of this bill and 48% of Republicans also voted against it.

The implications are concerning for the Dreamer population in Texas and even in America in general. Dreamers’ very livelihood is in a political limbo and they can’t vote to defend themselves. Most politicians pledge their support to Dreamers but party polarization prevents them from reaching down the aisle to grant them some kind of security. It’s frightening because it suggests that Congress members are seemly unfazed by the psychological and emotional trauma that these young people are facing as a result of their party loyalty. They may have gotten their name from the acronym of a bill, but they are figurative and literal dreamers that wish for a better future in the only country they call home.