We’re told the best and brightest will be on display this week when an illegal-immigrant caravan rolls into the nation’s capital to demand an extension of Barack Obama’s legally suspect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Looks can be deceiving.
Contrary to media profiles that portray young DACA recipients as well-educated, productive professionals, the reality is less impressive.
The Migration Policy Institute, a progressive policy shop that promotes large-scale immigration, found:
- Only 4 percent of DACA recipients have completed college, versus 17 percent of similar-aged young Americans. (Even worse, another study revealed that 21 percent of DACA beneficiaries have dropped out of high school,compared with a national average of 5.8 percent.)
- Of the 382,000 who hold jobs with DACA work-permits, the most common occupations are food preparation and servicing, retail trade, construction and office support.
- Just 6,000 — or 1.6 percent — of the 382,000 DACA jobholders work in white-collar technology-related occupations.
The MPI report contradicts claims by business groups that DACA recipients are propelling the U.S. economy in ways that American citizens cannot.
Indeed, despite the pervasive mythology about DACA, the data suggest that the average beneficiary is far less educated and no more productive than Americans and, if awarded amnesty, more likely to rely on taxpayers’ aid throughout their lives.
While some 800,000 DACA recipients represent a small share of the overall U.S. workforce, they compete directly with 4 million Americans who turn 18 and enter the job market each year.
Kristjen Nielsen, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, infamously told a Senate committee this month that Americans “owe” DACA aliens permanent legal residence here.
Now open-border enthusiasts are marching into Washington, D.C., to collect. Rallies, sit-ins and assorted other demonstrations are expected Dec. 5-6 around Capitol Hill.
President Obama – whose administration abandoned background checks on DACA applicants to expedite amnesty requests — stated there were no guarantees his program would continue after he left office. President Trump repeatedly pledged during the 2016 campaign that he would end DACA.
The six-month winding-down period announced by Trump in October gives DACA recipients time to prepare for a reversion to their status prior to implementation of President Obama’s unconstitutional program. It also affords Congress a unique opportunity to enact merit-based immigration policies, defund illegal and dangerous sanctuary cities, approve a mandatory national E-Verify employment-screening system and increase enforcement at the border and in the interior.
But rather than work on any of these reforms, Democrats in Congress are playing brinksmanship on a federal spending bill, threatening to shut down the government at year’s end if DACA recipients and many other illegal aliens are not granted a legislated amnesty. Republican leaders say they’re open to granting consideration to DACA beneficiaries, but note that the deadline for action isn’t until March.
“If the Democrats fail to show up at the negotiating table, it raises the legitimate question of whether DACA is something they really want, or if it’s merely a convenient political football for fundraising and energizing their base,” FAIR President Dan Stein said.