The Childhood Journeys That Made Them ‘Dreamers’

Immigration to America is not a civil right. Just once I would like to hear the so-called dreamers say so. Just once I would like to hear a thank you for not deporting them. I'd like to hear them admit that Americans do not owe them anything. I'd like to hear them say that they appreciate this country for giving them a free education and letting them stay here at all. Just once I'd like them to stop complaining about our laws and our people. Just once I'd like to hear them say that Americans and not their parents or their grandparents or anyone who is here illegally gets to make our laws. Just once.

I remember vividly a republican state official said on tv, "if we deport illegals, who is going to work in our slaughterhouses?" I believe that is definitely a job most native born people would NOT want.

Dear Immigrant Dreamers: Most Americans support your and want you to stay and live here without fear of deportation. Don't allow hateful rhetoric to bring you down. Keep you head up, work hard, be honest and eventually your dreams will come true.

How about NYtimes spends time to document the lives of legal immigrants and how they are impacted by any amnesty that could be provided to illegal immigrants ?

Please stop with the boohoo stories about the "kids." Please also stop telling us that deportation would send "the kids" back to a country they never knew and how horrible that would be because they didn't know anything about the US before they came here so..... If the government does not want to deport "these kids," I support maintaining their DACA status where they receive renewable work permits and can live here legally. I do not support giving them a path to citizenship or allowing them to sponsor other illegals. I do not support giving their parents and other family members legal status of any kind. The DACA program should be closed to new entrants and illegal aliens who are not DACA recipients should be deported. I resent these dreamers,who aren't even American citizens, demanding anything from the US government. I also resent the process of allowing illegal aliens to repeatedly delay their deportation. If you have been scheduled for deportation, you need to go - no delays!

What is it about people who got here and stayed without going through the require paper work that raises the ire of so many citizens living a comfortable life. Do they feel personally threatened? Have they lost a job to an illegal immigrant? Respect for the law? The last is the least of it, I am sure. They don't seem to care that the present occupant in the White House has broken many laws but got away with it, all that matters is that he should proceed to kick out millions of law abiding people just because they don't like them (paper work is just an excuse). Staying in the US without approval from the INS is not equivalent to stealing, killing, raping or defrauding people. One can argue what price they must pay to legalize their stay but sending people back (some to a country they barely remember) destroying families in the process is inhumane and not worthy of a civilized country. Unrestricted immigration is clearly not in the interest of any country. However, when a country has failed to control it and human beings have become part of the fabric of the society it is the responsibility of the country to address that situation in humane manner and people should think carefully before screaming for actions that reflect badly on them. Members of Salvadoran gangs should be deported like any foreign criminal, but they are a tiny fraction of the ones so many want to see gone. Trump use of them to inflame animosity against others is despicable.

Every last one of them can go home. They're educated and intelligent. They will be fine. They are no different than someone who lived abroad with a parent.

3 Dreamers were arrested just last week for smuggling people across the border. Where is their profile?

Trump openly campaigned against the undocumented, so after he won, fewer people tried to slip across our borders. Then people began to realize that Tump was mostly talk. Yes, he was letting ICE arrest anyone who might be caught up in a sting operation, but ICE was still focusing on those who had committed additional crimes beyond moving here illegally. The media hyped the arrests made, but there were not that many of them. When campaigning, Trump had promised to cancel DACA on his first day in office. But, when elected, he said how much he cared for DACA recipients. It took him 9 months to cancel DACA, and even then, he called on Congress to pass legislation to allow DACA to remain in place. Foreigners who had been deterred from moving here illegally by Trump’s campaign rhetoric realized that he was actually deporting few people, and they heard his plea for Congress to let the DACA recipients remain here. Many made the decision to come here after all. In an 1/10/18 NYT article, Caitlin Dickerson wrote, "Just months after border apprehensions hit a 17-year low, which administration officials proudly celebrated as a “Trump effect,” the number of migrants trying to enter the United States has been surging, surpassing 40,000 along the Southwest border last month …”. To deter further illegal migration, we must not offer permanent legal status to DACA recipients until all other illegal migrants have left our country.

I love seeing the gamete of immigrants that make America our home. Specifically focusing on Kamau Chege's story, he talks about how his family remained in the states after his dad's visa expired. It interesting to me how people who are against immigrants might think," well, I know how to follow the law, so I would go back to my country." Really? I don't think anyone can say that until one is personally in that situation. Some things are much easier said than done. Citizens like MM, a fellow commenter (couldn’t tag him/her), voices their opinion and others that allowing immigrants to receive government aid is a consequence of them being there. In reality, immigrants have been creating a surplus in the Medicare budget. Kaiser Health News reported in2009 that immigrants contributed $33 billion to the Medicare trust fund and only used 8 percent, while US born people contributed $192 million and used $223 million. This means immigrants are paying for US born citizens’ Medicare with the surplus they create in the budget. Also, a study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed immigrants increasing employment by 11% and raising wages of the average Americans by 2.6% in 2009 while not denting the workforce for US-born people. Immigrants like Kamau and his family are creating a "greater good" for America. More importantly, immigrants are America.

Wow, all the comments are negative. We are a country of immigrants and immigration laws were not even enacted until about 100 years after the United States were founded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1882 And these laws were mainly to restrict undesirable ethnic groups. The whole process needs to be improved. My daughter in law has a green card, but it was difficult process that cost money, multiple legal forms, attorney fees and physical exams. The current system is a political football that is not bringing out the best in us.

Has anyone looked at the electoral map during a presidential election on election night? It is all red except the few states flooded with immigrants. Nothing wrong with some immigrants, but many cannot afford to live here just like a 100 million or so Americans. So, they go on the government dole. Without a never ending flow of immigrants, a Democrat would never be in the White House again. Its all about votes, not the good of the country. Period.

I have great sympathy for these kids. But virtually all of these trips started with families packing up and traveling, with the specific intention of arriving and staying here illegally. I want these kids granted some kind of legal status. But current demands that these extend to parents and siblings means that kids here illegally--and granted the ability to stay legally--will be able to sponsor people that people here legally on green cards cannot. Only US citizens can sponsor parents and siblings. For people here legally with green cards to be unable to do that, and some kind of superstatus granted to these kids, is to bring havoc to a system already in total chaos.

The Obama Administration gave the impression that DACA would only cover those who had graduated from high school so virtually everyone who applied for it had graduated. The reality is that DACA covers anyone who is enrolled in school. This includes those who had dropped out of primary school back in Mexico or Central America, years before coming to the U.S. as well as those who had never gone to school as long as they now "enrolled in school”. The criteria for DACA specifically says that an applicant could be enrolled either in an ESL class (that would lead to employment or enrollment in a job training program) or in an alternative elementary school for adults. If Congress extends the DACA program, will the social service agencies that have been set up for the undocumented help people who do not have a high school diploma (or even a GED), apply for the program? If the Immigration Service continues to interpret the phrase “enrolled in school” to include simply enrolling in an E.S.L. course or in an alternative elementary school, then we could be offering legal status to people who are barley literate. In this Information Age, it is hard to find a decent-paying job with only a high school diploma. If we give green cards to people (who are now up to age 36) who have yet to graduate from elementary school, we will be assuming the burden of supplementing their incomes along with their food, housing, and medical care for the rest of their lives.

The real dreamers are the folks who keep pushing this narrative....

The NYT needs to recognize the suffering of American citizens--this is getting old. If you want Trump to be re-elected just keep this up. Where are your stories about the suffering of families whose children, that served in the armed forces, died while waiting to see a doctor at the VA? I'm not against the Dreamers, but I am against one-sided sob story hard left -wing journalism. A Registered Democrat

There are millions of American born children who are also 'dreaming' of a better future. But they don't count according to the Dems and others. No mas amnistia.

You don't need to be a "Dreamer" to have a sympathetic story. Once the open border Democrats have finished arguing for citizenship for the "Dreamers," they'll invariably move on to the at least nine million additional illegal immigrants in the United States who aren't "Dreamers." After all, I'm sure these people have compelling stories of suffering to tell as well.

Still more sob stories. The editors are losing grip on reality. People are about the high cost of surviving in this world paying bills getting food on the table and obeying laws that you know are put in place. enough of these articles you are wasting space and the pleas are falling on deaf ears. The people the kids should be directing their anger at is not with our country or POTUS or senators it should instead be directed at their parents who put them in this precarious position. By giving amnesty for all Pelosi and company are giving the green light for more criminals to enter.

Here are more stories to demonstrate how worthy and admirable the "Dreamers" are. But what is the point? Many people hope it is not that: "everyone in the rest of the world who is a good person should have an open invitation to come and join us when they like." I don't think that these tributes carry much impact at this point. Most people already have a view about who should be allowed to stay. In the case of "Dreamers" (quotes to indicate a manipulative euphemism), most people believe that this specific issue cannot be resolved by shipping millions of illegal residents out of the country at this point. A path to citizenship has to be provided for them. But at the same time, people do not believe that it should become a precedent for "open entry" in place of an actual immigration policy.

These people aren't dreamers, they are just like me - Americans. I've been here since I was 4. Only difference is the paperwork & method of travel. We came here with our parents for a better life from Colombia. I was at a neighborhood get together the other day and I said something jokingly to one of our neighbors about being a Brit. He said "We're like you, we're Americans" Several of us there were first or second generation. You guys hang in there - if you were my neighbor I'd have your back & hopefully we'll work this out so you can simply be what you are - Americans. These are dark times .... hopefully we can start a turn back to normalcy in 2018/20.