September 20, 2017
Page 13
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O PINION
Protecting ‘Dreamers’ is the Right Thing to Do
Deportation would
be shameful
m Arc h. m oriAl
“As the leaders of com-
munities across the coun-
try—individuals and insti-
tutions that have seen these
young people grow up in
our communities—we recognize how
they have enriched and strengthened
our cities, states, schools, businesses,
congregations, and families. We be-
lieve it is a moral imperative that the
administration and the country know
we are with them. We also join together
to send our assurances to Dreamers:
we see you, we value you, and we are
ready to defend you.” – An open letter
signed by more than 1,800 governors,
attorneys general, mayors, state rep-
resentatives, judges, police chiefs and
other leaders.
An overwhelming majority of vot-
ers – about 85 percent - are opposed to
by
deporting immigrants who are eligible
for the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program. These
“Dreamers,” as they are known,
were brought into the United States
as children, most of them younger
than 7. About 90 percent of Dream-
ers are employed; more than 70
percent have attended college.
Despite widespread support
for allowing Dreamers to remain, the
Trump Administration has acquiesced
to 10 state attorneys general who
threatened to sue if it did not end the
program. But even President Trump
does not want to deport Dreamers.
“Does anybody really want to throw
out good, educated and accomplished
young people who have jobs, some
serving in the military?” he wrote on
Twitter. “Really!...”
Sadly, many of the people who voted
for him do, and voted for him because
he said he would do it. But even among
the most hard-core supporters of the
President, those who say they “strong-
ly approve” of his performance, only a
third favor deportation of Dreamers.
With this kind of support, it’s hard
to understand why 800,000 hard-work-
ing, law-abiding contributing mem-
bers of society are in danger of be-
ing wrenched from the only country
they’ve ever known. Many do not even
speak the language of the countries of
their birth.
In addition to the human catastrophe
deportation of Dreamers represents,
the U.S. would lose about $460 bil-
lion in GDP over the next 10 years and
about 700,000 people could lose their
jobs.
Earlier this month, 15 states and
the District of Columbia filed a suit
seeking to stop the repeal of DACA.
California just filed a separate law-
suit, which was joined by Maine, Min-
nesota, and Maryland. Meanwhile,
President Trump has struck a tentative
agreement from the House and Senate
Minority Leaders to support legislation
protecting Dreamers in exchange for
enhanced border security.
While there is a chance that depor-
tations of Dreamers will not occur, it’s
shameful that they should be in a posi-
tion to fear it at all. Dreamers trusted
the United States government in en-
rolling in the program, now that very
trust could be used against them. There
is no justification for ending the pro-
gram even as a legislative solution is
sought.
Protecting Dreamers is quite sim-
ply the right thing to do. It is the mor-
al thing to do. It’s the economically
sound thing to do. And even though it
shouldn’t matter, it’s the popular thing
to do. We urge Congress to immediate-
ly pass legislation protecting Dreamers
and call upon the Trump administra-
tion to reinstate DACA so no Dreamer
has to fear deportation from the home
they love.
Marc H. Morial is president and
chief executive officer of the National
Urban League.
Militarizing Police under a Cloak of Secrecy
A misguided
reversal in police
accountability
l isA r oseNberg
In a move that will further
militarize police departments
across the country while de-
creasing accountability, the
President issued an executive
order that strips away limits
on weapons of war that the Defense
Department can hand over to state and
local police forces.
The President’s order expands an
existing Pentagon program that autho-
rizes the transfer of military-grade tac-
tical weapons, surveillance equipment
and vehicles to civilian police depart-
ments, eliminating restrictions on the
types of weapons that can be trans-
ferred and vastly reducing oversight of
the program.
The weapons program became no-
torious when police fitted with bat-
tle gear were photographed pointing
assault weapons at protesters in the
streets of Ferguson, Mo. After the im-
ages went viral, then-President Barack
Obama issued an executive order that
placed restrictions on the program and
established reporting, oversight and
training requirements for law enforce-
by
ment agencies requesting the military
equipment.
The Obama-era order prohibit-
ed weapons like bayonets and gre-
nade-launchers from being
transferred to local law enforce-
ment. Reversing the ban, the
Trump order places weapons
designed to be used by soldiers
on battlefields in the hands of
police, opening the door to in-
timidation and abuse of civilians
which could result in a chilling
and local police departments to get ba-
sic figures on the amount and type of
equipment that local police and sheriffs
received, exposing just how prevalent
the program is across the country.
Now, even those minimal account-
ability measures have been stripped
away.
Contrary to the administration’s
claims that the program will make us
safer, expanding the weapons transfers
while reducing accountability exacer-
bates the threat to public safety.
ceiving the equipment. By expanding
the program and decreasing safeguards
to prevent abuse, the President increas-
es the likelihood that dangerous weap-
ons could fall into the hands of individ-
uals who intend to do us harm.
It now falls to Congress to push back
against the creeping authoritarianism
evidenced by the President’s decision
to further militarize law enforcement
while shackling oversight. To preempt
this administration’s misguided ac-
tions, Congress must, at a minimum,
It took a strategic campaign by journalists and open
government advocates to pry information from the Pentagon
and local police departments to get basic figures on the amount
and type of equipment that local police and sheriffs received,
exposing just how prevalent the program is across the country.
effect on public dissent and protest.
At the same time, abuses will be harder
to detect. The President’s executive order
will scrap minimal transparency require-
ments that had applied to the already se-
cretive program, leaving the public in the
dark about dangerous weaponry flowing
into their communities.
It took a strategic campaign by jour-
nalists and open government advocates
to pry information from the Pentagon
Just last month, a government watch-
dog agency released a shocking assess-
ment of the Pentagon program, expos-
ing how easy it is for military weapons
to fall into the wrong hands. Posing as
a fake law enforcement agency, inves-
tigators requested and received over
a million dollars in rifles, pipe bomb
equipment, and night vision goggles
after the Defense Department failed
to verify the identity of individuals re-
assert its oversight authority and put in
place requirements to ensure that if any
transfers are permitted, they are subject
to transparency mandates and that the
Pentagon and police departments re-
main accountable to the public.
Lisa Rosenberg is the executive di-
rector of Open the Government, a non-
partisan coalition advancing transpar-
ency for accountability. Distributed by
American Forum.