Bright Future

My cousin, who is 19, the same age as me, is currently protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  (DACA).  DACA is a policy that started from the Obama Administration in 2012, allowing people brought as children to stay in the United States with two-year period of deferred action from deportation. I am writing to tell you how unfortunate it is to see my family in despair. Our family came all together as immigrants and eventually found a stable way to live our lives without the fear of deportation. My cousin and I were both able to attend public schools and receive education. Towards her senior year of high school, however, she was triggered by our new elected President Donald Trump and his immigration policies. Although Trump favored to keep DACA, he issued new policies that immigration advocates fear effectively. He declared that all illegal immigrants are subjected to be deported, and everyone obtained the idea that he strongly dislikes immigrants. With so much fear and the possibility of being separated with our family, she is as full of dread as I am. Thankfully, she is under a program that protects her in such ways, but who knows her parents might be sent away for any reasons, any second, while she is in school?

All she wanted to do with me was to graduate high school with a diploma, and attend a college or university which no one in our family did. The reason why I want to stress the importance of DACA students are because they are just like one of us. They feel, touch, see, hear, taste just like we do. We should respect them the same way we want to be respected. Just because one does not have citizenship, it does not mean they do not have to ability to bring a brighter future. As much as her dream is to become a nurse, I want her to receive as much education as she could and tell the world that if she could do it, anyone could, even without a title of a citizenship.

Trump’s policies, are not just a concern within our family, but within all other families in the United States as you can see. Living in the US with families is a dream for childrens, but if we are facing the fear of being separated, removed, detached, our future will not only be a disaster, but filled with sorrow and mourn. Our hope is that these remarkable programs like DACA and DAPA are implemented and continuously supported. I thank every second and every moment that I am able to be with my family and my best cousin, Cindy.

As Randolph Bourne wrote, “We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born.”, we should respect each others as we are all created equal. The people who came here came for the same reason reason we came here, to live a life as an American with the fundamental freedoms. In order to maintain peace, hatred towards immigrants should no longer exist.