There’s an image that’s stayed with me for weeks: A sea of people holding up “Mass Deportation Now” signs at the Republican National Convention.
Since then, I’ve been plagued with nightmares of mass raids by the military and police across the country. I see millions of families being torn apart, including families with citizen children. And I see DACA recipients — like me — carried away from the only life we’ve ever known.
Mass deportation wasn’t just a rallying cry at the GOP convention. It’s a key plank of Project 2025, a radical document written by white nationalists listing conservative policy priorities for the next administration.
And it would be a disaster — not just for immigrants, but for our whole country.
I moved to the United States when I was six. Until my teenage years, I didn’t know I was undocumented — I only knew I was from the Philippines. I grew up in Chicago with my twin brother. Our parents worked hard, volunteered at my elementary school, and ensured we always had food on the table. They raised us to do well and be good people.
But when my twin and I learned that we were undocumented, we realized that living our dreams was going to be complicated — on top of the lasting fear of being deported.
Everything changed right before I entered high school in 2012: The Obama administration announced the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA. The program was designed to protect young people like my twin and me who arrived in the U.S. at a young age with limited or no knowledge of our life before. We’re two of the 600,000 DACA recipients today.
DACA opened many doors for us. It’s allowed us to drive, attend college, and have jobs. And we’re temporarily exempt from deportation, a status we have to renew every two years.
DACA helped me set my sights high on my studies and career. Although I couldn’t apply for federal aid, with DACA I became eligible for a program called QuestBridge that granted me a full-ride scholarship to college. Today I work in public policy in the nation’s capital, with dreams of furthering my career through graduate school.
But if hardliners eliminate DACA and carry out their mass deportations, those dreams could be swept away. And it would be ugly — mass deportation would be a logistical disaster, taking decades and costing billions.
Imagine your friends, neighbors, colleagues, peers, and caretakers being dragged away from their homes. For me, it would mean being forced back to the Philippines, a place I haven’t seen in two decades. My partner, my friends, my work — all I’ve ever known is here, in the country I call home.
This country would suffer, too.
An estimated 11 million undocumented people live here. We’re doctors, chefs, librarians, construction workers, lawyers, drivers, scientists, and business owners. We fill labor shortages and help keep inflation down. We contribute nearly $100 billion each year to federal, state, and local taxes.
Fear-mongering politicians want you to believe we’re criminals, or that we’re voting illegally. But again and again, studies find that immigrants commit many fewer crimes than U.S.-born Americans. And though some of us have been long-time residents of this country, we cannot vote in state or federal elections.
Despite all the divisive rhetoric, the American people agree with immigration advocates: Our country needs to offer immigrants a path to legalization and citizenship. According to a Gallup poll last year, 68 percent of Americans support this.
My dark dreams of mass deportations are, thankfully, just nightmares for now. And my dreams of a secure future for my family and all people in this country outweigh my fears. We must do everything possible to keep all families together.
Alliyah Lusuegro is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
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409harley
My only question ... Alliyah, if you have been in this country for over 20 years (which it seems by your timeline given), why have you not applied for naturalization or citizenship???
Friday, August 30 Report this
rayfusco68
Full employment is defined as the highest possible employment level in an economy without causing inflation. It's also the point at which everyone who wants a job has one, and employers have the skilled workers they need.
Full employment is considered to be between 4 and 6 percent which is exactly where we are. The Fed is trying to battle inflation and a mass deportation would reek havoc on inflation and businesses that need the workers. We need to find a middle ground solution, but our politicians on both sides of the aisle insist on jawboning about the issue rather than coming up with a reasonable solution.
Friday, August 30 Report this
klmsinc
Emotionalism versus Objectivity
Liberalism versus Conservatism
Precedence versus Law
It's classic. This is exactly the argument in the United States.
Example - Person 2 murders person 1 - Person 2 is proven guilty - Person 2 is penalized with Capital Punishment
Then the argument begins and the fact that Person 1 was murdered gets lost thus objectivity gets cast aside, Person 1 is murdered - Guns are made the bad guy and Society suffers the outcome. The case is emotionalized and the fact that Person 2 made a bad decision and action is pooh poohed. Then we can throw Racism in there and whatever the trending cause is an attempt to create chaos.
We still have equal opportunity in this Country, that is the power in our mind to choose to be a Winner or a Loser. That is in spite of whatever handicap we may think we have. We all are born equal with this capacity!
409 Harley makes an excellent case
Friday, August 30 Report this
pdsinc
If you enjoy and benefit from the AMERICAN life, why not become one ? 409 HARLEY is on the mark.
Friday, August 30 Report this
san.gander
Dear commentors 409harley and pdsinc - I like that you read the article through and think this young person who grew up in America is worthy of being a citizen. But the true is she can not apply for citizenship through the normal route of naturalization... our immigration laws currently do not allow it. Look it up, I did.
She is in a "black hole" that only Congress can fix by changing the law to allow non-citizen kids here because their parents brought them. They grew-up as American, They have brothers and sisters, who were born, while their parents were here, thus are "birth citizens". The older kids, not citizens.
To be elible for naturalization, it's my understanding these kids would have to separate from their families... return to the country of their birth (which they know nothing of), and apply for visas under the immigration quota system... and get in line to return to the U.S. States - the end of the line... a very long line for most of the countries they are from! A very cruel and inhumane solution, when our Congress could do better for them, but won't!
Their parents broke our law coming illegally, these DACA kids were innocent, underaged children. Blame the parents for putting them in this horrible situation, also blame our Congress for not finding a humane solution - citizenship for them!
Did you know some of the DACA kids voluntarily serve in our military... and even that does not earn them U.S. Citizenship? We are a country failing in fairness and justice; and simple humane treatment of those who are innocent of any wrong doing!
Friday, August 30 Report this
ruthlawler
We are a nation of immigrants! Unless you are full blooded Native American, you are either an immigrant, or your forefathers were. The laws are not equitable. To not allow a reasonable path to citizenship to the residents who came to the US as children, that currently numbers over three and a half million people, is a broken system. Furthermore, DACA recipients currently contribute taxes annually: about $6.2 BILLION in Federal taxes and $3.3 billion in State and local taxes annually. You probably know or have interacted with DACA recepients (likely without your knowledge), as these are members in our communities and neighbors across the nation. These individuals are professionals, teachers, business owners, employees, and in every respect members of our communities. Project 2025 policy is to deport ALL who are not citizens. Not only would this be a horrible injustice to our hard working non-citizen neighbors, it would disrupt our entire economy causing huge labor shortages nationwide in all sectors of our economy. Ruth Lawler
Saturday, August 31 Report this