Op-Ed: Ten years of DACA success, but more work still remains
Ten years ago, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to protect the Dreamers and give them an opportunity to work and go to school without fear of deportation. This vitally important program has changed the lives of nearly 830,000 Dreamers and their families across the U.S. and right here in Pennsylvania.
DACA has always been especially important to me because I know first hand what it’s like for the Dreamers. When I was 7 years old, my mother brought me and my brother to America for a shot at a better life. She took unbelievable risks, and made unfathomable sacrifices so that we would have the opportunity to flourish in our new home.
Dreamers may have been brought here as children, but the program has lasted so long that many of them are adults with careers and families of their own. The average DACA recipient is now 26 years old, and nearly 300,000 children, all of whom are U.S. citizens, have been born into a household with at least one DACA recipient. In Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 4,000 DACA recipients who have more than 1,300 kids who are citizens.
Dreamers are part of the more than 200,000 immigrants working in frontline jobs like healthcare, retail, and food services that helped us get through the pandemic, and who make up 12% of our agricultural workers. Dreamers have also created tens of thousands of jobs and currently employ nearly 86,000 people nationwide. Their households today pay a total of $8.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes each year. They are deeply invested in this country, and our investment in them through DACA has delivered incredible benefits for all Pennsylvanians.
It makes me so happy to see all these DACA recipients having the opportunity to do the same. In the past 10 years they’ve gone to school, gotten jobs, started businesses, and settled down to start families of their own. I’m so glad that they had the opportunity I always craved as a child — to be able to step out of the shadows and live my life fully. DACA finally gave them that chance, and they have made the most of it.
When President Obama introduced DACA, he said, “These are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they’re friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper.”
Those words are as true now as they were 10 years ago, but sadly that also means that we have failed to ensure that they had the chance to become American on paper as well. The Dream and Promise Act, which would give them a path to citizenship, has repeatedly stalled in Congress. It passed the House last March, and no action has been taken since the 9th anniversary of DACA one year ago when it got a hearing in the Senate.
My husband John is running for the Senate to pass important laws that will help people, and the Dreamers, who deserve the opportunity to live out their American dreams. If he is elected, John will be a staunch supporter of the Dreamers, and he will work to help create a modern, fair, humane immigration system that will lay the foundation for a bright future for all Americans.
As John has often said, “immigration makes America, America,” and we wouldn’t have our beautiful family if my mother hadn’t taken that risk so many years ago to make a better life for us. Other families deserve the same shot. It’s far past time to let the Dreamers rest easy at night, and we will continue to fight to ensure that they can.
Gisele Barreto Fetterman is second lady of Pennsylvania. Born in Brazil, she came to the United States as an undocumented child immigrant with her mother and younger brother when she was 7 years old. She obtained a green card in 2004 and became a U.S. citizen in 2009.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Op-Ed: Ten years of DACA success, but more work still remains
