Labor Day: DACA Protects Working People

I'm going to make this Labor Day post about the possible undoing of DACA, which is probably going to be announced tomorrow by AG Jeff Sessions, because why not? Trump wants to curry favor with his base, but also wants plausible deniability because he thinks he can "onboard" moderates--also he will dump this in the lap of Congress. Eh? His people might call it politics, I would call it cowardly.

I would also call it, not merely cruel or stupid, because his base doesn't care what I think is cruel or stupid, but very bad business. Deporting these young people who have made their lives here is a waste of investment, talent, learned skills, education, and a complete failure not merely of compassion, but imagination. Losing these fine people will cost our economy, not add to it. The zero-sum logistics of anti-DACA debaters is the worst of sheer nonsense--DACA recipients aren't "stealing jobs from American workers". For one thing, except for not being born here, they are raised as Americans. And for another, how is anyone stealing a job on American soil from a worthy American? Because if you apply for a job, interview for it, ace it, turn up, clock in, and then work that job, you are just doing your own job. That job did not belong to someone else. It is the job of the person doing it.

My sympathy for people who worry about competition from immigrants like no one else in the world ever competes in a job market is limited.

But DACA recipients are doing truly patriotic work--as US military personnel.  They are sometimes even heroes.  Sometimes even the saddest kind of hero--the lost. In troubled times, we need all hands on deck,  not discrimination, recriminations, bigotry and abuse. Business leaders know the value of these workers.

I believe it is only right that these people, brought here through no fault of their own, acculturated and educated here, and having so much promise, be permitted to continue to contribute to our society. If Trump thinks otherwise, I will chalk this up to his bad business sense and also spinelessness in the dance with the devil that brought him to the White House.  He is being dipped, and very low at that.