Constitution Day: Securing Justice for Dreamers

Constitution Day 2023 (today, September 17) dawns with that grand document on the American experiment in self-governance under increasing stress.  A document crafted by a few privileged white men 234 years ago, amended just 27 times over the years (with the first 10 of those amendments, the Bill of Rights, coming immediately after ratification in 1789), now must govern a population of more than 330 million people reflecting the most diverse society ever in human history.  The processes for interpreting and applying constitutional provisions are increasingly infected with political bias; in recent years even the Supreme Court has lost its sheen of non-partisanship as a string of its decisions applying the Constitution have exposed serious partisan prejudices due largely to manipulation of the presidential appointment process for justices and judges throughout the federal judiciary.  Increasingly, whenever a decision is handed down from a federal court, the lede paragraph of the news stories will state which president appointed the judge or justice, implying that the decision is simply an extension of that administration’s politics.  In this environment, it is hard to see the administration of justice as a dispassionate, independent legal process with fair application of Constitutional principles.

I note all of this because in an environment in which the federal judiciary is so polluted by partisan politics, it has become increasingly difficult for people suffering grave injustices to have hope for fair and just judicial solutions to the challenges they face in this nation. And among the people who are experiencing grievous discrimination and severe injustice, undocumented immigrants are high on the list.

Just a few days ago, a federal judge in Texas declared DACA illegal, again — DACA is “deferred action for childhood arrivals,” the program created by President Obama in 2012 to grant some modest protections for undocumented persons brought to the U.S. as young children.  The “illegal” part is the use of a presidential executive order to create a program without Congressional approval, as President Obama did in 2012.  U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen has ruled against DACA several times; the cases come before him brought by governors and officials in 8 states.  There are numerous DACA cases pending elsewhere.  President Trump tried to end DACA but the Supreme Court overturned his order; that case, however, did not provide any final protection for DACA which currently applies to about 500,000 individuals in the U.S.  Hundreds of thousands of other undocumented immigrants have no protection since new DACA applications have been frozen since 2020.

For those who currently hold DACA — including more than 100 Trinity students — the protections remain in place while the case goes on through appeals.  So, work permits, drivers licenses, etc. are all still legal.  But the larger problem — so much larger! — is the ongoing climate of stress and uncertainty, the divisions within families where only some have DACA protection, and constant threat of deportation and loss of jobs and livelihoods.  The injustice of this situation is clear, appalling, and unworthy of our great nation.  But the current political morass, with its unending feeding of racial and ethnic hatred, seems unlikely to lead to either a Congressional or judicial solution any time soon.

Make no mistake: the opposition to DACA is not some fussy arcane interpretation of presidential powers versus Congressional rights buried in laws and the Constitution.  Beneath all of the reams of legal briefs lies a virulent hatred of immigrants entering the U.S. across the southern border, tens of thousands of mostly Brown and Black persons fleeing poverty, violence and oppression in central and south America.  They risk great hardship and even death to reach a place that holds out the “American Dream.”  If they manage to arrive here in some measure of safety, they risk arrest, deportation, and more recently, transportation to cities all over the country.

Trinity has proudly and affirmatively supported our undocumented students since we formed our partnership with TheDream.US in 2014.  During the intervening decade, dozens of talented Trinity Women have graduated and gone on to amazing careers, graduate school, positions as teachers and researchers and advocates.  Women like Ewaoluwa Ogundana Obatuse ’20 who recently earned her Masters in Public Policy at the University of Maryland, and she is now a Higher Education Policy Analyst at the New America Foundation.  Ewa’s advocacy led to a new law in Maryland to permit undocumented persons to achieve professional licenses.  Women like Sadhana Singh ’18, in our first class of Dreamer Scholars, now paying it forward as Senior Communications Manager at TheDream.US.  I could go on, we have so many amazing examples of exceptional women who overcame hardship, uncertainty, poverty and the constant threats that undoc immigrants face to become huge success stories.

This nation is on the brink of a major talent catastrophe that will last generations as the population declines in number.  Immigrants have been a vital part of replenishing the talent of America for centuries, and our laws and public policies should work to welcome, support and honor their contributions to our nation.  Long ago, Congress should have resolved its political differences to develop a strong policy to support immigration and provide a pathway to citizenship for those immigrants who arrived without documentation.  Being undocumented should never be a crime; it’s an administrative issue about papers, and it should be resolved administratively and simply.

The real Constitutional crisis we face is the inability of our federal government to act in a timely and sensible way to resolve issues like immigration.  The breakdown in Congress — between House and Senate, among members of each body, between those bodies and the White House — is a global scandal and grave offense to all hard-working taxpayers who are footing the bill for the daily failures of government.

We the People need to exercise our Constitutional rights and duties to insist on a more effective, responsive and constructive government, one that rises above petty partisan politics to enact and administer laws that ensure justice and fairness for ALL people regardless of their color, national origin, language, beliefs or pieces of paper.  It’s time to restore the American Dream — not just for immigrants, but for those of us living here who have been so sorely disappointed by the demise of fairness, justice and sound moral judgment in the people elected to public office.  Public officials are not our overlords; they are our public servants who are sworn to uphold the Constitution which makes clear it purpose in the preamble:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”