Our rhetoric matters when we call for change
The Trump Administration announced this week that it is rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, throwing the status of the 800,000 people enrolled in the program into question.
You may be tempted to call Congress to urge them to act. You should, and I should. However, when we speak to our elected representatives and others about DACA recipients, we should be careful about the language used when framing our arguments. In the end, our country needs a long-term solution for all kinds of immigrants, not simply for those brought here by their parents. Our rhetoric should serve both goals.
In the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump’s announcement, many political figures were quick to condemn the White House’s decision. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., tweeted, “Ending DACA is a heartless decision that breaks the President’s promise to kids who were brought here through no fault of their own.” As part of a longer statement, former President Obama wrote, “To target these young people is wrong—because they have done nothing wrong.”
While these are strong statements of support, we should be careful not to echo their exact wording.
When we, as concerned citizens, say that these kids came here illegally “through no fault of their own,” we are implying that someone is at fault: their parents. This is problematic on a number of levels. First, it shows no compassion for parents who brought their children to the U.S. as a last resort due to a desperate situation in their country of origin and/or who felt that it would be worth the risk to create better opportunities for themselves and their loved ones.
In fact, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. would most likely have preferred to immigrate legally if that process was realistically available to them. However, for those who do not have an immediate family member legally residing in the U.S., a high-paying job lined up or do not meet the stringent requirements for political asylum seekers, immigrating to the U.S. legally is incredibly difficult.
It is certain that most DACA recipients and potential DACA candidates are blameless in their lack of documentation–many were unaware that they were undocumented until they started needing social security numbers and other documents to apply for college or jobs. However, their parents deserve our compassion as well. They were faced with an impossible situation and had to make a choice.
In an opinion piece for feministing.com, Barbara Sostaita, a University of North Carolina Ph.D student, wrote about how, as an undocumented teenager, she had at times made “[her] mother cry, blaming her for bringing me to a country that didn’t want me and refused to make room for my dreams.” Sostaita then cited the all-too-common “blame the parents not the kids” rhetoric as contributing to her feelings of resentment towards her parents. As activists for immigrants, we should carefully choose our language to support immigrant families rather than creating an environment ripe for contentious family relationships.
Helping DACA recipients in the months to come is of paramount importance, but what we really need is a complete overhaul of the immigration system allowing for more accessible paths to citizenship. Vilifying undocumented parents does nothing to forward this cause and simply contributes to anti-immigrant rhetoric and sentiment, which will harm immigration reform efforts going forward.
President Trump has given Congress a six-month time frame to pass legislation to protect undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. In our lobbying efforts against this stance, let’s make sure to uplift all groups and not defend DACA recipients only at the expense of their parents.
