DACA: Media Deporting The Truth

The national debate over so-called 'Dreamers' has been hijacked by big media.  Instead of facts, the dishonest media establishment has dished up heaping helpings of half-truths, scare-mongering and deliberate distortions in an attempt to emotionally blackmail Americans.

The usual suspects in the fake news business are ginning up outrage by suggesting that brown-shirted immigration agents soon will be storming schools, snatching kids and herding them in cattle cars while their parents wail in horror.  It would be humorous if so many people weren't fooled.

The news coverage represents a new low even as Americans' trust of the media has skidded to historic troughs.  Nearly everything being reported about President Trump's recension of the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has been lacking in context and truthfulness.

In 2012, President Obama signed an executive action allowing illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16 an opportunity to remain in the country to study or work.  Those approved for the program were handed a work permit and protection from deportation for two years.

Even before he inked the order, Mr. Obama on several occasions had claimed it was unconstitutional for the president to act on immigration without Congressional approval.  Yet he did it anyway.  Most constitutional scholars agree Mr. Obama had no authority to unilaterally create immigration law.

After the Obama decree, what began as a trickle of DACA applicants soon turned into a roaring river. As of March of this year, the government had received 936,394 requests for Dreamer status and approved 886,814 since 2012.  Of that number, 1,056 have become U.S. citizens.

The statistics cited above were gleaned from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Mr. Trump's action triggered a media propaganda blitzkrieg which showcased smart college aged immigrants who had taken advantage of DACA to further their education.  But college graduates are a minority of the Dreamer population.

The Bipartisan Policy Center reports the average age of a DACA beneficiary is 25, a far cry from the media image of a struggling teenager. A Harvard study found less than 20 percent of Dreamers had graduated from college.  Since 2013, some 2,139 recipients forfeited their benefits because of crimes.

Mr. Obama's open-ended edict also has been abused.  DACA immigrants can renew their work permits and deportation protection every two years.  Since 2012, about 800,000 renewals have been issued, according to Pew Research's review of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

DACA was never intended to be a permanent ticket to remain in the United States.   In fact, in 2012 after stamping the executive order, Mr. Obama made it clear that DACA "is not a path to citizenship." That point has been trampled in the media-manufactured hysteria over deportation.

In an attempt to sway Americans, the media has dredged up photos of children riding trains through Mexico to reach our border in an attempt to escape violence and drugs in Central America.  That picture is at odds with the facts.  More than 78 percent of DACA applicants are from Mexico.

Liberal lawmakers and the media have featured Karen Caudillo as a poster child for DACA's benefits. In a tearful interview near the Capitol, she told reporters: "I have been fighting so long to be able to sustain myself, to go to school, to be productive."  It was compelling television. It was also a fraud.

Turns out the 21-year old Ms. Caudillo owns a cleaning company, is allegedly registered to vote, cast a ballot and made political campaign contributions.  She also claims to attend college. Very heady stuff for someone who is not even a citizen of the United States.  And potentially very illegal.

Mr. Trump has taken the right path in ending DACA.  As any fourth grader knows, Congress makes the laws and therefore must tackle the thorny issue.  This is where the matter should be resolved. Democrats had their chance when they controlled all three branches of government but punted.

Now the current do-nothing Congress must prove it can produce legislation.  Any legislation. Their challenge will be to avoid being compromised by the media's drumbeat of sob stories and manipulated data.  But then no one has ever accused of Congress of sticking to the facts.