Partnership for a New American Economy Misstates Facts While Pushing to Keep DACA Program

The New American Economy (NAE, aka, Partnership for a New American Economy), has sent out a “Code Red” alert trying to protect Obama’s amnesty-style DACA program which according to their count, has granted 800,000 illegal immigrants a temporary deferral from deportation. The NAE alert claims that DACA applicants “had to show that they were contributing to our country” even though this is not part of the criteria or considered by USCIS when deciding whether to grant DACA status. Putting that fact aside, NAE’s characterization of DACA applicants is in line with the economic narrative NAE uses to promote legal and illegal immigration:

DREAMer program faces death sentence

Here’s the harsh new reality: 800,000 DREAMers are now likely to lose their status and face deportation. Immigration advocates are calling this the “Code Red moment.”

The warning first came down this week from the Secretary of Homeland Security to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Obama’s program allowing for DREAMer legal status will no longer be defended in court, a potential death sentence for the program that leaves every one of the 800,000 DREAMers potentially subject to deportation.

The result could be the deportation of hundreds of thousands of our best-and-brightest young people. They grew up here and they know no home other than America. To join the program they had to show that they were contributing to our country. They’re pursuing the American dream as Americans, and we’re about to turn our backs on them.

Deporting them would destroy their lives, along with countless businesses, families, communities, and economies. It would be heartbreaking. We can’t let it happen.

To be eligible for DACA an applicant had to have entered the country illegally and despite a grant of DACA, USCIS states clearly that “[d]eferred action does not provide lawful status” so there is no “legal status” as claimed by the NAE alert.

According to USCIS, the agency responsible for granting DACA status, an applicant must show that they:

1. Were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012;
2. Came to the United States before reaching your 16th birthday;
3. Have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007, up to the present time;
4. Were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012, and at the time of making your request for consideration of deferred action with USCIS;
5. Had no lawful status on June 15, 2012;
6. Are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; and
7. Have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor,or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.

NAE’s “Code Red” alert offers supporters a link to their petition to Congress which says:

Add Your Name: PROTECT DREAMers
800,000 hardworking, law abiding immigrants who were brought here against their will as children are now in danger of being deported. Add your name to tell Congress that we need to protect, not deport, DREAMers.

Promoters of amnesty immigration reform like NAE, have crafted a sympathetic media image of the DACA applicant that has not always squared with the facts.

Importantly, there is no requirement that the DACA applicant enter the U.S. with family members or other adults, only that they enter illegally before age 16. Nor do the USCIS guidelines prohibit an unaccompanied minor from applying for DACA status. Putting the “young child” aside, the fact is that DACA applies to individuals up to age 31.

During DACA’s first year of operation, from 2012 – 2013, of the 580,000 total applications, 443,500 were submitted by Mexican nationals. Less than 50% of the total number of applications were submitted by individuals aged 19 and under, 33% were in the 20 – 24 age group, 16% were between 25 – 29 and a little more than 2% were age 30 and over.

Disputing NAE’s narrative of the “hardworking, law abiding immigrant,” Center for Immigration Studies fellow Ronald Mortensen notes that older “Dreamers” “have committed multiple felonies in order to get jobs — Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury on I-9 forms, falsification of green cards and drivers’ licenses, identity theft, etc. Dreamers continue to commit these job-related crimes right up to the day their DACA status is approved and they obtain work permits and their own genuine Social Security numbers.”

In March 2015, an ICE sweep targeting illegals with criminal convictions who were subject to deportation, over 1,000 of those arrested had felony convictions for voluntary manslaughter, child pornography, robbery, kidnapping and rape. Twenty-three of those arrested had qualified for DACA.

The next month Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, released data that by April 2015, 282 DACA recipients had had their status rescinded because of gang or criminal affiliations. He also released information regarding the DACA recipient who USCIS knew was an active gang member but was nonetheless granted DACA status and subsequently arrested on four homicide charges in North Carolina.

Since its launch in 2010, NAE has issued scores of reports to support their globalist agenda on legal and illegal immigration. Today’s “Dreamer Alert” may counsel reading those reports with some skepticism.

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