By: Julia Kassem

DEARBORN— President Obama’s second term ushered in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA), legislation that protected immigrants from deportation by securing resident and immigration rights for children of undocumented immigrant parents.

Since DACA was enacted, more than 600,000 young undocumented immigrants were able to obtain work and live, legally, in the United States without the threat of deportation.

In turn, the beneficiaries of the Act and their families have bought houses, worked long hours, spend their incomes and bolstered their adopted nation’s tax bases through tireless contributions and tribulations sacrificed as immigrants in America.

Donald Trump was not ambiguous in August during his Phoenix, Arizona speech calling for the termination of “two illegal executive amnesties, in which [Obama] defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants.”

Referring to both DACA and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parent Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents Act), which did not become enacted, he vowed to dismantle the act that currently helps hundreds of thousands seek employment, reside in and get an education in the States.

As an executive order, DACA operates entirely under the jurisdiction of the president and can be scrapped without congressional approval via executive action. With Trump’s harsh anti-immigration rhetoric made actual fact through his initiatives this week to bar entry from seven Middle Eastern nations, those who’ve worked tirelessly to build or rebuild their lives over the past four and a half years are anxious that all they’ve achieved could be threatened by the sudden stroke of a pen.

A staff member at the Arab American Association of New York expressed uncertainty over the actions oragnizations working with DACA eligible immigrants  will have to assume under a Trump presidency.

“To be honest, we aren’t even sure what we are going to do,” she told The AANews.

Due to that uncertainty, the organization has stopped taking applicants seeking to obtain DACA eligibility.

“Not only can we no longer take those that are applying,” the staffer said, “but also those that are renewing their eligibility status are going to be affected.”

Michigan

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the top country of origin for Michigan’s DACA-eligible constituency is Mexico, at about 8,000 applicants out of Michigan’s total of 16,000. Wayne County alone contains about 4,000 eligible applicants.

While Central Americans constitute more than half of the DACA-eligible, Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and other parts of Asia also make up a significant portion of the pool of applicants.

Economic disparities drive much of the migration from Latin America, while many Muslim and Arab immigrants flee war and persecution in their homelands.

“Our clients reflect Michigan’s populations,” Susan Reed of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center told The Arab American News. “[They] are from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America and various countries of the Arab world.”

MIRC is a statewide legal resource center for immigrant communities. As part of a network of nonprofit immigration legal services providers, it focuses on family-based and humanitarian immigration.

In 2012, Michigan was one of few states to deny driver’s licenses to DACA applicants. It wasn’t until February 19, 2013 that those approved for the temporary status would have their driver’s license applications accepted.

In a state notable for its lack of public transportation, this temporary roadblock rendered many unable to use their temporary work visas.

Though the ban was quickly overturned, immigrants continue to face obstacles due to policies hostile to resettlement.

“Our clients are very afraid of the impact on their families,” Reed said of sentiments surrounding the new administration, “Particularly the suspension of refugee resettlement expected to be announced and the impact of changed immigration enforcement priorities, which could separate the families of our farmworker clients and many other immigrant families.”

Suburban municipalities across Michigan have failed to reciprocate the nature of Detroit, which, in 2007 called itself a “welcoming city”— a refeference to a law that year prohibiting city police from discriminating or profiling based on immigration status.

Waterford Township officials, for example, voted in October to not welcome Syrian refugees.

The sentiments of municipalities like Waterford are now reflected by national policy with Trump signing an executive order that will include banning travel visas of residents from seven Middle Eastern countries.