On June 15, 2012, President Obama put Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) into law which helped immigrants. There were seven major guidelines in this bill that made it difficult to become a recipient but not impossible.

One guideline was that a person had to be 31 and had to be residing in the United States since the age of 16. Another guideline was that in order to apply, a person had to have received a GED or got a certification of higher level education. These guidelines put restrictions on those who could not be accepted and made it very difficult.

DACA allowed many immigrants to work legally, open bank accounts, buy cars, homes, and have their own family in the United States. As many as 800,000 immigrants applied for DACA and were accepted. This program went on with much success until the new president, Donald Trump, destroyed the bill.

During Trump’s campaign, there were two things he promised he would get rid of which would hurt Obama’s legacy: DACA and Obama-care. Trump was quick to get rid of Obama-care but was not very successful.

It seemed as if Trump had forgotten about DACA because nine months into his presidency he had done little to affect the immigrants. What made him take quick action was that some states were threatening to sue Trump’s Administration if he didn’t take action.

Like in the Obama years, when Obama created DACA and then wanted to give DACA recipients full citizenship, this made many states angry. Many states like Texas, Florida, Alabama, among other, sued Obama and his administration as they thought he was being unconstitutional.  The states ended up winning in court and set a partial end in Obama’s triumph with DACA.

Trump removed DACA and changing the lives of 800,000 immigrants. It has not been easy for immigrants as they were working legally, but now that DACA is being removed, many only have the choice of working illegally.

“I am very worried for myself and my family. I have been working for Jack in box since 2012 when DACA was first created and now since DACA has been removed I will have to return to work illegally. My paychecks will be smaller and i will not be able to sustain for family for long,” said Matie Ramos, 23.

The 800,000 immigrants have not stopped fighting for the bill, and many Democrats in Congress and the Senate have noticed. This caused the Democrats to try to save DACA in anyway that they could help.

The Democrats caused the government shutdown because they wanted the Republicans to agree on DACA before they decide to do anything else.  DACA has shown its power to the U.S. and with more than 70% of Americans agreeing with DACA, according to TheHill.com, recipients are doubtful that the bill will be fully removed.

“This shutdown has proven the power that the Democrats still have in the government. I am glad that they didn’t allow the Republicans complete their agenda. Their is still hope for the recipients and hopefully DACA will remain in place,” explained Oscar Flores, 16.

Just recently a Federal Judge passed DACA and put it back into law and said that it wasn’t unconstitutional. Now individuals can only renew if they were already a recipient. DACA has the government in a loophole, but they will hopefully come to an agreement soon.