800,000. 800,000 young latino immigrants are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is in the process of being repealed. The program protects hispanic immigrants that were brought to the United States as children. While recipients wait to hear the decision regarding their future, it was announced that as of March 5, DACA recipients who received work permits will lose those permits. These people are having everything that they have been granted ripped from them without being able to fight back or do anything to stop the unfair actions.

Immigrants are apart of our country, they benefit society as well as make it up. The reasons that are used to try to kick hard working people out of the country are not just invalid, but simply based on stereotypes. According to a study done by senior researchers at the American Immigration Council, “In 2010, 10.7 percent of native-born men aged 18-39 without a high school degree were incarcerated compared to 2.8 percent of Mexican immigrants and 1.7 percent of Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants.” The reason anti-immigration supporters continue to argue are based on how society views immigrants, not the facts. They are egged on by people calling us “rapists” and saying that we are “bringing crime” into the country. They don’t acknowledge the fact that we are here for the same reasons their ancestors came here ,for the American Dream.

People who are opposed to immigrants often believe that immigrants can walk up to an office and request citizenship when the reality of the situation is waiting years and years to learn English due to the test required not being offered in the person’s native language. They then have to become a resident and be a resident for five years; only then can one apply to be naturalized. It’s a fight that is long; it doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it an easy process. This is something every immigrant would have to go through if there weren’t programs such as DACA. The ultimate truth behind it all is that families should not have to fear being split, and that’s the side of the matter that no one will ever understand unless they have experienced  it.

As someone who is surrounded by family who has no legal status, it is difficult to think of what could possibly happen to them. We worry about the people who have watched us grow up and supported everything we do. They are people who came here to escape the troubles they faced in their home countries. They are the people we have learned courage from. They have taught us a lesson that no one else could have: To do whatever it takes. These are people who have worked their whole lives and many who have never done wrong, but because they came here for a better life, they are to be thrown out of the country they call home.

Now the program that once gave many people the right to work and not live in fear is being taken from them. It is being taken from children who go to school and from adults who have used the program to get their first job. This issue is no longer about protecting the people of the country; but rather kicking people who respect the country and call it home due to the decision their parents made years ago. That is the problem.