For These Are All Our Children

By Jeff Nelson
September 4, 2017

I have three young children. They make little people choices. My daughter will choose to eat three carrots instead of four. My son will choose to play in the sand instead of on the swings. But my wife and I make decisions. We decide what they watch, what they eat, and where they go to school. And you can bet your life, that if my wife and I made the agonizing decision to cross the border into the United States, our kids would not get a vote.

Donald Trump is rumored to be making a decision this Labor Day weekend about the DACA program – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Five years ago, our nation made a promise. That promise stated that if you were a child when your family brought you to the United States, you would not have your life upended because of a decision that your parents made for you when you were little. Since that time, 800,000 young people – recognized as Dreamers – were promised that if they pursued their education, respected the law, and signed up for the program, they would earn the right to pursue their dreams in the only country many of them have ever known. Today, one third of those Dreamers are in high school, another fifth are in college, and an estimated 97 percent are either employed or in school.

When he took office, Donald Trump shared these words at the National Prayer Breakfast. ‘America will succeed, as long as our most vulnerable citizens – and we have some that are so vulnerable – have a path to success.’ The young people that make up the DACA program are not only vulnerable, they are law-abiding, courageous young men, women, and children who are pursuing their dreams in the face of remarkable adversity. The President went onto to say, ‘It is faith that sent the pilgrims across the oceans, the pioneers across the plains and young people across America to chase their dreams…and we are going to bring those dreams back.’

Mr. President, you have the power and authority right now to do exactly that. Your decision will make or break the lives of nearly a million young patriots who are courageously fighting for the same type of dreams that were afforded to you and your children and to me and mine. We urge you to make good on your word and to protect our Dreamers.