The dream is becoming a nightmare for at least 800,000 people who signed up to have their status as Americans clarified, only to find that registering has given the government a list of names and addresses, making it easy for them to be found and deported.
The president has said he will announce by Tuesday whether he will cancel the government's policy of not deporting those who were brought to America as children by parents who came illegally.
America is the only country most of them have ever known, and government policy has been to encourage them to register while their residency and citizenship status is clarified. The policy is known as DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and was begun through an executive order issued by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Now, President Donald Trump wants to dismantle the program, as part of his announced crackdown on undocumented people in America.
This comes as many thousands of people suffer the effects of Hurricane Harvey, making them homeless, out of work and dependent on assistance for survival.
One problem, of course, is that many who have regularly and conscientiously shown up at government offices as they try to get permission to remain in America will now disappear rather than face deportation to countries they do not know and a culture that is literally foreign to them.
Moreover, many skilled and unskilled workers in Texas will not show up for their jobs as the region tries to recover from storm damage.
In short, they too will disappear and attempt to blend in at other areas of the nation, leaving the disaster area without enough workers to help clean up from the storm.
As it is, Houston, Galveston, Beaumont and other cities in Texas and Louisiana will need all the help they can get. Chasing thousands of residents away from their homes when every hand is needed for the recovery effort is not only un-American, it is stupid.
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