The administration of President Trump has proposed significant changes to current US immigration policies while raising restrictions on many countries while simultaneously increasing the capabilities of the Department of Homeland Security. The changes the current administration is introducing would directly affect immigrants from ALL countries. READ – https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-ice-tearing-families-apart This past week, the US Senate debated how to move forward with the current changes to the immigration policies. The timing of these debates is directly related to the March 5, 2018, expiration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DACA. DACA refers to an American immigration policy created by executive order under the Obama administration, that allowed some individuals who entered the country as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit. Additionally, the Trump administration is expected to revoke work permits for thousands of young Americans, which would ultimately lead to deportation. READ:https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/16/17015818/daca-deadline-trump-dreamers-march-5 In 2017 Republican Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the Dream Act to allow the young Americans brought to the US as minors, living here now under the protection of DACA, a path to citizenship. However, this bipartisan bill was never brought to a vote. Thus, leaving the DACA recipients without a clear course of action. How does DACA, the Dream Act and the current Senate debate on immigration tie together? Well, the Trump Administration hoped to use the DACA expiration and the precarity of these recipients situation as a bargaining chip to
- Reduce family-based immigration,
- toughen interior enforcement,
- and crack down on visa overstays.
With the Senate’s inability to strike a deal this past week, the immigration debate is not over, the DACA recipients are left without a path to citizenship and the only bill jointly agreed on by both Republicans and Democrats the Dream Act has been discarded. What does that mean for Sikh Americans? Anyone here on DACA will ultimately lose their work permit, citizens with family eager to become US citizens risk separation, and those here in the US waiting for approval will be forced to deal with toughened enforcement within the US borders. 
What is DACA and Dream Act? DACA – https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca Dream Act – https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1615 What can you do? Write your Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative Write your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/states/# Take this Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCL96FC Tell us your story by emailing us at media@saldef.org. All stories will remain anonymous unless otherwise stated. If you wish to reach us immediately please call (202) 393-2700 x 126