Celebrating 4 years of DACA

Four years ago today, I stood with my colleagues in the White House Rose Garden watching President Obama announce a new action to make our immigration policies smarter and more representative of our values as a nation.

This action, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, establishes an avenue for young people who were brought to the United States as children to request temporary relief from deportation on a case-by-case basis if they can demonstrate that they meet several criteria.

As the President said that day, the young people impacted by his announcement "are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper."

We knew standing there that DACA would be impactful, both for the people who would come forward, and for the rest of us who are their families, friends and neighbors.

Even so, the impact DACA recipients have had on their families, communities, and our nation can only be described as extraordinary.

They are students, educators, doctors, and lawyers; close to 730,000 DACA recipients are aspiring Americans, each with a unique story.

On the anniversary of DACA, it’s worth checking out these stories of DACA recipients who are doing so much to inspire.

They know, perhaps better than anyone, that for all of its impact, DACA is not a permanent solution to our nation’s immigration problems. Far from it. We still need Congress to do its job and fix our immigration system.

But the promise I see in the eyes of DACA recipients I meet renews my hope in what’s possible, and offers a glimpse of what we might achieve for the country when we finally achieve legislative reform.

I think of David Uriona, who graduated from Cornell University in 2014 with a degree in Biology and Society and joined Teach for America. As David said, "It was important for me to give back to my community and to connect with kids who needed to see someone like them; to make sure that these kids who were in similar situations knew that they could achieve their dreams."

There are so many stories of the positive impact these individuals are having in their communities and in their country.

I encourage you to take a moment and savor these stories to learn more about how much has changed and how much is possible.

Thanks,