In the last 24 hours, there's been a great deal of debate on DACA, the program put in place by president Obama to let illegal aliens who came here as children find a route to legal status. It's amazing to me the level of intensity I've seen on social media.
First, I saw a tweet saying that 100% of DACA participants have no criminal record. That's not true. An illegal alien who committed a felony is barred from DACA, but one that got convicted of a misdemeanor or whose criminal record was sealed by he or she was a juvenile can participate in the program. I responded to the tweet that 100% was an overstatement. That brought an outpouring of angry responses that mostly consisted of calling me names for daring to say that DACA participants could have criminal records when "everyone" know that they can't.
Next, I saw another message saying that DACA had to go because Washington was just trying to fool us all again by promising enforcement while providing amnesty. I responded with a suggestion that a deal be struck in which DACA got extended while the border wall and all other enforcement needs got fully authorized and funded. This too brought an avalanche of anger -- from the other side. I explained that if we had all the congressional action needed for the wall and full enforcement, we could count on the President to do just that. The response was more anger.
I know that a reasonable debate on social media is not something that usually happens. Still, if all we do is scream at each other, particularly if we scream things that are factually untrue, we will never resolve any of our problems.
First, I saw a tweet saying that 100% of DACA participants have no criminal record. That's not true. An illegal alien who committed a felony is barred from DACA, but one that got convicted of a misdemeanor or whose criminal record was sealed by he or she was a juvenile can participate in the program. I responded to the tweet that 100% was an overstatement. That brought an outpouring of angry responses that mostly consisted of calling me names for daring to say that DACA participants could have criminal records when "everyone" know that they can't.
Next, I saw another message saying that DACA had to go because Washington was just trying to fool us all again by promising enforcement while providing amnesty. I responded with a suggestion that a deal be struck in which DACA got extended while the border wall and all other enforcement needs got fully authorized and funded. This too brought an avalanche of anger -- from the other side. I explained that if we had all the congressional action needed for the wall and full enforcement, we could count on the President to do just that. The response was more anger.
I know that a reasonable debate on social media is not something that usually happens. Still, if all we do is scream at each other, particularly if we scream things that are factually untrue, we will never resolve any of our problems.
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