Whether it be on the news, in an article, or even on Twitter, everywhere you look people are mentioning DACA; but what exactly is this program that is dividing America?

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. In layman’s terms, DACA is an immigration policy created by the Obama administration that allows individuals that entered the country illegally as minors to have a renewable two year time period of deferred action from deportation.

Meant to take extraordinary pressure off of young people who are brought to this country illegally by their parents, DACA is now in contention because of President Donald Trump’s desire to cut the program. Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions, even formally announced that DACA “denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs.” These “illegal aliens” had no choice but to come to America because, simply put, they were only kids.

Parents wouldn’t leave their children alone in their home country while living in America, so these parents must take their kids with them. But the potential repeal of DACA is threatening deportation of children for them simply existing and following their parents. In reality, DACA does America more good than it does harm.

The human and economic costs of repealing DACA are major. The United States would lose $2 billion a year in tax revenue from these people, meanwhile deporting these young adults could cost nearly $10 billion. But what really matters is how the repeal of DACA is impacting lives. The repeal of DACA could lead to the removal of hundreds of thousands of young people who are already assimilated to U.S. society. The average “Dreamer” arrived in the U.S. before the age of six, so deporting these well-adjusted kids into places where they may not know the language or the culture is too dangerous for them, America, and the world.

The majority of consumers in America are young people, especially since America has a consumer-based economy; it is vital for youth to spend more money on purchasing goods and services than older people. Moreover, DACA recipients have been here nearly their entire lives; the US has already spent money on educating them, they are working in legal jobs, paying taxes, spending much-needed money, and, most importantly, starting families. In short, more young people in the U.S. means more spending, more taxes, and a larger base for Social Security systems like Medicare and Medicaid.

DACA isn’t just a Twitter hashtag or another one of Trump’s antics; repealing DACA has the potential life-or-death threat for many people. It can tear families apart, and divide America. These young people are America’s future, not a burden, and at the end of the day DACA does a lot for us and the people that are trying to become part our country.