On September 5th, President Trump announced an executive order to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), putting the fate of 800,000 young undocumented adults into uncertainty. In Skyline College, some of our fellow students were deeply affected by this decision.

President of Skyline College Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud spoke out recently regarding the issue and she pledged to support Dreamers to continue their education in this campus through mass email. “The mission of Skyline College is to empower and transform a global community of learners. We can and do realize that mission when we stand up to protect our democratic society and ensure safe, equitable spaces for expression and learning.”

She is right. These young students deserve a chance for education and opportunity like the rest of us too. They didn’t choose to leave their homeland voluntarily and this has been home for them since they can ever remember. They signed up for the DACA programs because they were trying to legalize their statuses as aliens but this order is putting all their hard works to being a real citizen on jeopardy.

When speaking on the executive order, attorney general Jeff Sessions had this to say regarding the immigration laws. “Enforcing the law saves lives, protects communities and taxpayers, and prevents human suffering. Failure to enforce the laws in the past has put our nation at risk of crime, violence and even terrorism.”

No, this is not about the safety of a country; this is pure racism and prejudice. We have heard it multiple times that illegal immigration was the cause of terrorism in this country but if we look back at the headlines for the past decade, from the Charleston church shooting to the recent Charlottesville protest, who really are the victims of these cases? Shouldn’t the government be focusing on fighting these homegrown terrorists whom seemed to be more terrifying and yet were being overlooked time and time again.

On top of that, abolishing the DACA program could cost the nation more than we can imagine. According to a study earlier this year by the Center for American Progress, the loss of all DACA workers would reduce U.S. gross domestic product by $433 billion over the next 10 years. These dreamers are not a threat to the country and it is important that we realize that too in our communities. They shouldn’t be denied the access to a better future based on where they came from and disregard the hard work and labor they had contributed to this nation.

It is times like this that these dreamers need to feel reassurance than ever. Skyline College is showing that we are not going to abandon the people in our community and follow an order blindly without looking at the bigger picture. These Dreamers are not strangers, they are our classmates, our neighbors, our friends, our family and they live among us and contribute to our daily lives like no other. We should all speak up and support them as they would to our community.

As President Stroud said, “We move forward together because we know that together there are no limits to what we can achieve.”