THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- September 13, 2017- Topic 2

Shattered dreams

On Trump's crack down on undocumented immigration

Nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. now face the possibility of losing their jobs, driver’s licences and university seats and even of being deported to a country that was not their home. The looming legal limbo for this sizeable cohort, which includes around 8,000 Indian nationals, is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s decision on September 5 to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. 

This is a major Obama-era executive action designed to protect those who arrived in the U.S. as children accompanying their undocumented migrant parents. The logic of the Obama administration was that so long as such childhood arrivals integrated lawfully and productively into American society, not committing any crimes, paying their taxes and being upstanding members of the broader community, there could be no reasonable argument to uproot their lives and send them to their parents’ country of origin. Now Mr. Trump has turned that logic on its head in an apparent effort to deliver on his campaign promise to crack down on all forms of undocumented immigration. While he previously appeared sympathetic toward DACA, Mr. Trump has effectively passed the buck to Congress by calling on it to come up with legislation for a lasting solution to the problem “through the lawful democratic process”. No new applications are being processed. Existing beneficiaries requiring renewal of permits for a further two-year period have until March 5, 2018 to get it done.

Beyond that deadline, their continuance in the U.S. would require lawmakers to come up with a bill similar to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a legislative proposal that went beyond piecemeal benefits, granting its recipients residency and setting out a path to citizenship. Such a bill, encapsulating widely acceptable principles underpinning a path to citizenship for deserving migrants, has eluded Capitol Hill for decades. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the comprehensive immigration reform package proposed by the Gang of Eight bipartisan Senators came close to resolving this gaping hole in the immigration policy. Had it been passed, the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. may have found a modicum of solace in the knowledge that one day they could emerge from the shadows into the mainstream. Painful questions surrounding visa issues, including the political soft target that the H-1B visa is, could have been laid to rest and this would have, for example, fostered a climate of greater predictability for manpower planning at tech companies. Yet that bill never did pass into law, owing to the partisan bickering that Americans have come to despise of their representatives in Washington. Given the hostile political climate and bitter polarisation of the U.S. electorate along party lines, there is a real risk that short-term point-scoring on specific aspects of immigration reform could trump the need for a more robust, sustainable remedy.

Vocabulary

Deport: expel a foreigner from a country, typically on the grounds of illegal status or for having committed a crime.

Example: He was deported for violation of immigration laws

Synonyms: expel, banish, exile, transport, expatriate, extradite, repatriate

Limbo: the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of the just who died before Christ's coming.

Example: She wore a black bonnet to match her dress and gloves; to Jeremiah she looked like an engraving he'd once seen of a restless soul in limbo

Cohort: a supporter or companion.

Example: How to understand the older generation which supported Hitler and his cohorts ?

Synonyms: colleague, companion, associate, friend

Argument: an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one.

Example: I've had an argument with my father

Synonyms: quarrel, disagreement, squabble, fight, dispute, wrangle, clash

Apparent: clearly visible or understood; obvious.

Example: It became apparent that he was talented

Synonyms: evident, plain, obvious, clear, manifest, visible, discernible

Immigration: the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.

Example: Patterns of immigration from the Indian sub-continent to Britain

Buck: the male of some antlered animals, especially the fallow deer, roe deer, reindeer, and antelopes.

Example: Some places base the cost of a deer hunt on the size of a buck 's antlers - the bigger the antlers, the more the hunt costs.

Piecemeal: characterized by unsystematic partial measures taken over a period of time.

Example: The village is slowly being killed off by piecemeal development

Synonyms: a little at a time, piece by piece, bit by bit, gradually, slowly

Encapsulate: enclose something in or as if in a capsule.

Example: The cleanup of the asbestos will involve sealing and encapsulating the roof.

Synonyms: enclose, encase, contain, envelop, enfold, sheathe, cocoon, surround

Underpinning: a solid foundation laid below ground level to support or strengthen a building.

Example: All this will provide a solid underpinning for housing.

Solace: comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness.

Example: She sought solace in her religion

Synonyms: comfort, consolation, cheer, support, relief

Predictability: the ability to be predicted.

Example: We were discussing the predictability of career outcomes

Fostered: encourage or promote the development of something, typically something regarded as good.

Example: The teacher's task is to foster learning

Synonyms: encourage, promote, further, stimulate, advance, forward

Bicker: argue about petty and trivial matters.

Example: Whenever the phone rings, they bicker over who must answer it

Synonyms: quarrel, argue, squabble, wrangle, fight, disagree, dispute, spar

Remedy: a medicine or treatment for a disease or injury.

Example: Herbal remedies for aches and pains

Synonyms: treatment, cure, medicine, medication, medicament