The start of a new year naturally puts the focus on the future. People resolve to create a better life for themselves by adopting new patterns of behavior that will lead to improvements.
But for some people, making plans for the future can be problematic, even an exercise in futility, because forces outside their control have the power to change their situation in a dramatic way.
Take for instance those who were brought to this country illegally as children. In many cases, they have grown up here, gone to school, gotten jobs, bought homes, served in the military and paid taxes, all the while with a cloud over their heads. This is the only country they have known as their home, and yet they are aware of their tenuous status.
Since 2012, they have been allowed to achieve some sense of normalcy through a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. By meeting certain criteria, including that they were brought here before the age of 16, have lived here since June 15, 2007, and were not older than 30 when the program began six years ago, they could apply for temporary legal status that was in effect for two years.
It was not without some strings attached. Those eligible for DACA status had to be students, have graduated from high school or received a GED certificate. They could not have been convicted of a felony or a significant misdemeanor.
These are people who, in most instances, did not choose to illegally enter the United States and many are now in the working world because DACA status allows them to be legally employed.
In Florida alone, there are some 75,000 people who have been approved for the DACA program through last March.
Their world was rocked last fall when the federal government announced that it would be ending DACA and that Congress would have six months to decide whether to codify the system in law, change it or do nothing, thus marking its demise. The clock has been ticking since September with a March 6 deadline for Congress to act.
Living under this kind of a cloud must be difficult, to say the least. Making plans for the future, enrolling in college, getting a job, starting a family all become problematic.
The same could be said for all families who depend on receiving help with health care expenses for their children. Since 1997, when the Children’s Health Insurance Program was adopted, children from low-income families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid were able to have medical and dental expenses covered, in some cases with a minimal co-pay or premium payment. Currently, some 9 million children nationwide — about 375,000 in Florida — receive benefits through this program.
But Congress failed to approve CHIP when it came up for renewal last September. As a result, state governments that administer the program were forced to use reserves to keep it going through the end of the year and to inform parents that the benefits were likely to end.
Right before the end of the year, Congress approved a temporary spending bill that included funds for CHIP, but that will expire in March. Again, families who earn 133 to 200 percent of the federal poverty level — between $32,000 and $48,000 for a family of four — are left to wonder whether their children will be covered. They must decide how they will provide care for their children if the program ends.
In both these cases, people are left in limbo. Instead of concentrating on building a better life for themselves and their families, they are burdened with the fear of facing obstacles out of their control.
Life, as they say, is uncertain. None of us has any guarantees of tomorrow. But worry about being forced to return to a country in chaos, to an unfamiliar land without the support of friends or family, is not on the radar screen for most of us. Likewise, children should be able to obtain adequate health care despite the economic status of their families. Healthy children have a better chance to succeed in life and, in the long run, to become productive citizens.
It is disrespectful to leave people wondering when the next shoe will drop, or when they will be faced with another catastrophe, when responsible people can and should take steps to alleviate their situation.
This nation will be stronger when its people are equipped to take advantage of opportunities to become productive citizens and when the path to a reasonable life is open to everyone.
Kathy Silverberg is former publisher of the Herald-Tribune’s southern editions. She can be reached at kathy.silverberg@comcast.net.