What does it mean to be an American? Some people might cite religion—we’re a “Christian nation.”

Others might mention the adoption of an “American lifestyle.”

The idea that we’re all supposed to assimilate and be basically the same—speak English, eat hamburgers, have a big star-spangled banner in our front yards, sit in pews every Sunday, and maybe have a nice house in the suburbs.

Let me propose an alternative, and in my view superior, view of the American identity.

This nation was founded upon unifying principles and values—it didn’t matter if one was a Quaker or a Puritan.

What mattered is that one’s Puritan neighbor respected the fact that his neighbor was a Quaker.

America was founded on a tolerance hardly seen in the world before.

Of course, it was flawed back then and often still is.

But being American was defined of how you treated others’ identities rather than how you expressed your own.

When people immigrate to the U.S.A., it doesn’t matter what their religion, country of origin, or history.

What matters is that they agree with America’s unifying values—that despite our differences, we are unified through respecting those differences.

What matters is that immigrants agree that the classical liberal values of freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press, and petition.

President Trump recently stomped on this view of American values when he cruelly placed the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on a track to destruction.

While this certainly is not Trump’s first misstep regarding immigration, the move is the most dramatic.

DACA recipients were brought to the United States as children and grew up here.

There are even a few on our own campus, but you probably wouldn’t know due to the fact that they’re as American as you or me.

To be a DACA recipient (often called a “Dreamer”), one has to be, in essence, a model citizen.

One must have either graduated high school or have served our country in the armed services.

Dreamers are twice as likely to start a new business than the national average, and more than 90 percent of Dreamers are employed.

Oh, and to be part of the program, one cannot have a criminal record.

In effect, President Trump has decided to throw these 800,000 Dreamers, a.k.a. Americans who contribute greatly to this country, to the wolves.

Apparently, the only thing that makes someone American is an arbitrary piece of paper that the government issues to the people it tolerates.

Politically, this move yet again shows the incompetence of Trump.

DACA was an executive order issued by President Obama, and Trump has given Congress six months to throw a life saver to Dreamers.

Now, stopping the deportation of 800,000 hardworking Americans is probably going to be on Congress’ priority list—or maybe it won’t be.

Either way, it’s another task that will be an obstacle for Trump’s own agenda of tax reform and an infrastructure bill.

So, Donald Trump just gave Congress another thing to do while he’s trying to push an agenda. Makes good strategic sense, right?

Now, perhaps there are good arguments that dispute the constitutionality of a president giving mass amnesty, and we should always be cautious of an executive doing Congress’ job.

However, deporting 800,000 Dreamers isn’t the way to go about reducing executive overreach.

Even if DACA is unconstitutional, we have an entire branch of government whose job is to deal with that problem.

And even though Trump cites a constitutionality argument, his campaign rhetoric of calling immigrant children “anchor babies” reveals his true intentions rooted in racism and intolerance.

If anything, his reasons clearly aren’t rooted in economic logic.

Economists worry that eliminating DACA will—well, do what you’d think deporting 800,000 working Americans would do.

Simply the cost of rounding up 800,000 people and deporting them would be monumental, not to mention a waste of time.

And that doesn’t even mention the billions in lost economic activity such a move would cause.

So, what now?

Since Trump has flung the issue over to Congress, it is essential to call our congress people and urge them to protect our friends and neighbors.

After all, protecting people’s right to exist is the American thing to do.