I have an idea for a modern fairy tale.

I have all the key elements. A downtrodden people, hoping to escape destitution, violence and oppression. A shining kingdom with a promise of a better life where hard work and a pure heart will assure you safety and acceptance.

An ogre with evil henchmen and women. A good fairy with a warm, shining light to illuminate the entrance to that promised land. A sinister spell cast upon the people that can be broken, if only men and women of good will come together in a spirit of humankindness and selflessness, caring solely for the welfare of those caught under that spell.

Finally, an incantation writ upon the foundation upon which the good fairy stands, that if believed and uttered collectively by the citizens of the kingdom, will set free the people being held under the spell.

The incantation:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

My tale, of course, is based on the plight of the DACA dreamers. Their parents brought them to this shining kingdom of America to escape oppressive poverty, cartel violence and government corruption in their home nations. When they could not enter our shining kingdom through legitimate means, they brought their families by alternate means, sometimes perilous, but not recognized as legitimate by the American government. They lived quiet lives, raising their children to love America, to play by its rules in humble anonymity, to become educated and fluent in its language in humble anonymity, and to work responsible jobs and contribute financially to America’s system through income and other taxes, in humble anonymity.

In other words, these children became citizens of their new land in every way but on paper, and in humble anonymity.

Then, along came the ogre, a creature without empathy, awareness or the necessary education for compassion who begrudged these youngsters the good lives they had created through their own efforts and the sacrifices and bravery of their parents. This ogre scoffed at the incantation written on the base of the Statue of Liberty standing at the mouth of the harbor through which came so many of America’s ancestors. And the ogre solicited the help of others in our government of like mind to threaten to send these young people back to countries of which they had no memory, to which they had no connection, no common language or sense of custom and heritage.

The evil spell placed on the dreamers is the threat of deportation. And there is a way, a simple way, to break this spell. It is for good people of kind hearts in the House and Senate to separate this single issue from all others, and to treat it with the compassion that is imperative if they believe the pure tenets of Christianity they are so quick to invoke in all other so-called moral matters.

In writing my modern fairy tale, there will be a happy ending. The dreamers will live happily ever after, as full citizens of the United States of America.

Because solving the conundrum of our dreamers isn’t hard. It’s as easy as saying “my country ’tis of thee” and waving the pen that signs the bill that opens the golden door.