2023-09-19 19:06:27
By Nicole Acevedo – NBC News
Recipients of the DACA program have said they “can’t help but feel a already seen” following a federal judge in Texas once once more declared illegal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which has allowed undocumented young people who came to the US as children to work and study without fear of deportation.
District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled on September 13 that the Biden Administration’s recent efforts to legally shield the program established by Barack Obama are illegal.
Although this is a negative ruling, experts have said that DACA renewals and applications for advance parole They continue to be accepted and processed. Unfortunately, first-time requests are not being processed.
The ruling was “deeply upsetting,” said Areli Hernández, a former DACA recipient from Los Angeles and executive affairs director for the immigrant rights organization CHIRLA, at a Sept. 14 press conference organized by several immigrant groups. and civil rights.
Former DACA recipient Bruna Sollod, senior political director at United We Dream, the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led organization, said, “Imagine hundreds of thousands of young people who have jobs right now, have mortgages, car payments, “small businesses and the customers who depend on them. This has a huge impact on the economy and communities across the country.”
[Un juez federal de nuevo declara ilegal el programa DACA pero mantiene las protecciones para los dreamers]
“I don’t know what else we have to say to make elected officials and the Biden administration understand the threat we face,” Sollod said.
The fate of the program remains uncertain as the six-year legal battle continues to play out in the courts following legal challenges from the Trump Administration and nine Republican-led states seeking to end it.
Below we answer four important questions regarding who is affected by the decision and what is at stake.
Does the ruling mean that DACA is illegal?
Technically, yes. But that doesn’t mean DACA is over.
The approximately 580,000 current recipients can continue to renew their DACA status every two years, but the program is closed to new applicants.
Although Hanen, whom President George W. Bush nominated in 2002, has ruled DACA illegal on multiple occasions, he has stopped short of ending it entirely.
[Un juez federal permite que beneficiarios de DACA sigan renovando sus protecciones de manera temporal]
The latest ruling “continues to allow DACA recipients to file renewal applications while the case is pending appeal,” said Andrea Senteno, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, better known as MALDEF.
Since 2018, MALDEF has been representing 22 DACA recipients in the legal challenge brought by the Republican-led states of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
Along with lawyers from the federal government and New Jersey, MALDEF has argued that states “have failed to prove injuries from the implementation of DACA and that the initiative is a legal exercise of presidential discretion,” Senteno said.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Trump Administration improperly ended DACA in 2017, allowing it to remain in effect.
Will DACA recipients lose their status?
They will not lose their status as long as they continue to renew their DACA in a timely manner.
Current recipients or those whose DACA status expired less than a year ago can continue to renew it every two years. Those who miss the opportunity to renew might only reapply as new applicants, but that is not currently allowed.
[Una corte de apelaciones permite que beneficiarios de DACA sigan renovando amparos y permisos de trabajo]
“Sometimes people fall out of DACA status because they don’t renew in a timely manner due to finances or an inability to access the correct legal resources,” Hernandez said. “Unfortunately, this decision by Judge Hanen also affects those who were not able to renew their DACA in sufficient time.”
Who is left out?
An estimated 400,000 people who would have been eligible to apply for the first time have not had access to DACA since 2021, according to an analysis by FWD.us, a bipartisan group that supports immigration reform.
Among the 400,000 excluded from the DACA program are almost 93,000 first-time applicants who have been left in legal limbo for the last two years. They had already submitted the necessary paperwork and paid the required $495 fee to apply for the program shortly before Hanen closed it to new applicants.
Since DACA began in 2012, recipients have contributed $108 billion to the economy, as well as $33 billion in combined taxes, according to FWD.us.
“It strengthens our economy, our communities and provides a path for people who arrived as children to work, study, live their lives and provide for their families,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the immigrant advocacy organization America’s Voice. .
[El Gobierno garantizará a los dreamers el seguro médico de Medicaid y Obamacare]
An overwhelming majority of DACA recipients were born in Mexico, and other Latin American countries, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. A smaller but significant number come from Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, DACA recipients and immigrant rights advocates have continued to push for a path to citizenship.
“We need a permanent solution that recognizes our humanity, our roots and our contributions to this nation,” Hernandez said.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced a bill in July that might provide permanent residency, or green cards, to more than 8 million noncitizens by updating a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This would allow immigrants who have been in the United States continuously for “at least 7 years” to apply for permanent residence.
A version of the bill was introduced in the House of Representatives this year.
[El Servicio de Inmigración cambia el diseño de la ‘green card’ para evitar falsificaciones]
Glo Choi, a community organizer at the HANA Center, a nonprofit group that advocates for Korean, Asian-American and immigrant communities, said he believes the bills are the best option to provide legal status to DACA recipients and other types of undocumented immigrants.
“We believe that we are all worthy of living free, with dignity, in the place we call home,” Choi said.
A bill reintroduced in June by Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, seeks to provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and other immigrants with other types of immigration protections.
According to Cárdenas, versions of the bill passed the House last year and in 2021, so he believes that might happen once more if at least nine Republicans support it along with Democrats.
What can happen with the program in the future?
Supporters of DACA say it is one of the most successful policies for integrating immigrants. Most recipients have lived in the United States for more than 16 years.
[Microsoft, Apple y otras grandes firmas estadounidenses lanzan una campaña de apoyo a los dreamers]
“They’re not kids anymore. They’re raising their own families and they’re doing well in their careers,” Cardenas said.
The average DACA recipient is between 26 and 28 years old, said Gaby Pacheco, director of advocacy, development and communications at TheDream.Us, an organization that helps young immigrants finish college.
“Those at the top of the DACA population are now in their 40s,” Hernandez said. “And those in their mid-to-early 20s can no longer access DACA.”
DACA recipients are also parents to more than 200,000 U.S. citizen children. Among them is Ángel Reyes, a DACA recipient from Long Island, who is coordinator of the organization Make the Road New York.
“I think regarding that a lot,” Reyes said.
[El republicano Ken Paxton, férreo opositor de DACA, gana la reelección como fiscal general de Texas]
Without a permanent solution to regulate the immigration status of DACA recipients, Reyes fears he might be separated from his two U.S. citizen children. That fear makes him remember when he was a 17-year-old in high school and his mother was deported to Peru.
“That was one of the hardest moments I ever experienced, maybe the hardest moment of my life,” said Reyes, who is also a business owner.
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