On September 13, 2023, the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that the Biden Administration’s codification of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) is not legal. The ruling does not prevent DACA beneficiaries enrolled in the program prior to July 16, 2021, to renew their status. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) will also continue to accept new applications from first-time, would-be DACA recipients; However, they will not process any new applications.
Read moreSixty Years later, MLK Inspires Todays’ DREAMers
DACA is Codified, but Remains in Jeopardy
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program celebrated a decade of existence earlier this year. DACA went into effect as an executive order signed by President Obama to protect undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors without “the formal agency rulemaking process, which requires public notice and comment”. It was intended as a “stopgap measure to protect some of the nation’s most vulnerable immigrants”, from deportation and allow beneficiaries to obtain work authorization and reside legally in the US. DACA was never meant to be a permanent solution but a means to be used for a limited time until Congress passed new immigration legislation addressing the immigration status of certain undocumented minors.
Read moreLet’s Treat Dreamers like the Americans they Are
Stop Using Dreamers as Bargaining Chips
Futures are Left up in the Air
Basic Fairness and Decency
A Decent Life
War on Immigrants and Refugees
Vox: "March 5 is supposed to be the DACA 'deadline.' Here’s what that means for immigrants."
Last September, President Trump announced the termination of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and gave March 5, 2018, as the deadline for Congress to find a legislative solution for the approximately 700,000 DACA recipients. This March 5 deadline arrived this week just after the Supreme Court declined to hear the administration’s appeal of a federal judge's injunction that halted Trump's decision to terminate the DACA program. Currently, because of the recent court injunctions and the actions of the Supreme Court and despite the March 5 deadline, USCIS is accepting DACA renewals only and operating the DACA program on the “terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017, until further notice.”
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