蜜桃影视

Explore

Following Victory in Appeals Court for DACA Recipients, Will SCOTUS Consider Fate of Dreamers?

Pro-DACA and Dreamer supporters march towards the U.S. Capital March 5, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for MoveOn.org)

When a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel last week rebuked the Trump administration鈥檚 efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it highlighted the life of Dulce Garcia, who it said 鈥渆mbodies the American dream.鈥

As with a lot of Dreamers, as DACA recipients are often called, Garcia鈥檚 American story began when she was just 4 years old. As an undocumented immigrant child in California, Garcia faced abject poverty and homelessness. Still, she thrived in school, and, after putting herself through college, she became an attorney. Now, Garcia represents DACA recipients 鈥 including a middle school teacher 鈥 in a lawsuit against the Trump administration to keep the program alive.

鈥淭hough the United States of America is the only home she has ever known, Dulce Garcia is an undocumented immigrant,鈥 Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the court opinion. The government created DACA, she noted, because it recognized 鈥渢he cruelty and wastefulness of deporting productive young people to countries with which they have no ties.鈥

Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit cited Garcia鈥檚 story in its opinion to on the Trump administration鈥檚 decision to end the DACA program, which provides deportation relief and work authorization to roughly 700,000 people 鈥斅爄ncluding thousands of teachers and K-12 students 鈥 who were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children.

The Trump administration announced in fall 2017 it would wind down the DACA program, created by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 through an executive order after Congress failed to pass immigration reform. In announcing the change, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions called DACA an 鈥渙pen-ended circumvention of immigration laws鈥 created by an unconstitutional executive order.

Even though the latest court opinion was an incremental victory for Dreamers like Garcia, their fate continues to hang in the balance. The ruling is the latest in a string of court opinions siding with Dreamers, but the Justice Department has already turned to the Supreme Court, and its newly fortified conservative majority, for help. Even before the Ninth Circuit released its opinion, the Trump administration had asked the nation鈥檚 highest court on three pending lawsuits. In February, the Supreme Court by the Trump administration to leapfrog lower federal courts.

The injunction, which allows current DACA recipients to submit renewal applications, was put in place in January by a lower federal court until lawsuits against the Trump administration work their way through the courts. Along with the plaintiffs represented by Garcia, the Trump administration faces lawsuits from the State of California and the University of California system whose president, Janet Napolitano, signed off on DACA as Obama鈥檚 Homeland Security secretary. In its opinion on Thursday, the Ninth Circuit panel noted the plaintiffs have some 鈥渓ikelihood of success鈥 in their argument that the Trump administration鈥檚 decision to end DACA violates the Constitution鈥檚 equal protection clause.

Beyond California, U.S. district courts in New York and the District of Columbia have placed similar injunctions on the move to end DACA. And in a surprising move, a federal judge in Texas in August after a coalition of seven conservative states sued to end DACA.

Last week鈥檚 Ninth Circuit opinion brings the issue closer to the Supreme Court, however, since it鈥檚 the first time a federal appeals court has weighed in on the issue. As the Supreme Court could move to settle the DACA debate by June.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.

Republish This Article

We want our stories to be shared as widely as possible 鈥 for free.

Please view 蜜桃影视's republishing terms.





On 蜜桃影视 Today