CHARLOTTE — President Donald Trump said he plans to unveil an immigration measure that would include some protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, sometime in the next month. The move follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that his administration went about trying to end the program the wrong way, leaving DACA recipients to face an uncertain future.
The high court’s 5-4 ruling June 18 said Trump could not stop the DACA program with his 2017 executive order. DACA protects about 700,000 young people who qualify for the program from deportation and allows them to work, go to college, get health insurance and obtain a driver’s license.
The Diocese of Charlotte ranks among the top 10 dioceses in the country for DACA recipients, with an estimated 14,300, according to research by the New York-based Center for Migration Studies.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles leads the totals with 69,800 recipients. The Diocese of Charlotte ranks ninth, close behind the Phoenix and Orange dioceses and the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
The program was established by President Barack Obama with an executive order in 2012 to allow young people brought into the country illegally as minors by their parents to stay in the United States.
Uncertain road ahead
The Supreme Court ruled the manner in which Trump terminated the program was not correct. DACA recipients now have time to renew their DACA status, although the court’s ruling allows the president to still end the program if he follows different steps.
Catholic leaders who work on immigration issues had predicted Trump would continue his efforts to end DACA, starting with refiling the paperwork to do so in a way that complied with the high court’s requirements. Trump had said he planned to refile that paperwork, but then in a July 10 interview with the
Spanish language network Noticias Telemundo, he said he is planning DACA protections in an upcoming executive order.
Any effort to end the program would “likely immediately be mired in litigation,” said Ashley Feasley, director of policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services.
CMS estimates that 1.02 million immigrants were eligible for the DACA program based on 2018 Census data. Yet U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reports there were 649,070 active DACA recipients as of Dec. 31, 2019.
In addition, thousands of undocumented immigrants who would have qualified for the program were denied the opportunity to apply because they had not reached age 15 when the Trump administration canceled the program. CMS estimates 61,000 immigrants who meet DACA eligibility criteria have turned 15 since the program’s rescission and should now be able to submit their initial DACA applications.
DACA supporters didn’t celebrate for long before taking a realistic look at the high court’s ruling and the uncertain road that lies ahead.
Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. attorney Jennifer Riddle, based in Asheville, said the court’s ruling is a “temporary victory” that leaves DACA recipients “in a holding pattern.”
But a holding pattern’s instability is still a step above limbo, the word frequently used to describe the status of DACA recipients during the past three years since Trump issued the executive order.
“We welcome the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision noting that the Trump administration did not follow proper administrative procedures required to repeal the DACA program,” said a June 18 statement from Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB president, and Washington Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration.
They told DACA recipients: “Through today’s decision and beyond, we will continue to accompany you and your families. You are a vital part of our Church and our community of faith. We are with you.” They also urged Trump to keep DACA intact.
Catholic Extension – which supports the nation’s rural, poorest and least populated dioceses – also weighed in: “In the last several weeks, our nation has come into a greater awareness of our unjust systems that exclude, harm or hinder the God-given potential of some of our people. Among those facing systemic exclusion are our DACA brothers and sisters.”
“The Catholic Church has long affirmed that their lives matter, and that this young generation must no longer be systemically marginalized,” the statement added.
Another possible path to eliminate DACA would be for the Department of Homeland Security to issue a regulation affecting the program that would need a notice and comment period and could take months to complete.
While waiting to see what the president does, immigration advocates are urging DACA supporters to push the Senate for legislation that would give DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, and those with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a path toward citizenship.
Fragile Protection
Former St. Gabriel parishioner Damara García-García was relieved to learn about the Supreme Court’s ruling, because that means she can continue to teach and pursue an advanced degree.
“I will be able to continue advancing in my career. I will be stable for two more years and stop having that anxiety of uncertainty,” she said.
García-García came to the United States as a child when her parents were forced to leave Mexico in search of a better future for their children. Aware of her limitations to access higher education due to her immigration status, the young woman stood out in her studies and actively participated in community and parish activities.
She enrolled at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, not long after Obama created the DACA program just as she graduated from high school.
“It meant a lot to me and my whole family,” she explained, because the program enabled her to come out of the shadows, get a driver’s license, work, help with family income, buy a car, pay some study expenses and even save some money.
She graduated from college and entered the “Teach for America” program. She teaches at East End Prep Charter School in Nashville, Tenn., a Title 1 school for low-income students, and she is working towards a master’s degree in education.
She has never considered returning to Mexico, as she feels an obligation to stay here “to be part of the fight” because, she notes, “DACA is not a solution, it is a fragile protection to only not to be deported.”
“It scares me a lot, it frustrates me not being able to participate in democracy,” she said. “But I want to continue being a teacher and my studies are not finished. I want to pursue another master’s degree to help my students enter college, like me.”
Permanent Solution
José Hernández-Paris, executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, said he was relieved by the court’s ruling “for the opportunity that at least this protection can be maintained” even though the victory “is not a permanent solution.”
“The impact of DACA is enormous,” he notes, as it provides North Carolina with “essential workers, especially in the health and construction industries.”
DACA supporters like the Latin American Coalition, CLINIC and the Church will continue to advocate for a more permanent solution for Dreamers as well as comprehensive immigration reform, so that more immigrants can obtain a path to citizenship.
— Kimberly Bender and César Hurtado, Catholic News Herald. Catholic News Service contributed.
Need DACA help?
Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte offers legal assistance regarding DACA. They are currently assisting applicants who previously held DACA, continue to meet the DACA eligibility requirements and wish to renew it.
They are awaiting possible guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about first-time DACA applicants, and the program is constantly following developments in DACA policies so they can advise clients and keep them updated about this matter as they also screen them for other potential immigration relief.
For details, go online to www.ccdoc.org/en/services/immigration or call Asheville: 877-280-6354; Charlotte: 704-370-3219; or Winston-Salem: 336-714-3212.
Pictured above: DACA demonstrators hold signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Nov. 12, 2019. President Trump announced an immigration rule with additional protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (CNS | Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)