What is DACA?
What is DACA?
On June 15, 2012, President Obama issued an executive order, “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA). DACA allows certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several key guidelines to request consideration for deferred deportation.
As such, DACA offers temporary protection from deportation and the authority to work legally for more than 700,000 young immigrants. Because this is not a pathway to citizenship, DACA recipients have to apply for renewals every two years and pay almost $500 each time. Nonetheless, the program has opened life-changing opportunities for hundreds of thousands of individuals, allowing them to advance their education and careers, give back to their communities, and live with some peace of mind that they will not be separated from their homes and families.
Why is DACA in danger?
In 2017, President Trump cancelled DACA despite 83% of Americans across the country supporting DACA and a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. For the following months and years, we fought back through multiple lawsuits across the country. Three courts already separately decided that Trump broke the law in the way he tried to end DACA and blocked him from terminating the program.
Our last stand is on November 12, 2019 at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will rule on whether President Trump’s termination of DACA was lawful. Although the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on November 12, 2019, it will render the final decision between January 2020 and June 2020.
Who will this decision affect?
More than 1/3 of DACA recipients arrived before the age of 5, and they are now students, workers, parents, teachers, small business owners, and—most importantly—integral parts of our community. Over 250,000 U.S. born children have a parent who is a DACA recipient. Thus, an unfavorable decision will cause massive disruption to not only 700,000 DACA recipients, but also their families and communities.