Love of Country: Update

I’ve written about immigration and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) before because, being a first generation American, immigration is something I hold near and dear.

The fate of DACA wasn’t clear as it was being decided in the courts but things were looking a little bit better.

From Axios

A federal judge in New York ruled today that while the Trump administration has the right to rescind DACA, it has not provided sufficient legal reasons to do so and thus the program must remain in place while a legal battle plays out. A judge in California made a similar ruling last month.

It then went to the Supreme Court where they decided if the self-imposed termination of the original executive order might have violated the Administrative Procedure Act . Turns out the Supreme Court wouldn’t even hear the case because the administration tried to skip the court of appeals and go straight to the top.

By rejecting the administration’s request, the Supreme Court isn’t saying anything about the merits of the DACA program itself, or about the legal arguments over the Trump administration’s decision to end it. It’s just insisting that the case proceed the normal way, with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing the administration’s appeal of the California judge’s order (and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the East Coast hearing an appeal of a similar order issued in February by a New York judge).

So they’re good? Not really.

From CNN

So does this mean DACA recipients have nothing to worry about?

That’s a question immigrant rights advocates answer with a resounding, “No.”

They;ve been campaigning hard online and in the streets to make the case that things are still dire.

Even though DACA recipients can still renew their protections, advocates say many could find themselves in limbo. Inevitably, they argue, some recipients’ renewal applications won’t be processed before their current work permits and other protections expire.

On another frustrating note, 20,000 immigrants who have applied for DACA before September 2017, when the government stopped taking new applications, haven’t been processed.

As stated in the article

That’s 177 days that immigrants haven’t been able to get a job in the US legally because the work permits they applied for before September haven’t come through. It’s 177 days that they’ve had to worry about being stopped by police and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It seems like there’s a new political issue every day ¹ so it may feel like Dreamers are taking a back seat. That’s something we can’t let happen. Do what you can by contacting your elected officials. Don’t know who they are? Don’t worry, I got you.

And if you don’t like what they do, vote.