06 OCT 2022
Rep. Aguilar, United We Dream Action, Immigration Hub, FWD.us and Justice Action Center Urge Congress to Protect Dreamers After 5th Circuit Court Rules DACA Illegal
Click here for recording of the call
WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier today, after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA), United We Dream Action, Immigration Hub, FWD.us, and Justice Action Center held a press call to denounce the 5th Circuit Court’s decision and to urge Congress to create permanent protections for Dreamers across the country.
DACA temporarily remains in place, but the Fifth Circuit remanded the case back to Judge Hanen, who has repeatedly ruled against DACA and similar programs. And most experts expect the Supreme Court to deliver a death blow to DACA next year. The majority of voters want to see DACA codified by Congress after the 5th Circuit Court’s decision. In a recent poll by the Immigration Hub and SEIU, 65% of battleground voters favored Congress passing legislation that prevents the deportation of Dreamers if DACA is overturned.
“Yesterday’s decision was disappointing and my heart breaks for the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients in this country whose lives are in the balance," said U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar (CA-31). “They deserve a path to citizenship in the only country they’ve called home, where they live, work, pay taxes and raise their families. As Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, I’m proud of our work last June to pass the Dream and Promise Act. It’s time for the Senate to take action and protect DACA recipients.”
“Imagine a country where every single day hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs and their ability to provide for their families. Where moms and dads, or aunts and uncles are separated from their families. Your kids' school loses teachers. The emergency room in your community no longer has enough doctors and nurses. Your neighbor down the street is no longer there. That is the world that Republicans want with this DACA decision, and that is what we are fighting against,” said Greisa Martinez Rosas, Executive Director of United We Dream. “So knowing what we’re facing, here is what we expect to happen over the coming days and weeks: Congress must finally come through on their promises and take the threat against immigrants seriously. Right now, Democrats have the power to get this done. We will not allow any elected official to be silent about this crisis or to push it off for another time.”
“Yesterday’s court order was wrong on the law and wrong for our country,” said Karen Tumlin, Founder and Director of the Justice Action Center. “By taking a legal ax to DACA, the Fifth Circuit chose to follow the legal footsteps of an extreme minority of legal scholars, to the detriment of the nation. But legal technicalities don’t bring security back to the hundreds of thousands of current DACA recipients and the thousands more who should have DACA today. The crisis is at our doorstep. It’s past time for Congress to act.”
“Young immigrants and America need our leaders to step up and create real, effective solutions, not just temporary stopgaps," said Sergio Gonzales, Executive Director of The Immigration Hub. “We do not need to wait to see how this story with the courts play out. We know how this story ends. It is crystal clear that the only way to protect DACA recipients is for Congress to pass legislation this year that provides permanent protection. The alternative is hundreds of thousands of Dreamers losing their jobs while facing detention and deportation.”
“The 5th Circuit decision was a devastating attack on my life, the lives of my friends, family, colleagues, and the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients in this country, and makes it absolutely clear that the 5th Circuit is aggressively trying to end DACA as harmfully as possible,” said Maria Praeli, DACA recipient and Government Relations Manager, FWD.us. “DACA recipients are ingrained in every aspect of our society – we are teachers, doctors, friends, colleagues – we teach the children of this country, work in grocery stores, sit next to fellow Americans in Church. We have children, spouses, friendships, countless memories in this country we call home – and we are tired of the heartbreak and injustice that comes with the uncertainty of our future in this country we love and call ours. We have to stop living like this. We have reached the end of the road of the can-kicking: Congress must pass permanent protections for Dreamers this year.”
"Yesterday’s ruling is not a reprieve, it is a call to action. It is a call to action to take DACA recipients out of continuous limbo,” said Ines Martinez, UWDA member and DACA eligible youth whose application is sitting with USCIS. “It is a call to action to take DACA eligible youth like me who are waiting for protection out of the unknown. It is a call to action to take the lives of undocumented youth out of uncertainty. The truth is that this ruling is further proof that DACA is not enough for our communities. We are done with temporary, we need something permanent, and we need it now."
###
The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.