Cut-off from DACA, a new GENERATION faces Uncertain Futures
Alondra, a 19-year-old born in Mexico who came to the U.S. about a decade
ago, grew up believing she could one day apply for an Obama-era immigration
program that protects those who came to the country as children.
But the Arizona resident took a closer look when she heard one of her
friends would not be eligible for the program first introduced in 2012,
known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. She discovered it excludes
anyone who has entered the country, or been born, after June 2007 — now 16
years ago.
“That is where I kind of realized what my situation was — that I was
actually undocumented and in a very vulnerable position,” said Alondra,
whose last name is being withheld because she is undocumented.
While court challenges and congressional inaction have made uncertain the
fate of so-called Dreamers who have been covered under DACA, there’s a new
generation of immigrants who have come of age in the U.S. and face a future
without legal immigration status, and few options to live and work legally.
According to a recent report by immigrant advocacy group FWD.us, the
majority of the nation’s approximately 120,0000 undocumented high school
graduates this year are not eligible for DACA because of the cutoff date.
And by the class of 2025, most graduates will not have been born in time.
“There will be an entire generation coming into the workforce and having to
work in the shadows again,” said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, deputy
director of federal advocacy at United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy
group, and a DACA recipient herself.
“I see every day when I talk to our members who are these kids. It’s really
disheartening for them,” Macedo do Nascimento said. “They grew up thinking
that they were going to have access to these benefits, and they don’t. And
they don’t have any other recourse.”
Alondra said her inability to qualify for DACA has limited scholarship and
other job and educational opportunities for her and her peers. She has
graduated high school and is currently attending community college near her
home, but said she has struggled to choose a major because she does not
know whether she could work in her chosen field.
“Obviously I want to get an education,” Alondra said. “But it’s really hard
trying to choose one when I don’t even know if I would be able to be
financially stable using it.”
*Court case*
A Texas federal judge is poised to rule any day on a challenge from
Republican-led states to the legality of DACA, which protects roughly
600,000 individuals. Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas
already ruled against the program once, closing it to first-time applicants
for the past two years.
Now the judge is considering a newer version of the program the Biden
administration issued after putting it through the full administrative
process. He is widely expected to rule against the latest version again but
keep the policy it in place while appeals continue.
A potential ruling against the program by the Supreme Court would likely
result in hundreds of thousands of current DACA recipients losing
protections.
But even if the high court rules in favor of the program and allows the
Biden administration to resume processing first-time DACA requests, those
who missed the 2007 cutoff date would remain ineligible.
According to the FWD.us report, roughly 18,000 undocumented high school
graduates live in Texas, one of the states leading the challenge against
DACA.
Macedo do Nascimento said the Biden administration’s decision not to update
the 2007 cutoff date when issuing the formal DACA rule now under court
review was a “missed opportunity.”
If DACA survives litigation, there are some “discrete policy changes” that
the Department of Homeland Security could enact to ease the process for
undocumented immigrants to use existing legal channels, including by
streamlining access to work permits, said Kerri Talbot, deputy director of
Immigration Hub, an immigrant advocacy group.
But Talbot also cautioned that none of these fixes would represent a
permanent solution for the undocumented population without congressional
action.
*Knowledge gap*
Some immigration experts said while the American public generally supports
the DACA program and legislation to put Dreamers on a path to citizenship,
much of the public is unaware how the program falls short for children
today — or even how many of those children labeled as Dreamers are not
eligible.
Proposed bills to provide a path to citizenship have generally included
more recent arrivals to the country. A bipartisan comprehensive immigration
bill (HR 3599 <https://plus.cq.com/bill/118/
Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar
<https://plus.cq.com/person/
Escobar <https://plus.cq.com/person/
citizenship for undocumented immigrants who entered the country under 18
and have lived there for the three years prior to the bill’s enactment.
But legislation on immigration has been gridlocked for decades.
“The plight of Dreamers is not painful enough for a lot of politicians to
have a sense of urgency,” said Laura Collins, a director at the George W.
Bush Institute specializing in immigration policy.
“We talk about Dreamers and DACA recipients as kids. But because they’ve
been waiting on legislation and a solution for them for so long, they’re my
age. They’re in their 30s. Some of them are starting to be 40. A lot of
them have American citizen children. They’re well into prime working age,
they’re well into their careers,” Collins said. “Talking about it as this
just one population neglects that we’ve got this other group.”
Talbot said while many Americans are familiar with legislative efforts to
protect DACA recipients, “they probably are not aware that there’s so many
kids who really have no options to be able to get green cards and be able
to work.”
“I think probably most Americans would be very upset to learn that there
are young people in our schools, and who want to be able to work and
contribute but are blocked from doing so by our immigration system,” Talbot
said.
Sen. Bob Menendez <https://plus.cq.com/person/
Jersey and vocal proponent of bills to help undocumented immigrants, said
he’s seen a lack of awareness of DACA’s limits from his own colleagues.
“I don’t think that, except for a few of us, there is an awareness of that.
And unfortunately, I don’t think, except for a few of us, there’s a desire
to do anything about it,” Menendez said. “If we can’t get DACA done, either
for the current recipients or for future recipients, then I don’t know what
you get done on immigration.”
– DACA
<https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-
– Department of Homeland Security
<https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-
– Immigration
<https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-
– Immigration Regulation
<https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-
– Judiciary
<https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-
—-
Saludos,
– Pablo
*Schedule With Me <https://calendly.com/pablo-
(Pablo) Pavel DeJesús
Executive Director
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ)
*Schedule With Me <https://calendly.com/pablo-
c. 202.417.6428
o. 202.600.9132
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