Luis Rey Ramírez remembers that it was on April 5, 2013 when a notice from USCIS informed him that his request to benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program had been approved.
That was just a year after former President Barack Obama implemented DACA, which allowed hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who were largely raised in the United States the ability to apply to work and study in the country without fear of deportation.
For Luis, of Mexican roots and a resident of New York City, DACA was the key that allowed him to open doors that had been closed to him due to his immigration status. Not only did he have access to a university education and the job of his dreams, the immigration relief also allowed him to reunite with his loved ones after 15 years of separation.
Luis remembers that thanks to the program he was able to travel to Mexico to be with his grandparents during his last days of life.
“As a DACA recipient I have been able to do things that I could only dream of before,” Luis said during a phone interview.
Ramírez earned a Master’s in Public Administration and worked for New York State and City government with the ultimate goal of helping immigrant communities obtain services that were once denied him.
Yet a decade after DACA was implemented, the fate of immigration relief is deeply uncertain after numerous court challenges and years of legislative inaction. That also means uncertainty for young professionals like Luis and other so-called dreamers, as well as a younger generation of immigrants who can’t access benefits at all.
In last julyTexas US District Judge Andrew Hanen blocked new applications for the program from being issued, leaving some 80,000 young immigrants in limbo.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments in that case next month. The litigation began in 2018 when a group of Republican-led states challenged the program.
And in Congress, lawmakers’ years-long inability to find a permanent legislative fix for Dreamers seems unlikely to change as midterm elections near and tensions over immigration and border security mount.
DACA, BETWEEN HOPE AND THE COURTS
The Obama administration started the DACA program on June 15, 2012 to protect young immigrants who were brought to the country without choice. In the following decade, more than 800,000 young people obtained immigration relief.
But the program, created by the executive branch, not Congress, has always been controversial and precarious. In 2017, former President Donald Trump promised to end the relief, calling it an “amnesty-first” approach to immigration policy. The former president then urged a legislative solution.
Trump’s attempt forced an overhaul in Congress, with lawmakers eventually considering a deal that would protect Dreamers in exchange for increased border security. But the deal stalled, and partisan fights over immigration and Trump’s border wall ultimately led to a government shutdown.
Then, in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled against rescinding Trump, thus leaving DACA protections in place, though a subsequent memo from then-Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf attempted to curb the issuance of DACA to new applicants.
Before a discouraging panorama, Luis and other young people in his situation wonder where are all the promises that were made in Congress to immigrant communities when after a year of the Biden administration, more than 1.8 million people, contrary to what he defended when he presented his candidacy.
“I think it is very important to share our stories so that the public can see that these laws have indeed changed people’s lives and that it is for the better. We know that the fight is bigger than DACA. We will continue to fight to be able to live without fear.” Louis said.
“We will continue fighting to be able to live without fear,” he added.
Immigrant advocates were hopeful after the January 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden, who had campaigned on a humane immigration policy that he promised would be different from Trump’s. But his efforts to undo Trump-era immigration actions have been repeatedly stymied in court.
The July 2021 court decision that blocked new applications was a setback for many immigrants, particularly people who had been unable to apply for DACA under the Trump era. The Biden administration has promised regulatory action to strengthen and preserve DACA, but a final rule is yet to come.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Congress to find a legislative solution has only grown stronger. In late 2021, Democrats tried to provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants through budget reconciliation, but that plan was stymied by congressional problems and opposition from moderates.
For lawmakers seeking a new immigration policy, many of whom weren’t even in Congress when DACA was initially created, the 10-year mark is a painful reminder that deep divisions over immigration have made it difficult to protect a immigrant group with broad support among Americans.
But with the midterm elections approaching, hopes for a legislative solution to DACA this year are dim. Earlier in 2021, the House passed legislation allowing Dreamers to apply for citizenship, but the bill has not been considered in the Senate.
Bipartisan talks on immigration are currently taking place, and DACA is part of those talks, but there is no definitive progress so far.
Republicans have little interest in compromising with Democrats on immigration bills. Even Republicans who have supported bills to provide relief to Dreamers in the past are lambasting Biden’s proposals amid historically high migration to the US-Mexico border.
THOUSANDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE IN THEIR HANDS
As Congress remains gridlocked over immigration policy, immigrant advocates nervously await the outcome of the DACA case in the 5th Circuit. But for people who came of age after new applications of the program were prevented, the damage has already been done.
The program is no longer available to hundreds of young people. To qualify, the undocumented youth had to have arrived in the country before June 15, 2007. This will be the first year that an overwhelming majority of the approximately 100,000 undocumented high school graduates do not obtain DACA protections, according to FWD.usa progressive immigration lobby group.
In a 2017 analysis of the DACA population, the Migration Policy Institute found that DACA recipients were about as likely as U.S. adults in the 15-32 age group to be enrolled in college: 18 per percent and 20 percent respectively.
Furthermore, 40 percent of the beneficiaries were enrolled in secondary education but not in college, and 20 percent were still in high school.
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