Action coming on DACA issue

NEW YORK CITY, NY — New York State Attorney General Letitia James last week filed a brief in the ongoing lawsuit regarding the administration of President Donald Trump and his attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. James is leading a collation of 17 attorneys general who are trying to keep the program going.

“Our country is one of immigrants, our culture made richer by their contributions and our economy made more prosperous because of their work,” James said. “Our government made a promise to DREAMers that they would be able to live their lives free from the fear of sudden, arbitrary deportation, yet the Trump Administration has spent the past two years threatening, bullying and putting their lives and future at great risk. We will not allow them to continue this cruel crusade against these invaluable members of our society.”

The lawsuit was first filed in federal court in 2017. In 2018, the court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, which halted the termination of the program. In December 2018, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump has the right to change the policy but in this case he “acted based on an erroneous view of what the law required—the rescission was arbitrary and capricious under settled law.” The United States Supreme Court will hear this case and other challenges to DACA termination on November 12.

Another lawyer working on the case, Theodore Olsen, recently wrote a legal brief that underlined the appeals court ruling. “The executive can change course on enforcement policies” lawyer Olson argued, “but not in arbitrary and unreasoned ways.”

Since DACA was established in 2012, approximately 800,000 young people who came to this country as children gained legal status to live and work in the U.S. If Trump is successful, thousands of people who grew up here may be deported, including DACA recipients in Sullivan County.

In September 2017, the Sullivan County Human Rights Commission held a meeting at which several DACA recipients appeared. Iris said she entered first grade in the Liberty Central School District and was crushed when she found out at age 13 that she was undocumented. She said her grades began to suffer, and she became uninterested in her studies. At age 15, her spirits were buoyed by President Barack Obama’s adoption of DACA, which allowed her to legally stay in the country and attend classes for higher education.

On September 5, 2017, President Trump decided to phase out the program.

“The irony of this is,” Iris said, “that it was my first day of nursing school.” She was going through orientation when she got a text about Trump’s action. “So many thoughts went through my head.” She managed to continue through the day’s program, “but once I got in my car, I fell apart.”

Now the Supreme Court will decide if the 800,000 DACA recipients will be allowed to stay in the U.S., or be deported to what now will be a strange land. A recent survey of DACA recipients found that 90 percent of them are concerned about safety and access to food should they be deported.