We’ve all heard of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but how was it established? What is currently going on with the policy?
Lawyer, University of Idaho alumnus and DACA recipient Luis Cortes Romero provided answers during a keynote awareness event last week.
Cortes Romero is a partner at Immigrant Advocacy and Litigation Center in Seattle where he practices immigration law and advocates human rights.
“There is one really important thing that happened with the DREAM Act,” Cortes Romero said. “It put a name to a certain population of the immigrant community, the people who were brought over as kids and were raised in the U.S., Dreamers.”
According to Cortes Romero, the DREAM Act gave migrants a sense of identity and purpose.
Back in 2001, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act was proposed, but never passed the Senate. It would’ve granted undocumented immigrant students’ temporary legal status.
Fast forward to 2005, and student groups began to utilize activism to gain momentum, eventually forming the largest youth-led community, United We Dream.
In 2008, former U.S. President Barack Obama ran a campaign promoting immigration reform. Near the end of Obama’s first term, the public become aware of reports that his administration was deporting more immigrants than any other president in the history of the country, according to Cortes Romero.
People no longer bought Obama’s pro-immigrant rhetoric. Dreamers and immigration activists began referring to Obama as “Deporter-in- Chief” and staged protests outside his headquarters.
Later in 2012, Obama announced new immigration policy, DACA, which would protect young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.
“DACA is not a green card and it’s not citizenship,” Cortes Romero said. “You get basic building blocks of life, a work permit, a social security number and that’s basically it.”
First, individuals submit an application, a process requiring an extensive amount of personal information. Afterwards, applicants visit an immigration office where their photos and fingerprints are taken and a thorough background check is conducted.
The fate of DACA was challenged in 2017 after the Trump Administration said they would end the DACA program.
Cortes Romero was a lead lawyers on a lawsuit against former U.S. President Donald Trump to prevent DACA from ending.
“He couldn’t end the program just like a light switch, essentially that is what he was doing, he was just turning it off and on,” Cortes Romero said. “That’s not how you end government programs, people rely on this.”
After winning the case, Cortes Romero found himself arguing for the continuation of DACA inside the U.S. Supreme Court. There he found support from 143 businesses including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and Twitter, which rely on DACA recipients as part of their workforce.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of DACA recipients in 2020, blocking the Trump Administration’s plan to end the DACA policy.
Now, the House of Representatives has passed the American Dream and Promise Act.
If passed by the Senate, the American Dream and Promise Act would provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants.
While being a DACA recipient has become more common and accepted, Cortes Romero said, there is still progress to be made.
Date updated in photo caption
Evelyn Avitia can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Eavitia_