The latest blow to the Obama-era program that protects 600,000 young immigrants from deportation is putting pressure on Congress to find a compromise providing them a pathway to citizenship.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is illegal but allowed those already protected to renew their status while the legal challenge proceeds.
Jesus Contreras made headlines for saving people during Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and he was on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic as a paramedic.
But the 28-year-old is also a ‘Dreamer,’ an undocumented immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a child.
“It wasn’t until I got the experience to ride in an ambulance. I got to see what those medics and those crews did in emergencies. And that was just an eye-opening experience and I decided I wanted to do the same thing,” Contreras told Spectrum News. “I’ve found over the last few years that it really fulfills, you know, my heart and my desire to help people.”
But now he fears his ability to work and even live in the U.S. will be in jeopardy if DACA ends.
“It would only be a matter of time before my status expires, my driver’s license expires and my ability to work in the state expires,” Contreras said. “That’s not just me, that’s hundreds of thousands of other DACA recipients that are doing similar things.”
On Thursday, people protested in Washington just a day after the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling.
The court ordered a federal judge in Texas to take another look at a Texas-led challenge to the DACA program which added new uncertainty to those enrolled. This puts renewed pressure on Congress to finally give them a path to citizenship.
Sandra Avalos, a DACA recipient from Dallas, said she was brought to the country when she was seven years old. Avalos now works with high school students from first-generation and low-income households in North Texas. She expressed how she felt stressed ahead of the appeals court decision.
“The anxiety kind of kicked in, because we were discussing a program ending that has impacted our life so much,” Avalos told Spectrum News. She says the program created opportunities so she could support her family and cover mortgage and car payments.
“The reminder of how DACA has been a roller coaster for the last couple of years. And so that definitely has been just a continuous reminder of how we need a permanent solution,” she added.
House Democrats have passed legislation to allow DACA recipients to stay in the U.S but the question that remains is, what will Republicans in the Senate demand for letting them remain?
According to reporting from Bloomberg News, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has expressed a willingness to seek a compromise but recently he says more needs to be done to address border security, something that makes some Democrats skeptical.
10 years ago President Obama repeatedly said he did not have this authority but acted nevertheless. Two levels of federal courts have now agreed with him. https://t.co/Iy82WiWLWS
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 5, 2022
“For the last several years, what Republicans have wanted is a wall across the entire US Mexico border in order to do anything on DACA… So we need to get to a place where we can negotiate in good faith and not just wall off the entire country,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said.
What happens next hinges on what Congress does this election cycle come November. If Republicans take control of either chamber, Democrats might be more willing to cut a deal at the end of the year before they become the minority party.
“Republicans are going to be more or less in the driving seat in terms of the scope of what populations protected, and what kind of protections they’re going to get. So this is, again, Democrats being in a very tough situation where they’re gonna have to make some sort of concessions,” Cristobal Ramón, an independent immigration policy consultant, told Spectrum News.
President Joe Biden has been weighing executive action to shield DACA recipients from deportation. That would fall short of what they ultimately hope for, which is a pathway to citizenship, but it would provide them some protection through the next presidential election.
