The decision was  a close 5 to 4 vote. Chief Justice John J. Roberts was the swing vote and wrote the majority opinion.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

The decision states the Trump Administration did not provide sufficient reasons to terminate the program. The administration did not follow the proper procedures required and did not thoroughly assess how the ending of DACA would affect those whore relied on it.

“Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients,” Roberts wrote. “That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.”

Along with  Roberts, the majority opinion included liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

President Donald Trump tweeted his disfavor and urged the public to  reelect him.

These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020

Giovana Banuelos is a Dreamer and a student at California State University San Bernardino. She shared on twitter how relieved she was shortly after hearing DACA will continue.

I have been so anxious ever since this month started because of this big decision that was to be made. This could’ve changed my life forever and destroyed the future I have been working so hard on BUT WOW.. this was amazing news. GREAT WAY to start my day. I am in tears #DREAMER https://t.co/tZCAXwGelP

— Giovana Banuelos (@Banuelos_gio) June 18, 2020

DACA was first announced by former President Barack Obama in 2012. But in 2017 the Trump administration announced its plan to end it. The immigration policy allowed people who were brought to the United States as children to apply for temporary status. This status prevents deportation and grants permission to work for two years.  When it expires  it can be renewed by recipients. Former President Barack Obama also responded to the decisions via Twitter.

Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I’m happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 18, 2020

The post Supreme Court saves DACA appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

As a crowd of protestors waited in front of the steps of The Supreme Court in D.C. yesterday morning,  chilly air descended upon them as rain started to fall. People anxiously waited, holding signs that said “Let Our Dreamers Dream” and “Home is Here”, as they anticipated a decision that will change the lives of DACA recipients throughout the United States. 

At 10 AM, nine Supreme Court Justices entered the room to begin the case which ignited the defense for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that has let young immigrants who were brought to this country before they were 16, apply for jobs, attend university and live without fear of deportation. 

The Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of The University of California began a marathon of arguments for an almost two hour meeting in the Supreme Court to discuss the legality of ending DACA. Tension was high in the courtroom, as the conservative justices leaned towards Trump’s decision to end the program as lawful, and said that eliminating the program could be a reasonable move.

“The whole thing was about work authorization and these other benefits,” Chief Justice Roberts said. “Both administrations have said they are not going to deport people.” 

While the more liberal justices argued that ending the program would create a severe disruption to  700,000 DACA recipients and hurt our country’s resources. 

Noel Francisco, the Solicitor General of the administration, said that the benefits for immigrants was one of the main problems of the DACA program and constituted illegality. 

“So the DACA program would be legal if they were not receiving benefits? You think they would not need to be legally deported?” Ruth Bader Ginsburg posed this question, as Francisco tried to defend the reasons behind ending DACA and the benefits that come along with it. 

Theodore Olson, who defended the rights of the DACA recipients and questioned the government’s right to end DACA, said there is nothing in place to support the ending of the DACA program. He said that the reasons given by The Department of Homeland Security aren’t enough to to end their futures in the U.S. 

“It affected 700,000 people and Homeland Security did not have the constitutional reasoning to argue against it,”  he said. “The reasons to end DACA didn’t create enough defense to destroy the lives of so many people.” 

While Olson passionately defended the University of California case and the people affected by it,  Francisco continued to argue against DACA and said that it was illegal to even begin the program in the first place. 

As Francisco decried the legality of DACA, the liberal justices continued to question him. Justice Sotomayor, who seemed to lean towards the continuation of the program, commented on the Dreamers’ employment in the workforce, their dedication to school, and their contributions, like taxes to the country’s economy. 

“For those people, like DACA people, who are legally employed, pay taxes, why would we remove these people?” she asked. “The current president told DACA people that they would be safe here, and he would keep them here, but he hasn’t.” 

Jacqueline Fernandez, a DACA recipient who immigrated from Mexico to Los Angeles, California at the age of four, was angry about the court case. She said that she couldn’t believe that nine Justices were discussing the deportation of people in terms of “legal or not legal”. She said that the case was completely inhumane. 

“It bothers me that they focus so much on the constitutionality of things, cause they have the power to change laws,” Fernandez said. 

She said that it is frustrating to have strangers decide the fate of her life and the lives of immigrants under DACA.

“I feel like people inside that court forget about what is out here,” she said. “People who were sitting in the court, I didn’t even know them. I didn’t see them waiting out here, it would have been great to have more people who are directly affected by DACA in there.” 

Jacqueline Fernandez, 25, stands with other DACA youth outside of The Supreme Court hearing. Photo by Sydney Fishman

The arguments yesterday morning are actually the beginning of a long journey to reach a final decision. Currently, DACA recipients are able to renew their applications, but the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is not taking new applications. The DACA immigrants will still be in limbo, at least until the Supreme Court  reaches a decision by June of 2020. 

Fernandez said that even with the DACA program, she has been in limbo since she was a child. She hasn’t been able to plan out her future for more than five years at a time, and this court case further stalls her status as a “legal or not legal” human in America. 

“I feel like growing up as undocumented, with DACA, I still feel like I have always been in legal limbo,” Fernandez said. ” I can’t really plan five years out. And like, where I need to be.” 

She said that there is always fear of deportation. It’s directly impacting her community, and they have had to constantly fight for their rights. 

“If it is deemed legal and they end DACA, I have honestly thought about self deportation,” Fernandez said. “That is not ideal, my family is here. Obviously it’s not a way to live, to just uproot yourself like that.”

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Without a pathway to citizenship and ICE arrests still rising, some undocumented students are seeking help from their schools amid their fear of deportation.

New York University’s Immigration Defense Initiative, provides free legal support and advice for immigrant students, faculty, and their family members. Frances Dàvila, Staff Attorney of IDI, has been focusing on outreach within the NYU community.

She wants the NYU immigrant community to know that these services are available.

“I just worked with the LGBTQ student center and let them know my office is here to create some partnership – so if they come across any student that is not a US citizen, they can refer them to me,” said Dàvila.  

She has noticed more DACA students reaching out to her office and asking if they can travel abroad. Dàvila is also alarmed by the denial of DACA renewals.

“What I’ve seen more of is an increase in DACA renewals being denied. They’re being more of a stickler in what are the grounds for denial,” she said. “In one situation we had so much proof that the student was still eligible but US immigration services denied their request.”  

Dàvila said that immigration court gives anyone that is denied an application a notice to appear, which places them in removal proceedings. This new policy forces individuals to fight their case in immigration court. She believes this puts students at risk of deportation.

“You will forever be separated from your community if you’re deported. For so many it’s like the ultimate punishment because they can never come back to their community, let alone finish their education,” she said.

Dàvila is now highly encouraging students to apply for their green cards instead of renewing their DACA applications. Although the student must ask their parents to petition for them and pay an application fee of around $1,225 – the lengthy process appears to be more reliable than  DACA renewals. DACA renewals can cost up to $500.

CUNY’s John Jay College recently opened up their own Immigrant Student Success Center in October. It’s the only CUNY college to house a center dedicated to helping DACA, TPS, and immigrant students.

“It’s one of a kind. It was created so students wouldn’t fall through the cracks,” said Cynthia Carvajal, Immigrant Student Success Manager at John Jay College. “Students are coming in and asking more questions because the center exists.”

Carvajal hasn’t seen an increase in DACA renewals being denied but she has seen more complications and errors with the applications.

“I’ve seen them asking students for a piece of information then saying they don’t need it,” she said.

Carvajal believes that immigrant students are dealing with a lot of mental trauma.

“Every student I meet with, the conversation is almost always about stress and them crying. They’re scared of ICE targeting their communities or they’re guilty that they have DACA and a sibling doesn’t and on top of that their grades,” she said.

Growing up, Carvajal was undocumented and can relate to the students she helps today. She believes President Trump has spewed anti-immigrant and anti-black body rhetoric. Although it’s painful for her to see, she wants to focus on the positive.

“But there’s still places of empowerment – that students have cultivated for themselves through groups and to me it’s rejuvenating,” she said.

Arturo Lopez Rosas, 25, was approved for DACA when it was first introduced under the Obama administration. He lived in California at the time.

“It was really exciting for me. I felt like my life had been turned around right before starting college. I remember crying and getting really excited of the possibility of a pathway,” said Rosas.

He found the application process to be straightforward and applied on his own. It took him around four weeks to get a response.

Rosas became fearful of deportation when President Trump got elected in 2016 and made the decision to leave America. He booked a one way flight to Iceland and began to travel.

“It really freaked me out that, that was something I could go through. I didn’t want the PTSD of someone throwing me out,” he said.

Rosas said that traveling allowed him to stay away from the cultural insensitivity that he believes was ignited under the Trump administration. He also didn’t want to pay $500 to renew DACA.

Rosas now lives in Mexico and decided to return to rediscover his heritage. He wishes that there was an easier pathway to citizenship and fears that he won’t be able to return to America if something happens to his parents.

“I wanted a choice to create my own reality instead of going to work one day and having ICE officials in full police outfit trying to take me away,” he said.

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Monica Sibri is a Dreamer who isn’t protected by DACA. Not because she didn’t apply or because she was “lazy,” as members of the current administration have stated, but because she came to the U.S. from Ecuador three months after her 16th birthday, making her ineligible for the program.

The term “Dreamer” originally came from the DREAM Act, which was a legislation proposed by representatives of both parties. In 2012, Barack Obama’s enactment of DACA was a compromise based on the proposals of the act and they, too, called themselves “Dreamers.” Young people like Sibri, although not protected by DACA, have used the word as a way to empower themselves.

“The way someone reacts to you when you say you’re a ‘Dreamer’ than when you’re undocumented is completely different,” Sibri, 25, said.”By saying that you’re undocumented, it assumes that you’re not in school or you’re this person who’s working in cleaning or you likely crossed the border, but when you say you’re a ‘Dreamer,’ people assume differently.”

According to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that studies global immigration patterns, an estimated 3.6 million people were brought to the U.S. before their 18th birthdays, making the focus on the almost 800,000 DACA recipients seem like an overlook of the larger issue of child immigration.

Sibri’s father decided to uproot their family when Ecuador’s currency changed in 2000 from the Ecuadorian Sucre to the U.S. Dollar, and he lost his managerial position at a candle company.

Her parents came to the U.S. to establish a life in Staten Island, separating the family for five years.
“I became an adult really young,” Sibri said. “I had to take care of my two younger sisters.”

When she learned she was undocumented and about the negativity surrounding it, she started calling herself a “Dreamer.” Sibri said that this helped her to confidently pursue higher education at the College of Staten Island where she graduated last year with a degree in American politics, policy and advocacy.

Since the law does not require one to disclose their immigration status, especially in educational facilities, Sibri maintained this persona, but never received any actual funds or special resources because of it. She explained that it created a shield against the stereotypes placed on undocumented individuals.

“My passion for creating a network of support begun with talking about the barriers I experienced myself. In college, I was often questioned about my immigration status and when letting them know that I was undocumented I got concerned looks, followed by a list of questions as to how I was in school,” Sibri said. “When talking about this, I learned through speaking to the network that this was happening in all spaces, from the school’s scholarship to the academic department, from the registration office to the office of financial aid, from the classroom to the soccer field.”

Sibri’s solution to this was to create the City University of New York  Dreamers, an organization for those with protected and unprotected status in the college system. Today, she serves on the advisory board for the program and has gone on to help initiate a larger group for “Dreamers” after she graduated from college and realized the same resources weren’t set up to foster undocumented individuals after graduation.

“DACA recipients often assume that I am a DACA recipient because of my work, and often when they learned of my status, they share tears with me,” Sibri said. “We just cry together.”

She said that she knows other undocumented students who have adopted the identity “dreamer” or assumed the societal benefits of a DACA recipient, but that it becomes much more complex upon graduating from higher education.

“(Post-grad), undocumented students begin to realize there are some things they have to navigate around and that there are potential barriers to achieving their dreams,” said Cristina Velez, staff attorney for the Immigration Defense Fund at New York University.

Sibri has been pushing against that narrative through her work at a nonprofit called Ignite, which aims to empower college-aged women to become active in their community and eventually run for office.

“I thought to myself, I’m undocumented, I might be in the process of getting deported. What do I do in the meantime?” Sibri said. “Democrats and Republicans in office are not representing me so I have to train the next generation to represent their communities like they’re supposed to.”

Now, Sibri and the more than 11 million undocumented individuals in the U.S. have nothing to do but wait — wait to see if a clean DREAM Act is passed or if they have to bargain a possible road to citizenship and protected status with Republican efforts to get a border wall and an end to “chain migration.”

“I think there is a glimmer of hope right now that if DREAM Act does pass then some (undocumented individuals) would finally have some opportunity to work in the United States and to have status,” Velez said. “For them, probably seeing the benefits of DACA for their peers must be very destructive and difficult at times. And I’m sure it would be even more of a blow if the DREAM Act did not come to pass.”

For Sibri, it will be more than a blow. She is part of what she calls a “mixed-status” family; her younger brother is a U.S. citizen while the rest of her family is undocumented. As the March 5 deadline approaches for congressional agreement on the future of “Dreamers” and consequently undocumented individuals alike, Sibri and her family are at peril of being separated once again. Deportation has become more of a reality for undocumented individuals than ever before. Sibri, said she constantly lives in fear of deportation and options may be running out.

“As much as I would love to continue fighting, my timeline in New York is dependent on us getting some sort of legislation in the next five years. If not, I will have to self-deport,” Sibri said, referring to undocumented individuals leaving a country where they could face deportation before ICE reaches them. “What else can I do? We are living day by day without being able to look ahead.”

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Ricardo Aca swayed nervously behind a cluster of microphones before he disclosed to the group of protesters, counter-protesters and press that he was a DREAMer, a status that he could lose in 10 months if congressional action isn’t taken. Aca was speaking at a rally in downtown New York City today in support of a clean DREAM Act, as the third and ultimately final day of the government shutdown began.  

Six years ago, Aca was an undocumented immigrant working as a busboy at the Trump SoHo Hotel. Today, he has legal status and an associates degree in commercial photography. He is working towards a bachelors in international affairs at Baruch College. But with less than a year of certainty left and with Congress using DACA recipients as a leverage between party lines, Aca has decided to use his voice as his defense.

“We are here today because we condemn Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders who have forced a government shutdown by insisting on Trump’s racist border wall and other anti-immigration policies,” Aca said.

Approximately nine hours after the rally, President Trump signed a bill that would reopen the government, funding it for the next three weeks and simultaneously putting a delay on legislative action for the DREAMers. This uncertainty has created a limbo for most recipients of the program and also puts those who are close to their renewal period ending at risk for deportation, which is why many of them have laid low in recent months. But not Aca, who interns at Make the Road New York, a public advocacy group for immigrant communities.  

“Because if I don’t fight for myself then nobody is going to do it for me. I need to fight not only for myself but also for my parents who have fought for me my entire life,” Aca said. “They deserve dignity and justice and so do those 11 million undocumented immigrants, and if I don’t do that nobody else is going to do it for me.”

Aca is one of the nearly 800,000 recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that was devised by the Obama administration in 2012 to allow for undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to defer deportation.

Under the current administration, the program has been used as leverage against the Democrats in exchange for reinforcing stricter immigration laws, ultimately leading to the government shutting down on Jan. 19.

“This is where I consider my home. I pay taxes over here,” Aca said. “This is where I go to school. This is where my family and my friends are and so for congress not to be able to come up with a fix that is more permanent is very upsetting.”

The 27-year-old came to the U.S. from Puebla, Mexico, when he was 14 years old. Aca’s mom had pursued legal routes to come to the country but when those failed she found a job as a seamstress in a factory in New York and later arranged for Aca and his younger sister to cross the border through Arizona.

“(Congress) doesn’t care about people of color or immigrants who come to this country to work hard,” said LaShonda Lawson, a speaker at the rally who works as a security guard at the Statue of Liberty. “America should stand for freedom and inclusiveness. That is what I think about every day when I go to work. I see hundreds of people come to the Statue of Liberty because she is a symbol of freedom.”

Most DACA recipients file for their renewal every two years in pursuit of that freedom. And at Monday’s rally, Aca shared what he and his fellow DREAMers have been doing since President Trump rescinded the program in September 2017.

“Instead of enjoying my life I have been constantly in the streets having to have my voice be heard because I know I deserve to be here,” Aca said. “This (amendment in the Senate) is only a temporary fix on a larger issue.”

Currently, the state of New York contains the third largest population of DREAMers, which has created a need for public officials and advocates to hold rallies, hearings and conferences in light of the recent attacks to the program. One of those officials leading the fight for young people like Aca is Carlos Menchaca, who serves as the city’s Chair of the Committee on Immigration.

“We are in front of Federal Plaza in New York City where New Yorkers from every corner of this city, like Ricardo, are saying one thing clearly: we want a DREAM Act now,” Menchaca said.

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Dozens of rabbis gathered outside the Trump Tower in Midtown this morning and held up signs that read “My father was a Syrian refugee” and “Resisting tyrants since Pharaoh” in response to the administration’s immigration policies including the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Rabbi Mira Rivera stood firm in the middle of the crowd while projecting her voice through a loudspeaker. Her words canceled out the morning traffic on Fifth Avenue.

“We stand with all immigrants, we stand with the displaced, we stand with our fathers, mothers and grandparents,” Rivera said. “I am a child, a product of a green card marriage, of two people who came to the United States looking for a new life.”

Rivera’s parents immigrated from the Philippines, where she also grew up. She thanked them for all the opportunities she had in her life including her college degree.

“They gave me the ability to study,” she said. “They gave me the chance to know and to never take for granted that I as a person of color have to work harder, longer and stand when everyone else has gone to bed.”

Rivera said immigrants refugees are suffering because of government initiatives.

“DACA was in place and that’s a portion of the 11 million undocumented,” she said. “This city alone cannot stand without the work of their parents and them themselves. That would be completely impossible from the babysitters, to the people that clean and maintain, the people that are in our offices.”

Rabbi Jose Rolando Matalon, a native of Argentina, spoke to the crowd about his family background.

Rabbi Jose Rolando Matalon, a native of Argentina, held up a loudspeaker outside of the Trump Tower this morning to protest the government’s immigration policies. Photo by Monay Robinson

“I am an immigrant from Argentina,” Matalon said. “My grandparents came from Syria with nothing to Argentina and they were given a safe place to grow and to prosper. I would like our country to give the same opportunities to anyone who wants to come.”

Matalon said the administration is disregarding the needs of immigrants and refugees who are searching for prosperity and safety. He has seen a regression in America’s tradition of welcoming and embracing everyone.

“Conditions are getting very difficult for immigrants who live here,” he said. “I believe that this is done to preserve some sort of whiteness in America which has nothing to do with the essence of this country.”

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, 41, is the Executive Director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights based in Manhattan, which hosted the protest.

T’ruah has about 2,000 rabbi members across North America who work to advance human rights.

The protest took place during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which symbolizes vulnerability.

“The holiday of Sukkot is a holiday in which we put up these fragile structures and effectively live in them for the course of the week,” Jacobs said. “It’s a reminder that no matter how many walls or barriers we might build that’s not what actually keeps us safe.”

During the protest, rabbis built a pop-up sukkah, which was placed in the middle of the crowd and carried along Fifth Avenue as protesters marched. The sukkah was a green and white temporary structure which read “Welcome” above the entrance.

“The sukkah is open,” she said. “It’s a place that we welcome people and those themes are diametrically opposed to the current administration’s policy on immigrants which is to close the borders of America.”

Jacobs’ family came to the United States at the beginning of the 20^th century from Poland and Ukraine.

“We were able to come because the borders were open at that point,” she said. “In 1924 they closed to Jews and therefore people who were trying to flee Nazi Germany were not able to come. We understand whether the borders were open or closed is a life or death proposition.”

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A panel of Latino leaders met yesterday at New York University’s Law School to discuss their governance in the age of Trump after the president announced the rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) bill on Sept. 5.

Withdrawal from this policy would put almost 800,000 undocumented young adults at risk of deportation, one of them being Peter Hernandez, who feels like the Latino community hasn’t done enough for him and the hundreds of thousands of DREAMers alike.

“I wish they could convince and advocate more for us and talk more to the Republican senators – tell and share our stories with them so they can know what kind of people we are,” Hernandez said. “We are not bad people and we’re just here so we can make a life for ourselves and we’re doing everything right.”

The bill, which was enacted in 2012 by an executive order during President Obama’s last term, is an immigration policy that allows minors like Hernandez, who initially entered the U.S. illegally, an opportunity to receive legal delayed action from deportation as well as eligibility for a work permit for a period of two years, with option for renewal.

The Oaxaca native moved to Texas with his mother, father and sister at the age of seven. His father began working as a landscaper and his mother sold items at the local flea market. Hernandez applied for the DACA program after he graduated from college, the year it went into law.

“The things I think students are most concerned about (in Latino representation) is that some of the folks who are in charge are the same ones that were in charge when I was college and at some point the different civil rights communities need to make space for other (racial communities),” said Myrna Perez, a member of the panel, hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice and an adjunct faculty at both Columbia and NYU law schools. “People are upset that there is not room for them to grow, not that there isn’t space.”

Perez, along with her colleagues, believe that the journey to representation in the Latino community is going to be an incremental one but that even the small victories should be feted.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law hosted a panel with (left) NALEO Educational Fund Northeast Director Roberto Frugone, former Hispanic National Bar Association President Robert Maldonado, New York City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law Voting Rights and Elections Project Director Myrna Perez, National Institute for Latino Policy President Angelo Falcon. Photo by Farnoush Amiri

One of the people actively leading the charge for undocumented students like Hernandez is 21-year-old Jessica Calderon. The NYU student has been at the forefront of the fight for immigration advocacy, and now DACA.

As a first generation Peruvian-American, Calderon felt the need to fill a void in her community. The politics and Latin American studies major has worked for a slew of nonprofits here in New York City and at NYU Washington D.C. as a part of her study abroad program.

“Working with these DACA applicants last summer sort of changed my life, and after that, I knew I wanted to go into a profession where I can serve the immigrant community,” Calderon said after her months spent filling applications for roughly 20 DACA recipients.

For Calderon, it’s not the number of Latino leaders in power that is the issue in their community, but the ideology and policies that they set forth.

“A lot of times, the people that are representing us, the Latino ‘elites,’ are not representative of our entire community, the most vulnerable of our community,” Calderon said. “For example, a Marco Rubio is not representing a low-income, undocumented worker’s needs. It’s crazy that we believe we won the battle once we get (Latino members) into congress, but really we need to get (our community) to vote on the ideas towards progressive change.”

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