A plea to the Supreme Court for DACA, and for immigrants, from Lexington’s bishop
This Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the legality of the Trump Administration’s ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program established by the Obama Administration in 2012. The Supreme Court should consider carefully the impacts a decision will have on the more than 700,000 DACA recipients and their family members. Seven years after the program was instituted, almost 20 percent of the DACA recipients are now in their thirties and in many cases have children and families of their own. It is estimated that there are over 250,000 children who have a parent who has DACA. In addition to being students, they are graduates, members of the work force and the armed forces. They are Americans who are paying into the system, paying taxes and contributing to the common good of the nation.
DACA was originally instituted because of the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Because the immigration system is broken and doesn’t allow for the legal entry of enough immigrants to meet employment needs, many immigrants overstay their visas or entry the country without documentation. The decades-long failure of the US government to fix immigration policy so that those who have a need to work can enter the country legally to do so, can be reunited with family members in the country, and to meet current labor needs led to the Obama administration’s DACA program. DACA specified certain qualifications for a program that employs deferred action in the enforcement of immigration law. Prosecutorial discretion regarding immigration matters has been used by several Presidential Administrations prior to Obama. It is important to understand that DACA is not a legal status nor does it offer citizenship. It is merely a reprieve from deportation and family separation that offers the opportunity to work and go to school legally in our country.
DACA recipients have to be either students, or have a high school diploma, or be in the armed services and they must have no criminal record. The status must be renewed every two years, but it allows the recipients to work, to apply for loans and to qualify for financial aid for higher education. The target population, as the name implies, are those who arrived in the country unlawfully as minors. DACA recipients consider the US their native country because in many cases, it is the only country they have known and they have gone to school here.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments concerning whether the program was ended lawfully under the Administrative Procedures Act. I hope that Supreme Court allows this program to continue and removes the conditions of constant fear and uncertainty that affect these young and productive members of our society. DACA recipients have already made significant contributions to our nation and should be protected and ultimately provided with a path to permanent residency and citizenship.
We have heard too much baseless rhetoric and witnessed too much vitriol directed towards the immigrant community. The Judeo-Christian scriptures consider the immigrant to have special rights and to call forth a special concern from the larger community. While we wait to learn the fate of the DACA program, and more importantly the fate of approximately 700,000 young people and their families, it is a sobering reminder that it is well past time that we get serious about comprehensive immigration reform.
The Rev. John Stowe is the bishop of the Diocese of Lexington.
