Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Texas ruled that the Biden administration’s new rule codifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is not lawful, bringing DACA a step closer to its potential end.
The decision is likely to be appealed but faces tough odds in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which found the original DACA program to have been unlawful in an earlier decision.
Congress must get off the sidelines. A permanent legislative solution would provide certainty not only to DACA recipients but also to their families, employers, communities and schools. Without it, they will continue to live in a state of limbo.
Nearly 600,000 DACA recipients are studying or working in the U.S., including in industries such as health care and education in which worker shortages are an ongoing and serious challenge.
About 80% of Republican voters want Republicans and Democrats to work together on solutions for people already here and contributing, such as Dreamers, as part of targeted border and immigration reforms. With such broad support, Congress should come to the table now.
Without action from Congress, DACA recipients, their employers, and their communities face an ever more tenuous future. Families and neighbors face the very real possibility that their loved ones will be forced to retreat into the shadows or return to countries they have never called home.
Jennie Murray
President & CEO
National Immigration Forum
| 
