Last Weekend’s DACA Win & New Housing Resources

Dear Allies,

This week, we are so excited to share some uplifting news on DACA that broke over the weekend. We are also sharing two new resources developed by our partners in our State Policy subcommittee that help both advocates and immigration attorneys navigate housing programs and public charge. 

On November 14, a  U.S. district court found that Chad Wolf, who claimed to be the acting secretary of Homeland Security, did not have the legal authority to serve as the acting secretary of Homeland Security when he issued his July 2020 memorandum whose provisions limit the availability of DACA, and therefore that his memo was issued unlawfully. As a result of the Batalla Vidal v. Wolf decision, the Department of Homeland Security should return the DACA program to its initial form — reopening DACA to first-time applicants, restoring work authorization and renewals to two years, and making travel on advance parole available to DACA recipients without restrictions!

We are so grateful to all of the plaintiffs — Martín Batalla Vidal, Antonio Alarcón, Eliana Fernandez, Carolina Fung Feng, Carlos Vargas, Johana Larios, Ximena Zamora, Sonia Molina, M.B.F., and Make the Road New York — and their legal representatives Make the Road New York, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, a part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School. Congratulations to everyone who has been fighting for DACA!

You can read more about the Batalla Vidal v. Wolf decision in NILC’s press release here.

We are excited to share two new tools that cover housing and the public charge test. One tool is for housing advocates, which covers basic information about public charge and housing programs. The second is a more technical toolkit for immigration attorneys to counsel their clients who are concerned about whether their participation in affordable housing programs could negatively impact their applications for permanent residency. 

The tools were developed as part of PIF's state policy subcommittee. Thank you to our partners at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law for helping to create the tools and to the National Housing Law Program and the National Low Income Housing Coalition for all their input in the development of these resources. You can access these tools plus other resources on our specialized resources page.

• Washington Post – Anti-hunger advocates urge President-elect Biden to reverse public charge.

• Huffington Post – Human services reporter Art Delaney on how Biden can repair the damage Trump’s done to the safety net, including by reversing public charge.

• Gotham Gazette – New York advocates, including PIF partner NYIC, launch a campaign to hold Biden accountable for keeping campaign promises to immigrant families, including reversing public charge.

In Solidarity,

Eddie Carmona & Renato Rocha, on behalf of the PIF Team

Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/