Tag: Dreamers

Divided Supreme Court leans toward allowing Trump to end DACA

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Tuesday was sharply divided over President Trump‘s move to end Obama-era protections for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children, as the justices heard oral arguments in one of the most closely watched cases of the term.

Members of the court’s conservative wing appeared wary of allowing the court to review the administration’s decision to begin phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants deferral from deportation to nearly 700,000 young adult immigrants without legal status.

And questions from conservative justices during oral arguments suggested they appeared to think the administration had supplied legally sound reasons for eliminating DACA.

View the complete November 12 article by John Kruzel on The Hill website here.

How the Trump Administration Eroded Its Own Legal Case on DACA

New York Times logoWhen the Supreme Court hears arguments on Tuesday, the administration’s attempts to end the program protecting “Dreamers” could rest on a top aide’s actions in 2017.

WASHINGTON — When Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared before news cameras at the Justice Department in early September 2017 to announce that President Trump was ending deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants, he knew the administration had left itself more legally vulnerable than it should have.

At a contentious meeting in the White House Roosevelt Room several days earlier, Elaine C. Duke, then the acting secretary of homeland security, had broken with the rest of Mr. Trump’s team and balked at its demand that she issue a memo ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program known as DACA that shields immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Continue reading “How the Trump Administration Eroded Its Own Legal Case on DACA”

Trump DACA fight hits Supreme Court

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments over President Trump‘s move to end Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, in one of the most closely watched cases of its term.

The controversy over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is at the center of a two-year, contentious political fight between Democrats and Trump over immigration. And it presents high stakes for both parties and the court as the justices again review a controversial Trump policy.

A ruling could change the deportation status of nearly 700,000 people and is expected to come next summer, just months before the 2020 election.

View the complete November 11 article by John Kruzel and Rafael Bernal on The Hill website here.

Supreme Court stokes DACA fight for 2020

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court’s decision to hear cases on whether President Trumplawfully ended Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants is teeing up the program as a key issue for Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.

Friday’s order was a win for the Trump administration after a pair of federal appeals courts ruled that officials’ move to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful and allowed the protections for “Dreamers” to stay in place.

And the order ensures that the protections for Dreamers, or undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, will remain in place as the Supreme Court considers the cases.

View the complete June 29 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Supreme Court rejects Trump request to fast track decision on DACA case

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to fast track a decision on whether it will hear a case over the president’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The justices, in an unsigned order, denied the request, which was filed on behalf of the administration last month to expedite a decision on whether to review the case.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who represents the administration in cases before the Supreme Court, had urged the justices to announce their decision on whether they will hear the case by the end of their term later this month.

View the complete June 3 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Sarah Sanders forced to admit total hypocrisy on protecting Dreamers

The White House press secretary complained simultaneously that House Democrats has not acted to help undocumented kids.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed on Thursday that House Democrats have done nothing to help Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children — while simultaneously admitting that President Donald Trump’s own immigration plan offered them zero protections.

In a rare CNN appearance, Sanders echoed Trump’s claim a day earlier that it would be impossible for Congress to both pass legislation on the issue and carry out their constitutionally required oversight role — investigating potential wrongdoing by the president — at the same time.

“Democrats have been unwilling to work with him,” Sanders claimed. “We’ve laid out a number of plans. You say that the Democrats want to fix the thing with Dreamers. They’ve done nothing. They’ve literally done nothing.”

View the complete May 23 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Appeals court rules Trump end of DACA was unlawful

A split federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful because “it was not adequately explained.”

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia found that the administration’s termination of the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” in line with a prior ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The bulk of the ruling rests on how the administration laid out its decision to rescind the DACA program.

View the complete May 17 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Democrats introduce latest version of DREAM Act, offering protection to more young immigrants

The Dream and Promise Act will for the first time include protections for TPS and DED holders.

Eighteen years after the original Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, was introduced, House Democrats formally unveiled their new-and-improved version Tuesday.

While previous iterations of the bill focused narrowly on providing a path to citizenship only for undocumented youth brought to the United States as children, the new version does this in addition to expanding it to include immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). With the inclusion of TPS and DED recipients, the DREAM Act has rebranded to the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, to reflect the government’s longtime goal to make good on its promise of providing permanent solutions to legal immigrants who have been living at the whims of the federal government for decades. Continue reading “Democrats introduce latest version of DREAM Act, offering protection to more young immigrants”

‘That was not the deal’: McCarthy, Ryan renege on immigration vow

the following article by Rachael Bade was posted on the Politico website July 24, 2018:

The California Republican aiming to be speaker backs away from a promised vote on a guest worker program.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been asking members to support him for speaker next year, when Paul Ryan is set to retire. But the standoff on a vote McCarthy promised could alienate some would-be allies. Credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images

House GOP leaders are reneging on a vow to hold an immigration vote before the August recess, a move that puts House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a particularly awkward spot as he seeks to become the next speaker.

In June, McCarthy (R-Calif.) personally promised several rank-and-file members a vote on a new guest-worker program for farmers, an offer backed by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The assurance was critical at the time: It persuaded Reps. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) not to sign on to an effort — which Republican leaders were desperately trying to stop — to force a vote on legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, the immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The so-called discharge petition ultimately fell two signatures short.

But now, Republican leaders have no plans to take up the guest-worker program before the summer break, according to four sources in leadership. Ryan does not want to hold a vote that’s certain to fail, they said — though proponents of the guest-worker bill said McCarthy’s original promise to hold a vote was unconditional.

View the complete article here.

Don’t blame this on the Democrats

To the Editor:

Congressman Erik Paulsen says that to get something done for DACA recipients, we can’t “let an activist base that hates the president stand in the way.”

Really? Does the Congressman need to be reminded that President Donald Trump is the one who ended DACA? Or that the Republican Party has been holding DREAMers hostage to achieve their policy goals?

If Erik Paulsen truly cared about giving DREAMers a path to citizenship, he would have insisted on a solution long ago, one independent of any other legislation. Instead he caters to the extremes of his party, only acting on DACA in conjunction with new, far-right border security policies.

Don’t blame this on the Democrats, Erik. It’s your party and your president that created this crisis

Sarah Eigenmann, Plymouth
Plymouth Sun-Sailor, July 10, 2018