Where things stand for DACA: SCOTUS delays decision

It’s been more than a year since former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was being shut down.

But DACA’s death has been a slow one.

The program created during President Barack Obama’s presidency that shields some 700,000 Dreamers from deportation and grants them renewable two-year work permits has been saved by several federal court decisions in 2018, including one decision coming in the south Texas courtroom of a judge known for being tough on immigration cases.

Still, the debate about whether to permanently extend protections for DACA beneficiaries -- as well as President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding -- contributed to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

So where do things stand now for DACA and its beneficiaries?

Supreme Court opts not to act on DACA, delays possibly until fall

The Supreme Court possibly extended DACA’s lifespan until fall 2019 or even summer 2020 last month when it opted not to act on the Trump Administration’s request that the high court fast track a decision on the California case that halted the administration’s move to close DACA.

Adam Liptak of The New York Times reported last month that the court’s inaction possibly means that even if the justices decide to take up the case in the coming weeks, arguments wouldn’t be heard possibly until after the fall term starts in October.

A decision likely wouldn’t come until 2020, meaning that DACA renewals could continue being issued well into the final year of Trump’s term in office.

Chad Ruback, a Dallas-based appellate court attorney, said such a timeline is possible.

“In theory, the Supreme Court could hear the case in its current term, which will end early this summer. But, due to the Court’s busy calendar between now and then, I would be surprised if the case were heard before the next term begins in October,” Ruback said.

New generation of DACA-less Dreamers heading for legal limbo

Even with DACA renewals possibly stretching into 2020, that likely doesn’t help Dreamers like Maria Lopez, a 17-year-old Dallas ISD student, who missed the window to request DACA before September 2017, when Sessions announced the Trump Administration's move to end the program.

Lopez is among possibly more than 250,000 DACA-eligible Dreamers whose only hope at a chance to work legally in the U.S. is a legislative solution or that immigration authorities somehow resume accepting initial requests for DACA.

When a federal judge in California halted Trump's move to end DACA in January 2018, that order didn't require the federal government to accept initial requests for DACA. Since then, only Dreamers who had already been approved for DACA have been able to apply for renewals.

DACA possibly out of border security funding negotiations in D.C.

The Star-Telegram reported Wednesday that two members of the Senate and House group currently negotiating border security funding, House Rep. Henry Cuellar D-Texas and Senator Richard Shelby R-Alabama, both indicated that DACA was not among the issues the joint group is discussing.

“If you look at the makeup of the conference committee, we’re all appropriators, there’s nobody from Judiciary Committee,” Cuellar said to the Star-Telegram. “It’s just numbers, where do we put the money.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immi...elays-decision

sucks that its been this long that younger dreamers are becoming of legal age and can't apply for DACA.

I dislike your new avatar. Plz change, bro. Rather see the right swinging blonde.

I thought the old one was Britney Spears... No?

i can't.... i have AOC fever right now.

Let's not forget that it has been sucking even more for the aged out Dreamers...

Idk what it is about AOC I just cant like her I feel she is too far left

she is too far left but she's just to cool, mayne but we need representatives like her in our age group. don't care if they are conservative or liberal.

baby boomers in office need to die out or retire, they the reason our society is not progressing.

thats why i cant really get behind Biden as President in 2020 yet, it's gotta be Beto, Tulsi, or Kamala..

That only confirms how fortunate we DACAers are. Count your blessings!

Cannot be emphasized enough.

u got that right, lil tay.