BREAKING: We just filed our lawsuit against the Trump admin on #DACA

National Immigration Law Center
@NILC
BREAKING: We just filed our lawsuit against the Trump admin on #DACA with
@MakeTheRoadNY
,
@WIRACYls
, our brave plaintiffs, and four new immigrant youth plaintiffs. The complaint challenges the legality of the Chad Wolf memo from July 28th. THREAD Down pointing backhand index 1/

@NILC

@MaketheRoadNY
and
@WiracYls
.
@DHSgov
’s memo drastically altered #DACA by rejecting all first-time applications, limiting the availability of advanced parole, and shortening the length of DACA renewal grants from two years to one year (essentially DOUBLING the cost of renewals). 2/

Our complaint argues that the Trump admin’s latest attempt to dismantle #DACA side-stepped proper procedures, stripping DACA applicants & eligible immigrant youth of due process. It also argues that
@DHS_Wolf
is serving unlawfully and does not have authority to alter DACA. 3/

https://twitter.com/NILC/status/1299...114919937?s=20



A group of young undocumented immigrants asked a federal court in New York on Friday to block the Trump administration's efforts to scale back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after the Supreme Court ruled its attempt to end the Obama-era policy was unlawful.

Following the high court ruling, the administration closed DACA to first-time applicants and limited the protections from deportation afforded to more than 640,000 current beneficiaries. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn is the first legal challenge against changes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made to DACA in July.

The group's complaint amends one of the main court cases that initially challenged the 2017 effort to end DACA. It argues that Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf's memo on DACA and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance that ratified it are "arbitrary and capricious" and violate federal administrative law governing policy changes by the executive branch.

The immigrants' complaint was filed by the National Immigrant Law Center, Make the Road New York and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School.

Legal experts said the high court's decision, as well as subsequent lower court orders, would require DHS to fully restore DACA, including by opening it to initial applicants for the first time since September 2017. But for more than a month after the Supreme Court order, the administration did not make any announcements on how it would comply.

On July 28, 41 days after the Supreme Court ruling, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced he was rescinding two memos signed by his predecessors, Kirstjen Nielsen and Elaine Duke, that called for DACA's termination. But Wolf then issued his memo making it clear that DACA would remain closed to new applicants indefinitely and that those enrolled in the program would only be able to apply for one-year protections from deportation and work permits — instead of the two-year period that has been in place since 2012.

The memo also raised the threshold for DACA recipients to qualify for "advance parole," which generally allows them to temporarily leave the U.S. and return, saying the relief would only be granted "for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit."

Wolf's changes and the USCIS guidance, publicly disclosed earlier this week, disappointed tens of thousands of potential applicants who qualify for DACA on paper, including an estimated 66,000 immigrant teens 15 years of age or older, who have become eligible for the program since 2017.

Ximena Zamaro, a college-bound 18-year-old in Queens, is one of them. The undocumented teenager had gathered all her documents to apply for DACA in the wake of the Supreme Court's order. It was a familiar scenario. In 2017, after she turned 15, the minimum age requirement for DACA, Zamaro also prepared an application. But as she was set to submit it, the Trump administration announced DACA would wind down.

In July, after the Wolf memo was issued, Zamaro grew frustrated. "I was more angry and upset this time just because it had already happened when I was 15," she told CBS News. "Although it did affect me at that time, it was still something I could go around ... because I was so young. But when it happened when I was 18, it was very frustrating."

Like her older sister, a DACA recipient, Zamora meets all the requirements of the Obama-era policy. She arrived in the U.S. in 2005 as a two-year-old child. She does not have legal status. She attended and graduated from a U.S. high school, and she has no criminal charges or convictions. But because she has never had DACA status before, her application would be rejected under the new guidelines.

Zamora, one of the new plaintiffs in Friday's amended lawsuit, said DACA would allow her to get a job and help with her family's finances. It would also give her peace of mind. "It would bring some sense of comfort, because when I'm traveling I won't have to be uneasy about being stopped," she said. "It would feel good to know that you are not being targeted or at risk of being deported."

In his July memo, Wolf said closing DACA to new applicants like Zamora was justified because they lacked the "reliance interests" of current beneficiaries. He acknowledged letters from organizations, schools and local governments that described how immigrants enrolled in DACA have "structured their lives" around the program, contributed to the U.S. economy, assisted efforts to fight the coronavirus and used their protections from deportation to help their families, communities and employers. But Wolf said this was not the case for immigrants without DACA.

"Whatever the merits of these asserted reliance interests on the maintenance of the DACA policy, they are significantly lessened, if not entirely lacking, with regard to aliens who have never before received deferred action pursuant to the policy," he wrote.

Zamora disagrees. "A lot of the youth came here at a young age. The United States is what they call home, its where they grew up, its where they learned everything," she said. "Taking that away from them, it kind of steals their identity."

The groups also argued that Wolf did not have the authority to issue the memo because he was unlawfully occupying his office under the requirements of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Earlier in the month, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, found that Wolf and his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, had been invalidly appointed to their current roles at the helm of DHS — a finding that was strongly rejected by the Trump administration.

The lawsuit on Friday is the second in two weeks in which groups have asked federal courts to declare Wolf's appointment unlawful and to void the policies he has authorized. On Thursday, President Trump formally nominated Wolf to be the permanent DHS secretary.

"This Wolf memo is just the latest assault on DACA, and it is no less unlawful than the first attempt," said Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/young-i...-daca-program/

Funny it seems no one gives a crap any more.

Let’s just say it won’t matter if the Emperor stays in office. The people are numb to such things now, Trump has made it that way.

Biden/Harris 2021
Tell your family to register and to vote.

Pretty much. When I saw this I was like meh. We are DACA forever.

DAKANDA Forever!!!!

Indeed. I think at this point, two outcomes are possible. If Trump wins, there's a possibility of SEVERE changes, most likely a complete overhaul to the system with serious new merit based things as well as extraordinary give backs including strong border security in exchange of legalization (Dreamers will be first line).

Second possible outcome is if Biden wins, it is going to be DACA set in stone forever, back to how it was under Obama...2 years...full AP etc.

I can assure you that most that can happen under Trump will be his 4 pillars + maybe bridge act.

You kinda have to remember that when you say "Merit based immigration" and when Trump says it you mean two completely different things. When we say it we mean a Canada-like system, speak English, got relatives here or at least a friend you can crash with before you get your own place, awesome have 20 extra points.

What they probably mean by it will be that unless you're a rocket scientist and we've got another operation paperclip going on you're probably won't get a visa.

Yes indeed, severe severe overhaul will be in store, but chances of some sort of BILL passing are going to be very high (for sure it will include some sort of provision for Dreamers), but like you said it will include a lot of conservative things like the pillars. One thing about Trump is, he is freaking doing exactly what he’s saying, not that I agree with all of it (there are certainly some good things I like), and this is why the same supporters who won it for him are still with him as strong as ever.

In the case of Biden win, I do not see even 5% chance of any bill, I don’t care what’s in it, any sort of bill passing but one thing is for sure, DACA will become immortal and quite possibly the safest thing on this planet. I do think Democrats do want to pass something. However, I just don’t see anything passing unless they’ve got solid 65 or so yes votes in the Senate as well as House majority plus I think most immigrant organizations want DACA to be in place.

Please listen to what I am saying..when USCIS was not even accepting DACA renewal applications due to it being rescinded, and prior to intervention from courts, I saw sponsored posts from UWD on Facebook asking for donations to “pay for DACA renewals”. When you clicked on the link, it would direct you to “Act Blue”. There’s literally no way to contact UWD to ask for help to pay for renewals but you’ll find plenty of links to donate. I assure you all you’re paying for is their salaries, some of whom make over $100K easy, and for them to attend “conferences” and “seminars.”

Would depend on whether Democrats give in. You have to remember that Trump could not strong arm the Democrats into anything, even with a 30 day shutdown.

I am.hoping Biden and Harris win and get it done. The debates will make or break Biden.