by Araceli Martínez
Estefany Méndez, a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), has a headache just thinking that the US Supreme Court decides to support the Trump administration in its decision to end this program that has helped hundreds of thousands of young people obtain a work permit and stop their deportation.
“If they don’t reach an agreement, I run out of work,” says Estefany, who is an editor for the local news on KPIX, Channel 5 in San Francisco.
Last year, Estefany lived in her own flesh what it means to be out of work overnight when the renewal of her work permit by DACA did not arrive on time and she was fired from the Univision station in San José.
Weeks after he received his work permit, Estefany who was brought by his parents to the US at age 12, she was hired by KPIX.
“I am very happy with my new job. I don’t want this dream to end. The truth is that my hope is that the DACA be approved to remain. I hope they influence and the elections and the trial against President Trump, ”says Estefany.
On Tuesday, September 12, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the DACA program to define whether President Trump acted legally by eliminating him in September 2017.
This program was established by President Obama in 2012 to protect minors who were brought to the United States by their parents from deportation.
Since the DACA was eliminated, several lawsuits were filed against, but one by one they have come out in favor of the almost 700,000 DACA youth in federal courts.
However, the last word is the Supreme Court of the Nation, whose nine magistrates have until June 2020 to issue a ruling, beginning in January.
In defense of DACA were in court, veteran lawyer Theodore Olson; and Luis Cortés, 31, a migration lawyer and a DACA beneficiary. Cortes who came to the United States when he was one year old grew up in San Francisco Bay.
In an interview with CNN, Luis said that if the court rules in favor of President Trump, a part of him will feel betrayed. “If you get to the point of being deported, that will mean that Congress did not act for the next two years,” said the boy.
Luis recently renewed his work permit that gave him authorization to work until 2021. “The nine magistrates – of the court – have my future in their hands,” he said.
Among the first groups that sued against the termination of DACA, was the Board of Regents of the University of California (UC) on the grounds that the decision was arbitrary and capricious. While more than 1,000 individuals, companies, institutions of higher education, religious institutions and advocacy groups have signed letters of support for the demands.
UC President Janet Napolitano established DACA when she was secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama. Currently, UC serves 1,700 DACA students.
“DACA students are studying to be the next generation of teachers, doctors, engineers and other professionals who will make life better for everyone,” says Napolitano,
“These young people simply want to live, learn and contribute to the country they see as their home,” he says.
Five fewer courts in three different jurisdictions have agreed that the Trump administration acted inappropriately, issuing orders that forced the Department of Homeland Security to continue processing DACA renewals as long as the case is resolved in court.
Since UC got a national protection against the decision to cancel DACA in January 2018, more than 500,000 beneficiaries have been able to renew their status. However, it was not possible for new applications to be accepted.
Estefany says that the idea that DACA is a mostly Latino issue is over. “Since the end of DACA, many boys from other countries came out of the shadows. And so we could see that there are dreamers from all over the world working in fields such as medicine and technology, ”he says.
Just one day before the Supreme Court hearing, the New York Center for Migration Studies (CMS) revealed a study that shows that DACA beneficiaries come from 158 countries.
It also reveals the profile of dreamers: 81 percent of DACA have lived in the US for more than 15 years; 83 percent are in the work force; and of them, 95 percent are employed. Of 346,455 US-born children under 18, at least one of their parents is DACA.
The report found that approximately 88,000 DACA beneficiaries work in specialized professions, 88 percent speak well, very well or only English.
“Young undocumented immigrants have grown, studied, worked and started families in the United States. They are young people who are American in every way, except because they don’t have legal status, ”says Daniela Alulema, director of CMS programs.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of DACA, it does not mean that the Trump administration does not make another attempt to terminate this program, says Alexander Berengaut, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, which represents pro bono to UC in the lawsuit.
“It simply means that officers will need to follow the proper procedures and provide clear reasons to finish it. And any other future attempt to end DACA will again be subject to judicial scrutiny, ”explains the lawyer.
And he adds that if the Supreme Court sides with Trump and determines that the president was right to finish this program, “we would have to wait for the Department of Homeland Security to determine how they will implement the annulment.”
Organizations like LULAC that advocate for immigrants have called on the Supreme Court of the Nation to rule in favor of the continuation of DACA.
“We urge the Supreme Court to support our dreamers, but the US Senate needs to take a bill on migration that allows them and their parents to legalize before the end of the year. That’s what America is about. That is what establishes the Statue of Liberty and the American Dream, ”says Domingo García, president of LULAC.
