by DRM Action Coalition | November 20, 2015
New York, NY – Today marks the one year anniversary of the DAPA program, currently being held up in court and awaiting the attention of the Supreme Court. The Dream Action Coalition has issued the following statement in response:
“Despite initial fears expressed over the DACA program by the more anti-immigrant members of Congress, DACA has been a huge success,” said Hina Naveed, Co-Director of Dream Action Coalition. “It has allowed many immigrants to move on with their lives without fearing deportation. DACA recipients are able to come out of the shadows and contribute more to society with the legal authorization to work; they are pursuing higher education and advancing in their professional careers, while paying taxes and contributing to social security to benefit all Americans. Unfortunately, due to aggressive forum-shopping in the courts, Republicans have managed to block an expansion of DACA to other groups of deserving immigrants, like our parents, that have been valued members of the community for a very long time. While the earlier court decision was disappointing, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Obama Administration, and see the program for what it is: a benefit to society that is within the President’s authority made necessary due to inaction by Congress.”
“Despite this setback, there is still a lot that can be done,” said Carlos Vargas, Co-Director of Dream Action Coalition. “For example, we can begin by ending programs that make local police enforce federal immigration law, closing down privatized detention centers with strong histories of abuse that hold entire families and dismantling a deportation machine that has already deported well over 2 million people and broken up a shocking number of families. DACA has helped and DAPA would expand that help, but there is still much more that can be done from a President who promised to pass immigration reform 7 years ago.”