INSIDER
‘Dreamer’ applauds expansion of health insurance access under new Biden rule
Read full article: ‘Dreamer’ applauds expansion of health insurance access under new Biden ruleMore than a third of immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, are uninsured, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
‘Basically on life support’: San Antonio DACA recipient worries for future of program
Read full article: ‘Basically on life support’: San Antonio DACA recipient worries for future of programAfter a federal judge rules that DACA is illegal, a San Antonio DACA recipient worried about what could happen to her legal protections.
DACA deal for ‘Dreamers’ fizzling as Texas Republicans prioritize border security
Read full article: DACA deal for ‘Dreamers’ fizzling as Texas Republicans prioritize border securityOver 100,000 DACA recipients live in Texas, and their status in the United States continues to be subject to legal challenges, including from the state of Texas itself.
DACA recipients hold out hope immigration reform will be revived in Congress
Read full article: DACA recipients hold out hope immigration reform will be revived in CongressMuch like many of the estimated 600,000 DACA recipients, Andrea Ramos Fernandez and Monsi Contreras were disappointed with Sunday’s decision to remove immigration reform from the pending $3.5 trillion budget proposal in Congress.
Kamala Harris to visit El Paso on Friday in first trip to U.S.-Mexico border as vice president
Read full article: Kamala Harris to visit El Paso on Friday in first trip to U.S.-Mexico border as vice presidentFormer President Donald Trump plans on touring Texas’ southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott later this month.
DACA teacher voices support for Dream Act; Senate vote expected soon
Read full article: DACA teacher voices support for Dream Act; Senate vote expected soonNow that it has passed the U.S. House, the Senate is expected to vote soon on the latest version of the Dream Act, that would provide an eight-year path to permanent residency or citizenship, with certain conditions, to nearly 700,000 DACA recipients. AdDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals has been for children who were brought illegally into the U.S. by their parents. Although polling has shown the majority of Americans support Dreamers like Carrillo, DACA has been likened to political football that’s been tossed back and forth ever since President Obama signed the executive order creating the program. AdCarrillo said she wants bipartisan support for the new legislation, although the emergency on the Southwest border may serve as a “red flag” to opponents. But unlike asylum seekers arriving at the border, she said, “This is our home and we’re not escaping anything because this is our home.”More on KSAT:Local teacher represents DACA recipients at State of the UnionDACA recipients now have powerful ally in new bipartisan coalition
Lawmakers are seeking common ground on DACA, but comprehensive immigration reform will be a challenge for Democrats
Read full article: Lawmakers are seeking common ground on DACA, but comprehensive immigration reform will be a challenge for DemocratsAd“For the past four years, the DACA program has been under attack, so it’s been a lot of stress and trauma for me. Despite Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, the U.S. Senate filibuster stands in the way of comprehensive immigration reform. President Biden’s policies are not the immigration reform Americans desperately need,” he said in a press release in late February. Thats why we haven’t had success.”Gonzales said he thinks the best approach to immigration reform is not comprehensive, but rather piece by piece and targeted. “I do think there’s an appetite for immigration reform if we do it in the proper manner.
DACA recipients now have powerful ally in new bipartisan coalition
Read full article: DACA recipients now have powerful ally in new bipartisan coalitionSAN ANTONIO – The details, such as a pathway to citizenship still to be determined, but the new Texas Opportunity Coalition launched last week has come out in support of what could be a stand-alone Dream Act giving DACA recipients permanent legal status. The varied and bipartisan coalition includes leaders in business, manufacturing, education and communities statewide, among others. “What we do endorse at this point is that a bipartisan bill is better and more likely to pass,” Aldrete said. Andrea Ramos Fernandez, the business outreach manager for Texas Business Immigration Coalition, is a UTSA graduate and a DACA recipient herself. In Texas alone, we have 20,000 DACA recipient teachers.”Both she and Aldrete said the public is largely behind giving Dreamers permanent legal status, as well as growing bipartisan support.
Some undocumented immigrants should again be allowed to apply for DACA protections, federal judge rules
Read full article: Some undocumented immigrants should again be allowed to apply for DACA protections, federal judge rulesAs of March, about 106,000 DACA recipients lived in Texas, and another 86,000 were potentially eligible to apply, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Friday's order follows last month's ruling that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf wasn’t appointed to the position according to DHS guidelines, rendering a July memo issued on the DACA program invalid. In that memo, DACA protections, which also include a renewable two-year work permit, were slashed to one year. But in his November ruling Garaufis said Wolf’s succession didn't follow proper procedure after former secretary Kevin McAleenan left the post in October. “DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated," Garaufis wrote.
Judge: DHS head didn’t have authority to suspend DACA
Read full article: Judge: DHS head didn’t have authority to suspend DACA“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated,” U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote. In August, the Government Accountability Office, a bipartisan congressional watchdog, said Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were improperly serving and ineligible to run the agency under the Vacancies Reform Act. The two have been at the forefront of administration initiatives on immigration and law enforcement. In Garaufis' ruling Saturday, the judge wrote that DHS didn’t follow an order of succession established when then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
DACA recipients hopeful President-elect Biden will fully restore program
Read full article: DACA recipients hopeful President-elect Biden will fully restore program“As much as I expect (Biden) to fortify DACA again, at the end of the day, right now, it’s not going to be enough,” she said. The UTSA student and other DACA recipients around the country have felt the freedom that came after President Barack Obama signed the DACA executive order in 2012. “I was angry,” the UTSA student said, referring to the time when President Donald Trump tried to end the program. She said she and other DACA recipients are hopeful the president-elect will fully restore the program. Yet, she said, employers hesitate or refuse to hire DACA recipients because of their temporary status without permanent residency.
Immigration policies hang in the balance as U.S. Senate prepares for fight over Ginsburg’s successor
Read full article: Immigration policies hang in the balance as U.S. Senate prepares for fight over Ginsburg’s successorIf civil and immigrant rights groups need a reminder of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s impact on immigration law, they don’t need to think back further than a few months ago. It would be his third successful appointment of a conservative justice and could tilt the balance of the court for decades. The administration refused to allow new applicants despite a subsequent lower court decision in July that mandated it do so. The plaintiffs in that case will petition the full appellate court to hear the case, which could extend into next year. That case, Leocal v. Ashcroft, eliminated driving while intoxicated from the list of crimes that blocked deported immigrants from naturalization.
Trump administration says it will reject new DACA applications while weighing future of the program
Read full article: Trump administration says it will reject new DACA applications while weighing future of the programDACA recipients and supporters rally in celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the program outside of the Immgration and Customs Enforcement offices in Phoenix in June. Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic via REUTERSThe Trump administration announced on Tuesday it will reject new applications for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program despite a federal judges order earlier this month that new applicants should be given consideration. The judge's order came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Department of Homeland Security didnt follow proper procedure when it ended the program in 2017 and allowed DACA to stand. The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won, Trump tweeted at the time. But he made statements arguing he had the power implement action on DACA that would protect young immigrants, though he was unclear on details.
U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of DACA recipients, says Trump administration’s move to overturn it was arbitrary
Read full article: U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of DACA recipients, says Trump administration’s move to overturn it was arbitraryThe U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, declaring in a 5-to-4 opinion that the 2012 initiative was inappropriately terminated by the Trump administration. The court's decision comes nearly three years after Trump announced he was terminating the policy, known as DACA, that has protected more than 130,000 Texans from deportation, the second-highest total after California. Trump's reason for ending the program echoed what many Republicans, including some in Texas, said when it was enacted: immigration law is under the purview of the U.S. Congress and not the executive branch alone. The program gave them a renewable, two-year work permit and a reprieve from deportation. This is a developing story and will be updated