The 10th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was celebrated earlier this year. More recently, on October 5, a federal appeals court decision affirmed a 2021 lower court ruling that DACA was illegal. This decision puts more doubt into DACA’s continued existence.
No new applications are being accepted, but renewals are still possible. According to the news media, there are now 600,000 DACA recipients while in the past the number of recipients had been put at 800,000. Life goes on and some have adjusted their status or some may have voluntarily left the country or been deported.
There is frustration over the possible loss of work authorization and losing the right to live without fear in the country. We must remember that the parents or other siblings of DACA-protected recipients still remain undocumented and/or unauthorized to be living in the United States but they pay taxes and contribute to the economy like everybody else.
There are new arrivals from countries such as Ukraine, Venezuela, and Cuba who are being treated very differently from those Haitians, Mexicans, and Central Americans who come to the U.S.-México border desperate to find work and safety for their families.
Meanwhile, the game of using migrants for personal and/or political reasons continues. Reactionary governors in Texas, Florida, and Arizona play with people’s lives by busing or flying them to other parts of the country. Note that El Paso, Texas has been sending busloads to other cities even before these states started. Lack of resources and overwhelmed services has been the main cause of these transfers. These actions violate human rights but the communities where the immigrants were sent have embraced them and are helping with resources that are also running short. There are investigations of alleged illegality or misuse of funds.
There were high hopes that the Biden Democratic Administration would help with more solutions than the fascist Trump Republican Administration. But not much has changed. The future Presidential Election of 2024 will be an important one. There is doubt and fear that if the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, DACA could be found to be illegal and will destroy this opportunity altogether. Stay informed, ask questions, and get involved in your communities needs. ¡La lucha sigue!
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