Washington, D.C. — After nearly six weeks of refusing to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that struck down the Trump administration’s illegal attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a new memo sounding a grave warning for the future of the program and directing officials to reject all new and pending DACA applications and requests for advance parole. At the same time, it will slash the duration of future DACA renewals from two years to only one, putting the financial squeeze on current recipients who rely on the program while delivering half the protections.
Tom Jawetz, vice president of Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
The Trump administration has never wanted to own the decision to rescind DACA because it knows how deeply unpopular such a decision would be. That’s a major reason the Supreme Court in June ultimately ruled that the administration’s earlier effort to end the program was illegal, and it explains why the administration has today issued a new memorandum designed to distract people from the fact that it remains focused on its ultimate goal of ending DACA and deporting Dreamers. This new memo promises only that while the administration takes the time to manufacture a more complete explanation for its decision to end DACA, current recipients can continue applying to receive half the protection for all of the cost. Meanwhile, with vanishingly little legal or policy justification, the administration decided to eliminate the ability of new applicants to apply for protection under DACA. This decision alone is designed to keep at least 300,000 young people from applying for protection, including 55,500 who would have aged into eligibility over the last nearly three years while the administration pursued its illegal attempt to end DACA.
Nearly 9 in 10 Americans support DACA, and the program has been a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people, helping support families, communities, states, and the nation as a whole. This new attack on the program, like the administration’s first illegal attempt to end DACA, will surely face legal action.
Congress cannot give this administration another minute to play with the lives of Dreamers and their families. The administration’s singular focus on making lives of DACA recipients as miserable as possible highlights the urgent need for the U.S. Senate to take up and pass H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, which would finally provide permanent protections to Dreamers and people with Temporary Protected Status. The time to pass the American Dream and Promise Act is now.
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