As you’re likely aware, the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program has been one of the top immigration news stories over the past few weeks.
Commonly known as DACA, the fear was that over 700,000 immigrant youth would face deportation if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump Administration.
I disagreed with that assumption.
Win, lose, or draw, I did not think, as I wrote in various articles, the Supreme Court decision would be the final word. I still hold to that perspective.
Learning there is more than one way to skin a cat – that different approaches to the same problem may be equally valid – is one such virtue of living in a home with parents from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Over the past two weeks, my immigration law offices, probably like many others, has received tons of calls regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Most callers’ interests are very low. They only want to know if they qualify for deferred action . . . and, of course, employment authorization.
As a deportation defense lawyer, some days, you just don’t get any respect.
Especially from short-sighted allies.
A young woman, in her early 20s, walked into my office to talk about the DREAM Act. She had heard the news about Obama’s newest immigration proposal.
It reminded her about a meeting we had two years ago, when I told her about the DREAM Act as a possible solution for her immigration situation and to keep her eye out for it in the future, closer to the election.
Her optimism was blind.
When I told her that the current DREAM Act deferred prosecution proposal was not the real DREAM Act, she became upset. Not at the news, but at me.
After a near decade of court battles and immigration appeals, the California Supreme Court recently ruled undocumented immigrant students are eligible to pay in-state rates for tuition at public colleges.
To qualify, immigrants must meet the same residency and graduation requirements as other students. However, they are still not entitled to government financial aid, loans, or grants.
Although the win was not as broad as the DREAM Act, it provides a fresh ray of hope for undocumented immigrant scholars hoping to earn college degrees.
