Doing What’s Right For Dreamers...NOW DACA: Doing What’s Right For Dreamers...NOW Facilitated By: Cecilia Belser-Patton, JUST Systems

DACA: Doing What’s Right For Dreamers...NOW What is DACA? Who are DREAMERS?

DACA Defined... DACA, Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, is a federal government program created in 2012 under President Barack Obama to allow people brought to the US as children the temporary right to live, study and work in America

Dreamer’s Define Individuals who would have qualified under the DREAM Act are often referred to as “DREAMers.” The term has been used to define individuals in the U.S. who were brought to the country at an early age without documentation but have assimilated to U.S. culture and have been educated by U.S. school systems.

DACA Timeline 2001: The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors) was proposed by senators, but it was stalled in Congress and ultimately failed to get the necessary votes. It was meant to provide immigrants brought to the U.S. as children with a path to citizenship. Granted, they had to be under 30, have no criminal record, and be enrolled in or have graduated from a university, or had served in the armed forces The DREAM Act was introduced by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Senator Maria Cantwell, with 6 co-sponsors. # of deportations: 200,000

DACA Timeline 2007: The DREAM act, which was phased out because it felt victim to filibusters and major stalling, was revived in 2007 in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (or Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act) introduced by the 110th Congress. This bill was, like its name said, much more comprehensive because it aimed to provide legal status and a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the US. It died with a passing cloture motion. And with it, the DREAM act. *The Reform Act also included major increases in funding for border enforcement and restructures to visa criteria.

DACA Timeline 2008: President Obama’s first term. His goal wasn’t to target low-priority immigrants, but the truth is federal agents were doing so either way. Hence, the impending DACAmentation. # of deportations 370,000 # of legal immigrants from Latin American nations= 9.6M (80% of the entire flow) 2010: 55 members of the Senate voted to pass the DREAM Act. The bill passed the House and got a majority in the Senate but failed to get 60. It was blocked by Republicans. Multiple senators who had once supported the bill, both on the right and on the left, either refused to vote on it or voted against. *This made sense because Republicans who were hard on immigration took control of the House of Representatives in the tea-party wave of 2010. There were 87 of them in the House by the end of 2010.

2 DACA Timeline 2012: DACA was born. It was supposed to be temporary, hence the DEFERRED in Deferred Action. It was meant to postpone or defer, the deportation proceedings for two years with the possibility to be renewed and with multiple benefits (i.e. permit to get a driver's license, work permits, etc.) The program was intended to protect immigrants (780,000 of them) who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, through no fault of their own.

DACA Timeline September 2017: Trump rescinds DACA. *Now that the administration has chosen to end DACA, there are two possible courses of action. Either Congress passes a bill by the deadline, which is set to be March 5th, 2018 or it doesn’t. If it does, then the future of the DREAMers rests in the hands of the legislative branch. If on the contrary, the legislative branch fails to pass a bill for an immigration reform, then the stipulations outlined by AG Sessions will become the new law: Those who have already applied to DACA will have their applications processed. As for those currently covered, two things could happen. If their DACAmentation is set to expire before March 5, 2018 (deadline for Congress to pass an immigration reform bill), they can apply for one last renewal until October 5th, 2017. If their DACAmentation expires on or after March 6th, 2018, they’ll become illegal aliens once again.

Dreamer’s Stories...

Dreamer’s Stories...Alex

Dreamer’s Stories...Victor

Dezo’s Story….

What Can We Do? Claire McKaskill (202) 224-6154 Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721

Resources https://www.bookwitty.com/reading_list/six-books-about-undocumented-immigrants-in-us/59af0b5e50cef7429c669517 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1889567084419099&set=gm.482653895462782& type=3 www.pellproject.org