New York, NY-Today marks the eighth anniversary of President Barack Obama's historic Rose Garden speech announcing the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The DACA program allowed hundreds of thousands of young people to come out of the shadow, and apply for work authorization and protection from deportation for recurring two-year periods.
In September 2017, the Trump administration announced their plan to terminate the DACA program. This decision triggered a national movement and a string of legal battles, which ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Justices will rule on the fate of the DACA program and the future of current DACA recipients this month. As the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 200,000 DACA recipients are essential workers, including nearly 30,000 DACA recipient healthcare workers, like doctors and nurses, who are on the front lines of this response.
On this eight-year anniversary, Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, issued the following statement:
“The eighth anniversary of the DACA program's announcement comes as many Dreamers anxiously await a Supreme Court ruling which could rip them from their families, communities and the only place they have ever called home. While their futures remain in balance, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients are serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as nurses, doctors, teachers, and more. Congress must not allow Trump to play politics with people’s lives and continue to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment to further his re-election campaign. We call on the Senate to immediately take up and pass H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act, to finally provide a permanent solution for these Dreamers.”