Washington, D.C. – Today is the historic 10-year anniversary of the announcement of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This marks a decade since the launch of the program that has shielded over 800,000 immigrant youth nationwide from deportations and provided work authorizations.
Last year, a federal judge in Texas stopped first-time DACA applications from being processed and left tens of thousands of immigrant young people without any form of protection. In just a few weeks that case will be heard at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Greisa Martinez Rosas, Executive-Director of United We Dream Action, said:
“Ten years ago, young undocumented people fearlessly risked arrest and potential deportation as we organized to stop the pain our communities were facing from the deportation forces of ICE and CBP. We pressured President Obama to enact DACA and secured the most significant win of the immigrant rights movement in decades.
But now, Congress has used DACA as a band-aid instead of delivering lasting protections for over 800,000 of us who are stuck in a state of legal limbo and millions more in our communities who never qualified for DACA protections in the first place.
The stakes continue to be high. The forces working against us are not shy about what they want: to end DACA and put all immigrants on a path towards deportation. Immigrant youth and our families will continue to fight unapologetically. We need elected leaders to do their job and pass permanent legislation now.”