Let's talk about DACA
Discussion on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on UNLV's campus
By Eduardo D. Rossal
Dreamers wait and worry to learn of their status here in
America. As aggressive policy that has been implemented that has ripped families
apart. Fathers working at dairy farms getting deport with news like that DACA recipients
have become worried.
Many DACA recipients waiting for their status or the status
of their loved to come to a reasonable decision from President Donald Trump’s
administration. A group of UNLV students gathered with a few legal experts to
discuss on the legalities of the issue at the Student Union Building.
“DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and
it became a really big issue, because for a really long time we had young
people who were brought into the country often times illegally or sometimes on
a visa and over stayed,” said Mayra Salinas-Menjivar, an attorney at the
Immigration Clinic on UNLV’s campus. “If you think about it, you’re growing up
in high school and thinking about your future then you realized that [you’re]
undocumented and can’t go to college.”
Former President Barrack Obama announced DACA, an executive
order, on the 30th anniversary of Plyler v. Doe, a decision made by
the Supreme Court barring public schools from charging undocumented children
tuition, as an answer to the legal status of undocumented children. DACA
recipients receive deferment from deportation and a work permit.
In 2001, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act legislation as a bipartisan bill in the Senate was introduced. The
bill provided means for a permanent legal status for undocumented immigrants
who arrived in the U.S. as children. Those that qualified for the program
adopted the term Dreamer and now the term is used for those that are recipient of
DACA.
Often Dreamers wouldn’t realize that they are here illegally
due to how young they are brought into the country.
“Defer action isn’t a new concept,” Menjivar said. “President
Obama didn’t create it. It has never been used in such a large amount in one
large scoop like he did with DACA, and that’s where the whole debate came from.
‘Was he allowed to do this?’ Obviously, it was argued in court and the courts
upheld it.”
In the week of March 29 Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of
the United States and the head of Executive Office for Immigration Review, made
remarks for quicker trials for immigration courts. Attorney General Sessions as
the head of EOIR, the nation’s immigration court system, ordering the judges to
quickly process and grant stay or deportation will be difficult as an increase
of these case flood the EOIR court rooms.
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| A snip shot from University of California, Berkeley's Undocumented Student Program |
According to National Immigration Justice Center, a legal
advocate organization that ensures human rights protections and access to
justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, last year immigration
courts were backlogged by 632,261 cases with an average wait time of 681 days.
“In immigration courts, you are owed a limited amount of due
process,” Menjivar said. “No one in immigration court is owed the same amount
of due process as in criminal court. It is a lower standard of due process. One
of the things that we think might happen is that there will be more appeals,
because judges are more likely to make mistakes. Even the judges are against
this. The Union for the judges said, ‘this is crazy. We can’t process this many
case.’”
Appealing the EOIR courts’ ruling will grant an automatic
stay until it goes through the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Menjavir said.
“If the court denies the appeal then you can go to the 9th
Circuit. In the 9th Circuit you must ask to stay the order, or it
will get enforced and that mean you’ll get deported,” Menjavir said.
The Trump’s administration ordered the Census Bureau to add
a citizenship question to 2020 census. A question left out of the census over
50 years.
“I think that a lot of people that are undocumented are
going to opt-out on it,” Menjavir said. “Especially in the political climate
that we are in. People are afraid and if you are going to people’s houses and
asking them what their citizenship status is; people are not going to answers
those questions.”
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A snip shot from University of California, Berkeley's
Undocumented Student Program
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“We are trying to inform students about this very important
issue,” said Dr. Maria Raquel-Casas, associate professor of history and the
associate director of the Intersection Student Advisory Board. “The notion that
this effect only those impact is false. This a community issue. [Who is
protected by our laws]? This is the core question that we as American citizens
have to ask ourselves, because we are saying that we will only protect
ourselves verses this other in a nation of immigrant.”
Americans should be asking themselves, “Is this a fair
system,” Dr. Raquel-Casas said. The rescindment of DACA by the Trump administration
has brought up the legality of who is receives protection under the law.
“The Intersection's aim with the panel was to increase
visibility and access to resources available to those affected and interested
in learning about the DACA rescission,” said Jasmin Bryant, a UNLV student
activist and member of the Intersection Student Academic Advisory Board. “The Intersection since its inception has and will continue
to support undocumented folks.”
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