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Forsaken by Trump, immigrant 'Dreamers' seek U.S. Supreme Court reprieve

Published 11/08/2019, 08:24 PM
Updated 11/08/2019, 08:24 PM
© Reuters. Maricruz Abarca is pictured outside the University of Baltimore

© Reuters. Maricruz Abarca is pictured outside the University of Baltimore

By Lawrence Hurley

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - When Maricruz Abarca learned three years ago that she had been given the legal right under a U.S. government program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to work in the United States and avoid deportation, she started to cry.

After years of living illegally in the shadows after moving to the United States from Mexico at age 15 to join relatives in New Jersey, she finally could make concrete plans for the future.

"Having the opportunity to be legal and without fear of deportation, it was just a big plus - and going to sleep every night without thinking about what was going to happen with my kids," Abarca, 31, said in an interview on the campus of the University of Baltimore, where she is studying with aspirations of becoming a lawyer.

Abarca is one of roughly 660,000 people, dubbed "Dreamers," covered by DACA, which was created to protect immigrants who entered the United States illegally or overstayed a visa as children. DACA was implemented in 2012 by Democratic President Barack Obama. Republican President Donald Trump in 2017 moved to rescind the program, though he was blocked by various court rulings.

For Abarca, DACA has provided concrete benefits. It helped her become eligible for lower in-state college tuition and obtain a license as a used-car dealer. It also provided security for her family, including her three children - all American citizens by virtue of being born in the United States. Abarca dreams of one day becoming mayor of Baltimore.

But Abarca's status - along with all the others protected by DACA - is under threat. The U.S. Supreme Court, whose 5-4 conservative majority includes two justices appointed by Trump, is scheduled to hear arguments on Tuesday to decide the legality of Trump's plan to rescind the program and expose the DACA recipients once again to the threat of deportation.

The justices will hear the Trump administration's appeals of three lower court rulings - in California, New York and the District of Columbia - that found that the president violated a U.S. law called the Administrative Procedure Act in seeking to kill DACA. Trump has made his hardline policies cracking down on legal and illegal immigration a centerpiece of his presidency.

Abarca is one of the DACA recipients who sued the administration. She said she plans to participate in a rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, her 32nd birthday.

"The future of thousands of 'Dreamers' ... are basically in their hands," Abarca said of the justices. "We are just right there in limbo not knowing what's going to happen in our lives."

If the program is terminated, "I'm going back to the shadows," Abarca added.

Adonia Simpson, a lawyer for the Miami-based immigrant rights group Americans for Immigrant Justice, said some DACA recipients are worried that personal information they gave the government when they enrolled in DACA now could be used to target them or relatives for potential deportation.

"There's a lot of uncertainty and fear. A lot of folks are uncertain about what happens if the program ends," Simpson said.

The DACA recipients received backing from various business groups and companies including Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) that filed briefs with the Supreme Court opposing Trump's move.

Cece, a 33-year-old Microsoft employee in Washington state who spoke on condition of being identified by just her first name, said DACA paved the way for her to work for the company as a security and service engineer. She moved to the United States with her mother from Mexico when she was 4 years old and now has a 9-year-old son who is a U.S. citizen.

When Trump announced his plan to end DACA, "I remember feeling like my dream had ended," she said.

Colleges and universities including the University of California system - which has around 1,700 "Dreamers" enrolled - also oppose Trump's move.

"They're working. They're starting families. They're paying taxes. They're contributing in every way," Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California system who served as U.S. homeland security secretary under Obama when DACA was created, told Reuters.

'THIS LAWLESS PROGRAM'

Trump's administration has argued that Obama exceeded his constitutional powers when he bypassed Congress to create DACA.

Trump's supporters, including 13 conservative states led by Texas, agreed. They argued that the program imposes costs on states by forcing them to provide services for DACA recipients such as healthcare, education and law enforcement.

"This case thus directly implicates the states' effort to bring about an orderly end to DACA and threatens to continue the numerous harms inflicted on the states by this lawless program," lawyers for the states wrote in court papers.

Because lower courts have ruled against Trump, DACA remains in effect and people already enrolled in the program can get renewable two-year work permits. The administration has refused to approve new applications. It said it has issued more than 473,000 renewals since January 2018.

Obama created DACA by executive action after Congress failed to pass a bipartisan immigration policy overhaul that would have provided a path to citizenship to young immigrants brought by their parents into the country illegally as children.

Obama and DACA advocates have said the people protected by it were raised and educated in the United States, grew up as Americans and often know little about their countries of origin.

Trump has given mixed messages about the young immigrants protected by DACA. He said in 2017 that "we love the Dreamers" but then moved to kill the program and has never proposed a detailed replacement.

If the court rules in his favor, "the Republicans and Democrats will have a DEAL to let them stay in our Country, in very short order," Trump said in a Twitter post on Oct. 9, without explaining the nature of such a deal.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives this year passed a bill that would protect "Dreamers." The Senate, controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, has shown no sign of approving it.

Abarca is not confident that Trump's administration will ultimately protect people in her position.

© Reuters. Maricruz Abarca is pictured outside the University of Baltimore

"They are saying they want to support 'Dreamers' but at the same time they are saying you are not welcome," Abarca said. "It doesn't make sense."

Latest comments

Support the citizen dreamers. Illegal dreamers can dream elsewhere.
takes pretty big ******to go into a foreign country illegally and demand all these things. this entitlement is thanks to the democrats who have given up on trying to get votes the legal way.
You do realize that the average age of a Dreamer entering the country was at age Six, right? Many of them younger and didnt even realize until they were in their 20s that they werent actually born here. They know nothing else. You act like they just got here and started demanding things.
So, exactly what did they do when they realized their problem? People don’t stay children forever.
they made themselves documented and are following the legal path to citizenship that our government laid out before them. They are 100% documented and pay taxes. They are not hiding. They are all following the rules trying to become citizens. Why is that Trumpists are say illegals should follow the legal process to citizenship. Well, that is what Dreamers are doing. But they are being blasted as demanding illegals.
Yep! Put down your foreign flag that you all love to wave in the faces of Americans who's taxes pay for your perpetual gimme Olympics, apply for citizenship, learn to speak English correctly, go to work, and respect our country.... OR LEAVE!
what about those HK holding US flags? lol
yes please deport the anti-american people who claim that they are fleeing their home country and that is why they should be allowed to entered illegally but then come and wave that flag proudly within the US.... import those from HK who have shown more patriotism than these people and the anti-american democrats
Dreamers are 100% documented and ARE applying for citizenship. What is it you think they are doing? They are not hiding. They are all registered and documented. They all pay taxes, too. They have been given a legal status by the US and are following the path to citizenship layed out to them. They are doing it right, but ignorant racial hatred is bucketing them with true illegals. If most people (like you) would learned the differnce, you would get infinitely more support to get real illegals out.
Apply for citizenship, give up your freebees as an Illegal, or get out of our country.
Rita, what do you think they're doing? Most of the Dreamers are working and would love to be able to have a path to citizenship (despite the angry, negative people like you they'll be living with). Just because somebody is not a citizen, that doesn't mean they're automatically living on "freebies".
$100 billion of taxpayer money is given to illegal immigrants every year. that's a lot of freebies.
Even if that is true, it;s besides the point. This article is about Dreamers - people who were brought into the country undocumented, as young children, not by their own choice, but have grown up never knowing any other country. The vast majority are educated, working, tax-paying people, and they are not "illegals" as DACA actually gives them legal status as the current  law stands. They are not a bunch of people who illegally snuck in, of their own choice, just to grab handouts and freebies, as you and Rita mistakenly claim.
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