Anita Miller
The coordinator of a new outreach for immigrants at Texas State University said the Supreme Court’s recent ruling allowing the DACA program to continue was a “huge relief,” but remained cautious that the administration of President Donald Trump will try again to do away with the program Barack Obama authorized in 2012.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals allows certain young people who were brought into this country as children, so long as they pay a registration fee every two years, work, attend school or become a member of the military and generally don’t get into trouble.
The Court ruled 5-4 that while Trump’s decision was “capricious,” but not legally unsound. Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion said the president could attempt it again with more attention to detail.
Though there are no hard numbers, Michelle Sotolongo, coordinator of the Monarch Center, said it’s estimated there are 150- to 300 Texas State students who are either receiving DACA benefits or are undocumented and generally able to apply. With the program’s future in doubt, it’s thought many young people are hesitant to sign up particularly given the federal government’s deportation policies.
Exact numbers aren’t known by design. “We don’t keep any kind of list,” Sogolongo said. “When individuals are forced to live their lives underground, they try to stay off the radar.”
DACA has never included a path to citizenship.
“We’re celebrating, absolutely, but also keeping in mind it is not over,” she said. “There’s a good chance it’s going to be challenged again. At least for now, everything we were really worried about has lessened.”
The Monarch Center assists DACA and other immigrant students in legal issues and other areas including the $500 application fee they must pay every two yeras.
She said the center has an “undergraduate research component as well, that should really come into play when in-person classes resume at Texas State, as “a source for people to learn about migration in general, and people who are doing work in this field.”
All that work looks “even better” because of the Supreme Court’s decision.
“it’s going to make life a little easier for some, a lot easier for others.
D’Ann Panino, a San Marcos-based immigration rights activist who has worked with Sotolongo in the Mano Amiga organization, noted that DACA was always a “temporary fix” that doesn’t address all issues. “For now it’s a victory,” she said, adding that “a lot of work” lies ahead. “We will take this momentum and continue to push for better law … we’ve been aching citizenship.”
