State’s DACA recipients push forward after court decision
Joseline Tlacomulco, 23, applied and received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2012, when it was first introduced.
Since then, she has seen repeated legal efforts to overturn or stop the presidential order signed by then President Barack Obama. Since she already has DACA she is not currently at risk of losing her status.
So when she first heard that Texas federal judge Andrew Hanen ruled DACA unconstitutional, Tlacomulco greeted the news with an air of resignation.
“Well, here we go again,” said Tlacomulco, who lives in New Haven.
The decision in federal court wasn’t a surprise to Jon Bauer, who directs the University of Connecticut Law School’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. Because Hanen is known for his conservative judicial philosophy, according to Bauer, the ruling was expected to interfere with DACA in some capacity.
But Bauer said the ruling could be overturned.
“The reasoning of the decision is very weak, in my opinion. The judge, I think, misconstrued the scope of the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to engage in what’s called deferred action, which is what the DACA program is,” Bauer said.
Connecticut has 3,560 residents who have DACA, as of March 2020, according to the Department of Homeland Security which administers the policy. Current recipients aren’t in immediate danger of losing their status, since the ruling as of now only prevents first time applicants from getting DACA.
Bauer said that non-citizens have long been allowed to work with deferred action. While the federal government can conceivably attempt a legislative path to citizenship for DACA recipients, the road ahead to any permanent solution is uncertain due to the divisive nature of the current Congress.
Aaron Bryce Lee, a clinical intern at the Yale Law School Clinic, said that the recent decision was murky. The only clear result is that new applicants will still be able to apply and the applications will be processed, but nothing will be done with them due to the judge’s decision.
Because of this, Lee said that the ruling has further complicated an already complex situation.
“That is all we know until either Congress passes a legislative solution or something else happens in court, or whether something happens in adjacent courts,” Lee said.
William Tong, the state’s attorney general, recently issued a statement implying his office would join an expected appeal by the federal government.
“This decision is disappointing, but it’s
not a defeat. We’ve been here before. The State of Connecticut defended DACA all the way to the Supreme Court last year — and we won. The Biden administration has appropriately indicated it will appeal this decision and we will look to all ways to support their fight,” Tong said.
Advocates have had successes within
Connecticut over the past decade, giving some measure of protection to recipients.
Carolina Bortolleto, of Danbury, is a DACA recipient and a co-founder of CT Students For a Dream, a statewide network advocating for undocumented students.
She listed the group’s successes over the years, from getting undocumented students access to higher education to fighting for public universities in the state to give those students access to institutional financial aid.
The efforts not only gave added protection but she emphasized that recipients were not just waiting on others to help them.
“For six years, we fought for laws to pass to make that happen,” Bortolleto said.
Tlacomulco, also a member of CT Students For a Dream, cannot vote due to her status but she is a campaign organizer for Karen DuBois-Walton, a Democratic candidate for mayor in New Haven. She took a liking to DuBois-Walton for her stances on immigration. Tlacomulco is now working and saving money so she can go back to school at UConn.
She said she does what she does because the stakes are not only personally high but, but it’s one of the only ways she can push for a change.
“That’s what I do, I push people to get the work done that should have been done a long time ago,” she said.