Happy Birthday DACA! DACA Celebrates Its Ten Year Anniversary

 

June 15 marks 10 years since former President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.  The policy, which provided limited relief from removal as well as work authorization for recipients, is one of President Obama's most remembered immigration achievements.  (Let's forget for a moment his administration's record numbers of removals.). 

The Trump administration sought to rescind DACA, a decision rebuffed by the Supreme Court.  However, President Trump still refused to accept new DACA applications.  Courts blocked the Biden administration's efforts to accept new applications. 

In this article, the Migration Policy Institute's Muzaffar Chishti and Julia Gelatt review the evidence of DACA’s positive impacts for recipients, their families, and U.S. society. They also look at the reliance on similar limited legal statuses to help segments of the unauthorized immigrant community, and examine the legal challenges to DACA.

The National Immigration Law Center produced the following video reflecting the uncertainty of life for DACA recipients and the need for lasting relief:

 

I look at the implications of DACA on the future of immigration reform in this article. 

To commemorate DACA's 10-year anniversary, Rocky Mountain PBS will publish an online broadcast of “UndocuAmerica Monologues: 10 Years of DACA in Story and Song," a production of the Boulder, Colorado-based Motus Theater.  According to the Motus Theater website,

"The UndocuAmerica Project aims to interrupt the dehumanizing portrayals of immigrants by encouraging thoughtful engagement on the challenges facing the undocumented community and the assets immigrants bring to our country. Motus works with undocumented leaders to help them write powerful stories about their lives and then uses performances, podcasts and media to reach a wider audience."

"UndocuAmerica Monologues" will be available for streaming online at video.rmpbs.org, as well as Rocky Mountain PBS' YouTube page. There will be murals of Motus Theater’s monologists in Denver and Boulder with QR codes linking to the monologues in both English and Spanish.

 

KJ