Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Texas District Court’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security violated the law when it established and implemented Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”). The verdict upheld a lower court order that declared a program shielding approximately 600,000 young immigrants from deportation unconstitutional. Due to the government having now released a revised DACA regulation, the Fifth Circuit ordered the case back to the District Court for review. At this time, the decision won’t have an impact on current DACA recipients or their employment authorization.
We at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program are sorely disappointed by this decision, which signifies a resumption of the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant youth in the United States.
If you are an undocumented Harvard student, DACA recipient, or have other immigration-related concerns, please contact the Harvard Representation Initiative at 617-495-6648 or hri@law.harvard.edu. If you are a member of the Harvard community and have an immigration-related emergency, please call our emergency hotline at 857-242-6755 to contact an on-call attorney.
Despite this ruling, we remain committed to assisting immigrant youth in any way we can and fighting to ensure their ability to study, work, and live safely in the United States. We urge Congress to pass legislation that will provide protection and a path to citizenship for immigrant youth and others whose immigration status is in jeopardy.[pfhub_portfolio id=”1″]