President Donald Trump
DHS Secretary and USCIS Director October 20, 2019
Re: National Campaign to Restore DACA’s Advance Parole and request to expedite approval of Humanitarian Advance Parole applications (I-131 Form) filed through the CMSC.
Dear President Trump, DHS Secretary and USCIS Director,
My name is Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, President and CEO of the California-Mexico Studies Center, Inc. (CMSC), a non-profit organization leading the National Campaign to Restore DACA’s Advance Parole, and I am hereby respectfully requesting for USCIS to expedite approval of 30+ applications for humanitarian Advance Parole (also referred to as the I-131 Application for Travel Document) that our organization has assisted Dreamers to file since July 1, 2019.
Below, I would like to provide some key information and videos produced for our campaign’s efforts to advocate for the humanitarian need to restore Advance Parole for DACA beneficiaries now.
Our organization pioneered a study abroad program for DACA recipients, using the educational purpose Advance Parole authorization, and I led 5 groups of 35 Dreamers each from January 2015 to August 2017, providing over 160 Dreamers the opportunity to return to their birthplace, reconnect with their family and cultural roots, discover and learn as an adult in Mexico.
As you already know, since 2012, DACA recipients were able to apply for Advance Parole travel authorization for educational reasons, to exercise employment opportunities requiring foreign travel, and for humanitarian reasons to be with loved ones suffering from serious illnesses or facing imminent death.
But on September 5, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended the Advance Parole provision for DACA beneficiaries, after the Trump Administration ordered the termination of the DACA program. As a result of this arbitrary and discriminatory administrative practice, DACA beneficiaries have been unable to be with their loved ones at critical moments and/or take advantage of important educational and employment opportunities abroad, and the consequences have been devastating.
Moreover, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California preliminary injunction filed on January 9, 2018 ruled that the government had the discretion to accept and approve Advance Parole applications from DACA recipients for “deserving cases” per lines 14-16 of page 46. Furthermore, the court ruled that, “nor does this order bar the agency from granting advance parole in individual cases it finds deserving, or from granting deferred action to new individuals on an ad hoc basis”.
Additionally, lines 12-13 of page 47 state, “nothing in this order would bar individuals from asking for such agency relief [advance parole] or bar the agency from granting it in deserving cases”.
Although the New York, Washington, D.C., and Northern California Federal Courts authorized the continuation of the DACA program since January 2018, DHS continues to deny the possibility of DACA beneficiaries to apply for an Advance Parole travel permit. We believe that the continued denial of Advance Parole permits for DACA beneficiaries is causing inhumane and irreparable suffering.
As part of our advocacy, we have taken a total of 50 Dreamers from across the United States to Washington, D.C. during 2 trips this year in January and June, to defend and advocate for the restoration of Advance Parole for DACA beneficiaries.
As a result of our advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., we have succeeded in securing congressional support from 66 representatives and senators who have signed a series of letters questioning the discriminatory lack of due process by DHS and its U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office and the arbitrary decision to suspend Advance Parole for DACA beneficiaries. You can review USCIS’s response letter here.
Moreover, since July 1, 2019, the CMSC launched the Advance Parole Application Assistance Program (APAAP) to help Dreamers apply for Advance Parole, as a way to challenge the discriminatory practice by the Trump Administration to systematically suspend and/or deny all DACA recipients’ applications for Advance Parole, and to establish grounds for class-action litigation on behalf of all Dreamers denied due process and court-ordered consideration of all I-131 applications.
The 3rd phase of our National Campaign to Restore DACA’s Advance Parole will take 50+ Dreamers to Washington, D.C. during November 9-15, 2019, including many of the 30+ Dreamers that have filed their humanitarian Advance Parole applications since July 1 as part of our assistance program, to personally advocate for expedited approval of their I-131 applications. Please find attached the list of DACA recipients that have I-131 applications pending approval by USCIS.
This phase of our campaign is essential because the Dream and Promise Act of 2019 is unlikely to be approved by the current Senate, and the U.S. Supreme Court will not rule on the future of DACA until next summer. Therefore, Dreamers remain in limbo and their dire need for humanitarian travel will continue to be denied Advance Parole authorization for an indefinite period.
Thus, again we respectfully request for you to grant expedited approval of the 30+ applications for humanitarian Advance Parole that our organization has helped Dreamers to file since July 1, 2019, and to grant expedited consideration and approval of all humanitarian DACA I-131 applications, per the federal courts of appeal orders and desist systematically denying due process consideration of all DACA Advance Parole applications.
Respectfully,
Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, CMSC President & CEO
Link to PDF of the letter here
––––––––––––––––––
CONGRESSIONAL LETTERS:
Click here to view and download all congressional letters regarding Advance Parole, including USCIS’s response to a letter sent by 66 congressmembers.
DOCUMENTARY AND VIDEOS:
Advance Parole Voices: Guillermo Páez
The heart-breaking story of Guillermo Páez, a Dreamer from Santa Ana, CA who urgently needs an Advance Parole permit to be with his critically-ill grandmother, who he has not seen in over 19 years. Guillermo is a UC Irvine doctoral student and one of the hundreds of Dreamers facing this trauma, whom we are helping to secure Advance Parole humanitarian permits, despite the many obstacles this administration has imposed for the last two years.
A 30-minute documentary that follows a DACA-mented immigrant's plight to re-establish Advance Parole for all Dreamers and to be able to reunite with her family in times of hardship.
A short documentary featuring the Winter 2015 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program. The documentary reflects the life-changing, emotional experiences of 30 DACA-mented students (DREAMERs), who participated in the program and whom had the opportunity to visit their country of birth Mexico, for the first time in over 20 years, and reconnect with their families and roots. They were able to fly to Mexico and come back to the U.S. through a special USCIS permit called Advance Parole.
A play produced by the California Repertory Company and CSULB's Theater Arts Department in collaboration with the CMSC. Featuring testimonials of our very own California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program participants, the play invites the question of who gets to dream the American Dream.
NEWS AND ARTICLES:
- DACA holders hope to travel abroad to woo lawmakers in D.C. (OC Register) – 11 Jun. 2019
- Feinstein, Harris join Rep. Lowenthal and other legislators who wonder why DACA-holders can’t travel abroad(OC Register) – 12 Feb. 2019
- Dreamer Doctoral student denied humanitarian request to be with his dying grandmother – Newsletter 9/12/19
- Two Years Ago Today Our Last California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program Group Returned To The U.S. - Newsletter 8/21/19
- Almost 200 Dreamers will apply for humanitarian Advance Parole defying the Trump Administration - Newsletter 8/1/19
- Everything you need to know about DACA's Advance Parole Status – Newsletter 5/29/19
For more information visit our website: www.advanceparole.org
