Supreme Court Ruling Relieves DACA Students and Energizes Activism

So when the bombshell hit — that the court had found that the Trump administration had been “arbitrary and capricious” in seeking to rescind the program — she was elated.

“After all of the stress and frustration and anger, worrying I might be wasting my time in college, now I feel like my life can go on in the direction I’ve planned,” said Landa. She hopes to pursue a doctorate and to help other undocumented students succeed in college.

Thursday's ruling was a huge win for undocumented students whose studies, like Landa's, have often taken a back seat to more-immediate concerns, such as possible deportation. While it doesn't offer a path to citizenship, the DACA program protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States before age 16 by allowing them to live, study, and work under renewable two-year permits, without having to fear they will be deported.

Their fears have ramped up in recent months as the Covid-19 crisis and the national reckoning over racial injustice have exacerbated tensions for marginalized students.

Landa's father was deported to Mexico two years ago, and she has worried that her mother, an undocumented house cleaner whose jobs largely evaporated during the health pandemic, could be next. If the DACA program had been discontinued, her own temporary protections would vanish.

“DACA students are relieved, but their supporters will be doing them a disservice if they tell them, ‘You’re fine now. He can’t come after you,’” said one of Landa's professors, Bill Ong Hing, director of the university's Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. The conservative justices who dissented in the 5-to-4 decision, he said, essentially told the president to try again. “They’re giving him instructions on how to do this.”

On Twitter, Trump called the court majority's votes “shotgun blasts into the face” of Republicans and conservatives, but there has been no immediate word on whether the administration will try again to rescind the program. Doing so this close to the November election could be politically risky, given the widespread bipartisan support for DACA and the size of the Latino electorate, some immigration experts note. On the other hand, the decision strengthens a pillar of Trump’s appeal to his base — reining in illegal immigration.

The dissent, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the majority opinion was “an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.” He also argued that Obama had not taken proper steps in setting up the program, and that Trump was justified in trying to revoke it.

Undocumented students were prepared for such arguments to win the day, Hing said. “They've been on pins and needles,” worried about losing work authorization as well as their ability to remain in college and to get jobs when they graduate, he said.

The Sword of Damocles

The justices were presented with three cases — Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, Trump v. NAACP, and McAleenan v. Vidal, Nos. 18-587, 18-588, and 18-589 — that challenged the Trump administration's decision to end DACA, which President Barack Obama created in 2012 by executive order. Trump had argued that Obama overstepped his authority in creating the program.

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He was joined in the opinion by the court's four more liberal members.

The decision, coming on the heels of an equally surprising vote in support of LGBTQ rights, is likely to further energize college leaders who have been working to offer emotional and academic support to undocumented students, said Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. The organization, which consists of 450 college presidents and chancellors, works to improve conditions for immigrant students on campuses.

The University of California system, Princeton University, and other higher-education institutions have also been on the front lines of the legal fight against the Trump administration's efforts to end DACA. Hundreds of other college leaders have signed letters to Congress that criticize the Trump administration's handling of the matter.

“This decision is transformative in demonstrating what we can do and must continue to do, walking alongside students who have risked so much," said Feldblum, a former dean of students at Pomona College.

More than 450,000 undocumented students are enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States, according to a report issued in April by New American Economy, a bipartisan research and advocacy group, and the Presidents’ Alliance. Of those students, 216,000 either have DACA protection or would have been eligible for it.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, released a statement welcoming the Supreme Court's decision but pointing out that it still doesn’t provide permanent legal protection to Dreamers, as DACA-protected students are known.

“For far too long, Dreamers have been held political hostage, unable to make long-term decisions about their education, jobs, or serving in the military,” he said. “We urge Congress to finally do the right thing and pass legislation that will enable these exceptional individuals to keep contributing their best to America, the only country they have ever called home."

About 280,000 essential health-care workers, many working in the forefront of the Covid-19 crisis, are undocumented, according to New American Economy.

Michael A. Olivas, an immigration-law expert who recently retired from the University of Houston Law Center, called the decision “a victory for the Dreamers.” But he added that “at the end of the day, all they get is extra time. The sword of Damocles is still hanging over them.” DACA doesn’t provide a path to citizenship, which will need congressional action and presidential support to create, he pointed out.

Source: Katherine Mangan ~ The Chronicle of Higher Education ~ June 18, 2020