Campaign Action
Donald Trump blames everyone but himself for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last September, and has now sabotaged the numerous bipartisan congressional proposals to fix it. But as Vox’s Dara Lind reports, “the fact is that Dreamers are at risk because of Donald Trump. Period.” Protecting the 122 DACA recipients who lose their work permits and protection from deportation every single day is a serious matter that is being treated without seriousness by an unserious president. But with Trump blocking legislative solutions for both DACA recipients and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, local and state governments are moving forward on their own with proposals to protect their communities:
Participants in either DACA or TPS generally qualified for driver’s licenses and in-state college tuition even in states where those privileges are otherwise unavailable to undocumented immigrants. Now, with the programs in jeopardy, lawmakers in about a dozen states are arguing that those immigrants should not be pushed into a shadow economy after living in the United States for decades.
“Because of the change in national rhetoric, it’s going to be a really interesting year at the state level, in terms of how states are going to portray themselves as welcoming or not welcoming to certain immigrant populations,” said Ann Morse, who oversees an immigration project at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “There is a real public debate going on that is just getting started.”
While only 12 states and Washington, D.C. allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, DACA and TPS recipients in all states have generally been eligible to apply. But because both are only able to hold valid licenses so long as they hold valid protections, numerous states are both weighing and enacting protections should Congress fail. “In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order last month preserving driver’s licenses for DACA recipients whose protections expire, while legislation in the state Assembly seeks to keep driving privileges and state-funded Medicaid benefits for immigrants from Central America, Haiti and Sudan who had been granted TPS.”
Last month, Cuomo also announced immigrant youth would “’remain eligible for state-funded Medicaid’ and the New York Child Health Plus insurance known as CHIP.’” Cuomo said that “the federal government’s failure to take action to protect DACA recipients is appalling, un-American, unjust and puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk. Here in New York we will do everything in our power to protect DACA recipients and ensure they receive health care.”
In Virginia, Democrats have also proposed legislation that would keep driver’s licenses and in-state tuition in place for eligible undocumented residents, but “Republicans in control of the General Assembly did not let the bills out of committee.” Clearly, no lessons have been learned by Republicans following Virginia’s blue wave last year. “We want productive people who are putting forward benefits to the Commonwealth,” said Virginia Delegate Jennifer Boysko, a cosponsor of one of the bills. “This legislation would just make it better for everybody.”
And for Virginians like Manuel Lopez and his daughter Xiomara. He’s a TPS recipient originally from El Salvador, and she’s been a DACA recipient since 2012. Trump has ended the program that allowed both dad and child to live here and work legally: “Both work at a supermarket and see the potential loss of their driver’s licenses as an obstacle to keeping their jobs. ‘This is having a huge impact on our family,” Manuel Lopez said. ‘The anxiety has kept me from sleeping at night.’”
California, home to the largest population of DACA recipients and undocumented people in the nation overall, already has numerous protections in place, including driver’s licenses. More than 800,000 undocumented immigrants applied for driver’s licenses in the first two years after AB 60’s implementation, and earlier this year the state passed the most expansive anti-deportation bill in the nation:
In California, which last fall passed a law to become a “sanctuary state,” officials are allocating portions of $45 million in annual immigration-related funding for legal assistance to people fighting to remain the country and to help DACA recipients apply to renew their status.
“The vision that’s been pursued in California is one of inclusivity, where we’re making sure that immigrants remain part of our state and are eligible to work here and contribute,” said Layla Razavi, policy director at the California Immigrant Policy Center.
Additionally, tens of thousands of immigrant youth already apply every year for the California Dream Act, which allows eligible applicants access to state financial aid for college (although there’s indications anti-immigrant rhetoric has driven down applications). “In Iowa, Democrats are pushing a Dream Act that would allow in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants, similar to laws that already exist in Maryland, California and Illinois,” reports The Washington Post.
Local governments are stepping in to protect their people and that must be encouraged and applauded, but that shouldn’t erase the fact that these actions are happening because the president and the Republican Congress have abdicated their responsibilities and failed to lead. TPS and DACA recipients are in this mess because of a crisis Trump created, and the complicit Republicans who control both houses of Congress enable him and his racism.
“Whatever Congress decides over the next several days will undoubtedly affect the lives of millions of aspiring Americans across the country,” said DACA recipients and immigrant rights leader Juan Escalante. “All we are asking is for the federal government to grant them a piece of paper so that they can do what people with pieces of paper already do: work hard to ensure that this country can continue to thrive and prosper. Unfortunately, politicians at all levels of government refuse to acknowledge this simple fact and instead try to demonize those in our community who look or sound different from them.”