U.S. Supreme Court Weighs DACA’s Fate as Immigrants Rally Outside

Chronicle photo by Danielle McLean

As thousands of undocumented immigrants and their supporters rallied on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on a cold, rainy morning, their fates rested in the hands of nine justices who by some accounts on Tuesday seemed to be leaning toward allowing the protections that have kept the immigrants from deportation to end.

Supporters of the so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have lived here nearly their entire lives, were braced for that possibility, with the nation’s highest court now possessing a conservative majority.

Still, many expressed fears for their futures and their families as the justices were hearing oral arguments in three cases challenging the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to rescind DACA, formally the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program: 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.

Promise and Peril for Undocumented Students

Here’s a selection of Chronicle articles with background and context on the history of the deferred-action program and its vulnerable participants.

• Colleges Can’t Completely Shield Undocumented Students if DACA Lapses. Here’s What They Can Do.
• What Major Universities Had to Say About Trump’s Move to Roll Back DACA
• Trump Will End DACA in 6 Months, Confirming Dreamers’ Fears and Putting Onus on Congress

Mo Rodriguez Cruz, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago, was among those chanting in front of the famed First Street steps of the Supreme Court.

Cruz moved to Tennessee from Mexico when he was just 5 years old and considers the state his home. He acknowledged that a decision to overturn DACA could delay his aspirations to go to law school and start a political career, but he said it was not going to stop him from achieving his dream of one day becoming the first queer Mexican-born U.S. senator from Tennessee.

“Regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court, we are here to stay, and we’re going to keep fighting for our dignity and our humanity,” Cruz said. “We’re going to continue to be here, and we’re going to keep building our people power and keep doing what we’re doing.”

“I feel grounded by my people,” he added.

A Judgment of Trump’s Actions

While it doesn’t provide a path to citizenship, DACA allows undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States before age 16 to work, live, and study with renewable two-year permits and without fear of deportation. The program enjoys widespread bipartisan support, but hard-line immigration opponents consider it a form of amnesty for lawbreakers.

The main question before the Supreme Court is whether the Trump administration acted arbitrarily and unlawfully when it announced that it would end DACA, which has protected about 700,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation. A decision is expected by the end of June 2020.

Five lower courts have ruled against the Trump administration, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to continue processing DACA renewals while legal challenges move forward.

Reporters inside the courtroom said that four of the five conservative justices appeared satisfied that President Trump had provided adequate justification for ending DACA and they seemed disinclined to second-guess him. The chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr., appeared less convinced, but his record suggests he would probably back the president, they said. The liberals on the court questioned the president’s rationale.

Trump himself has flip-flopped on the issue. He has expressed sympathy for undocumented students but then bowed to pressure from immigration hard-liners in his party by saying President Barack Obama lacked the legal authority to create DACA. And while he called on Congress to come up with a solution to the problem, he has rejected compromise versions that landed on his desk. For now, the matter is deadlocked in Congress.

‘Representing My Community’

A number of DACA recipients marched on Tuesday to the Supreme Court with thousands of allies, chanting: “I believe that we will win,” “No Justice, No peace,” and “Up, up liberation. Down, down deportation.”

Arisaid Gonzalez, a junior at Georgetown University, attended the rally with her brother. She moved with her family from Mexico to Mesa, Ariz., when she was just over a year old and she is now protected by DACA.

She chose to attend Georgetown, which is thousands of miles from her parents, because it offered her a full scholarship. She hopes one day to attend law school, but with her DACA status on the line, she said she needs a backup plan for every scenario.

“I’m out here representing my community on campus, my community back home, my parents. I’m here to show Scotus that I’m a human being and I’m more than just a number,” Gonzalez said, using a common shorthand for the Supreme Court.

In a teleconference with reporters shortly after oral arguments ended, Janet A. Napolitano, president of the 10-campus University of California system, said she remained optimistic that, after reviewing the legal arguments, the court would support the continuation of DACA.

The program’s recipients have done all that was asked of them, and many now work as nurses, teachers, and business owners, contributing to the economy, Napolitano said. “To make them subject to eviction from the only country they’ve known as home,” she said, “is inconsistent with our values as a country.”

Napolitano, who will step down as president of the university in August 2020, was the U.S. secretary of homeland security in 2012, when Obama created DACA through executive action. Napolitano, who signed the directive, has continued to be one of the nation’s strongest champions of undocumented students as the Trump administration has sought to weaken protections for them.

UC was the first university system to sue the federal government over its attempt to rescind DACA. Its lawsuit charges that the Trump administration failed to follow the administrative procedures required when a program of DACA’s magnitude is ended, and didn’t provide a valid justification for shutting it down.

“Our suit demands that the Trump administration abide by the law and abandon its attempts to upend the lives of young people who have been living with uncertainty and fear in the country they call home,” Napolitano said on Tuesday from the steps of the Supreme Court. “This case is not just a matter of what is legal — it is about what is right.”

She was accompanied by John A. Pérez, chair of the UC Board of Regents. “The work to protect all of UC’s students has been decades in the making, and that work will not stop, regardless of this particular court’s decision in this particular case,” he said.

More than 1,000 undocumented immigrants and their supporters, some of whom camped out in front of the Supreme Court starting on Monday night, cheered as those who argued their cases emerged from the building. Others followed along online, rallying under the “HomeIsHere” hashtag.

Meanwhile, Trump also took to Twitter hours before the hearing, charging that some DACA recipients are “very tough, hardened criminals” who should never have been allowed to stay. (Immigration advocates have pointed out repeatedly that people with serious criminal records aren’t eligible for DACA.)

It was a stark contrast from a 2017 tweet in which the president questioned why anyone would want to throw out “good, educated, and accomplished young people.”

If the Trump decision stands, young people who have lived nearly their entire lives in the United States could be deported to countries they don’t know, whose languages they don’t speak, Napolitano has pointed out. The decision would not only punish them unfairly for an immigration move over which they had no say, but it would deprive universities like hers of hard-working students, researchers, and medical residents who contribute to an intellectually vibrant and diverse environment.

Even if they aren’t deported, undocumented people without DACA protection could lose their work authorization, and many who rely on income from jobs to stay in college would be forced to drop out. In some states, they would lose the ability to pay lower in-state tuition.

The University of California system has about 4,000 undocumented students, about 1,700 of whom rely on DACA. The university is recommending that DACA-eligible students continue to file requests to renew their status during the weeks and likely months that the Supreme Court will be deliberating on the case. The government isn’t taking new applications.

Many college administrators are also preparing for the scenario in which the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to dismantle DACA, said Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. The organization, which consists of 450 presidents and chancellors, tries to improve conditions for immigrant students on campuses.

College leaders have been ramping up their campus mental and legal services, as well as federal and state advocacy for laws that could help undocumented students, Feldblum said. More important, they have been trying to identify new funding sources that could help undocumented immigrants, such as creating new in-state tuition and financial-aid benefits, raising private funding, and ensuring none of their financial-support policies are tied to a student’s immigration status, Feldblum said.

Dreamers “are what we think about when we think about the core mission of higher education,” Feldblum said. “These students exemplify the aspirations of higher education in the United States. The social mobility, the engaged citizenry, the committed student.”

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.

Danielle McLean writes about federal education policy, among other subjects. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleBMcLean, or email her at dmclean@chronicle.com.