Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

By Shireen Khalon
​DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, is intended for children who come into the USA undocumented, either with or without their parents. The program allows eligible children to study and work without fear of deportation. To be eligible for the program, applicants should be 31 years of age or younger as of June 15, 2012. In addition, applicants should have entered the USA before the age of sixteen, and lived in the U.S. continuously from June 2007 until present. Another qualification is applicants should either be in school, have earned a diploma of some sort, or be honorably discharged from the U.S. military. Finally, applicants should not have been convicted of any felonies or severe misdemeanors. Although the qualifications are many, more than 690,000 people are currently protected under the DACA provisions.

Unfortunately, DACA is under threat. The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton (R), sued Donald Trump on May 1st to end DACA. Claiming that Trump has excessive power over immigration, Paxton wants the courts to return this power to the states. Further, he believes the power should be more spread out amongst states. If Ken Paxton were to discontinue DACA, more than 160,000 people in Texas alone would be in danger of deportation.

Ken Paxton is not the only politician in Texas against DACA. In January 2018, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) stated he does not believe DREAMers (the term for immigrants protected under DACA) should have any path to citizenship. He, also, believes in terminating DACA.

Texas politicians, including Representative Ted Poe (R) and Representative John Ratcliffe (R) believe the DACA program is unconstitutional and should be eliminated immediately. Contrarily, other representatives, including Al Green (D) and Will Hurd (R) support DACA and want to seek out ways to make sure there is a clear path for citizenship for DREAMers.

In many ways, what happens to DACA will also impact H1B dependents, also known as H4 DREAMers. When H4 DREAMers age out and turn 21 years of age, they will be required to find their own method to stay in the USA, whether that’s filing for a student visa, a work visa, J1 visa, DACA, or a number of other visas. When a H4 DREAMer is eligible for DACA, they have a clear path to green card and on to citizenship.
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Whatever the path may be and whatever these politicians believe, President Trump will likely make the final decision on DACA’s fate. While he has gone back and forth multiple times on whether he wants to end DACA or not, there has yet to be a genuine bipartisan discussion about the program. We will just have to wait and find out what happens. Until then, we can only hope Paxton’s lawsuit is thrown out.