This post is written by guest blogger Juan Jimenez, a friend of LexSpot through our collaborative effort supporting DACA applicants.
Tuesday night before going to sleep I opened up Facebook and see a comment by someone stating that DACA had lost in court and was going to be terminated.åÊ At that point I wasn't sure if I should relay the message I was reading and post it on other groups, or wait and see and find out what was really happening. In my mind I could picture Dreamers going through inspections and being arrested by ICE, I could see in my mind ICE agents raiding thousands of Dreamers‰Ûª homes and taking everyone since the government now knows exactly where we live and where we work. Luckily I have learned to wait and see what's really going on before causing unnecessary panic.
What the post was referring to was filed on Aug. 23, 2012 by Attorney Kris Kobach:
(l) on behalf of Christopher Crane and nine other Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, ICE Director John Morton and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, in response to Napolitano's Directive entitled ‰ÛÏExercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children, implementing President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program..
I remember hearing about the lawsuit on the news and on Facebook but I completely forgot about it just like I am sure many people have.
When I woke up I saw all of these different articles regarding the case but none of them were really clear on what had actually happened and I, not being an attorney, didn't really understand what the judge had said. I see a local attorney posting on our wall articles relating to what had happened but I believe he was as clueless as we were because the answers he was giving were very "textbook". One of the Dreamers created a post stating something along the lines of, they attack DACA and they will see what everyone united can do ! Immediately the attorney starts confronting him and telling him to be rational and getting involved in the courts will only hurt our case.
It's funny that people will always tell us to be rational when they don't understand what DACA means to us and how hard everyone has worked to be where they are. What it means to be told that your life, as you know it is over and you shouldn't do anything about it. I really don't believe he was referring to getting involved in the courts but getting organized. As the day went on I keep seeing different threads with people panicking and not knowing what's going on, even after they've been told that everything is fine and nothing is going to happen they won't rationalize and panic. I have seen these same people write about other things and I know they are smart people and understand politics well, but that's the bad thing about fear and panic, it's hard to rationalize.
We now know that as some have put it "DACA IS OK." It turns out the judge is likely to rule against DACA but he has asked for additional evidence from both sides before making a final decision. My understanding is that even if the judge rules in favor of the ICE agents, the ruling is likely to be stuck in appeals and may make it to the Supreme Court. It may be years before it makes its final journey. For more details, see David Leopold's Huffington Post article article "DACA Is Alive and Well."
Now more than ever we need to come together and put pressure on Washington. We need to make them understand that our lives are at stake here and we will not stop until immigration reform passes. Make calls and write letters to your Senate and House representatives. Have friends and family members that ARE U.S. citizens write letters to congress on your behalf. Remember that DACA IS NOT a law and as we have learned there are people out there that are working very hard to take it down and take everything we have worked so hard for away. Let's not put our guard down and make this the year immigration reform finally makes it into law.
If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about deferred action (DACA) please join a Facebook group I manage here.
