THE MONTHLY GLEANER | OCTOBER 6 - NOVEMBER 5, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 7 By Lester Hinds IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS and advocates are urging the United States Congress to act swiftly in enacting the necessary legislation to provide protection to DACA recipients in light of a ruling on Wednesday, October 5, by the Texas 5th Court of Appeal that the designation is unconstitutional. The Texas court ruled that DACA is unconstitutional, but left it in place for the time being for the judge who first ruled on the measure to make a final decision. Immigration attorney, Jamaican Michelle Fanger, who is based in Jacksonville, Florida, said that the court’s ruling is merely a pause before making its final decision and Congress needs to act immediately. “This is hurting a lot of people who are under the programme. Once again they find themselves in uncertainty. We had all hoped that there would already been a pathway to legal status for these recipients but Congress has so far failed to act,” she said. More than 600,000 people are covered by DACA, including some 4,000 Jamaicans. She said that the priority must be to provide legal status for people under DACA. “The ruling is a setback but hopefully Congress will see the need to now act speedily to protect these people,” she said. Fanger expressed hope that people under the programme will not be forced to go back into the shadows. With it now being harder for people in the United States to get employment without proper documentation, she said many DACA recipients could end up losing employment when it comes time to renew their permits. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2021 ruling by a federal district judge inTexas who found that the programme is illegal and barred first-time applicants. DACA protects people who were brought to the country as children without legal status, or who later fell out of legal status, by granting them work authorisation, protecting them fromdeportation, and in some cases, allowing them to get travel permits. US District Judge AndrewHanen last year found that DACA was unlawful in part because it was created by a memorandum written by former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, and not by the formal agency rule-making process, which requires public “notice and comment”. But he allowed the programme to temporarily continue for those already with DACA status. In late August, the Biden administration released the final version of a rule to codify and fortify DACA in an attempt to protect the programme and recipients from ongoing legal threats. The three-judge panel of the New Orleansbased 5th Circuit Court did not order the Biden administration to shut down the programme, but it did bar the approval of first-time DACA applications. The US appeal court sent the case back to Judge Hanen, asking him to review the Biden administration’s new rule, which is set to take effect on October 31. Irwine Clare, head of Caribbean Immigration Services, a Queens-based immigration advocacy group, said the ruling by the court again places DACA recipients in limbo. “It is now up to Congress to act,” he said. New attack on DACA sparks jitters among diaspora US Congress urged to act swiftly to enact law to provide protection to recipients Dunkley Clare PLEASE SEE DIASPORA, 8
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