DACA/DAPA
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) offer certain immigrants protection from immediate deportation and other benefits. Learn more about these policies, how they affect America, and our work to strengthen them below.
The Court Decision on Deferred Action Everyone Should Be Talking About
Yesterday, in Crane v. Johnson, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (the same court deciding whether or not to keep in place the preliminary injunction blocking the President’s executive actions) unanimously dismissed a lawsuit challenging the original 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The court held that… Read More
Adding Up the Economic Benefits of the President’s Deferred Action Initiatives
As the Center for American Progress (CAP) points out in a new analysis, immigrants with legal status earn more than immigrants who don’t have legal status. Immigrants who earn more also buy more goods and services from U.S. businesses (not to mention paying more in taxes). And all of this extra spending creates new jobs in U.S. businesses for native-born and foreign-born workers alike. This is not a complicated economic argument to grasp. In fact, it’s common sense; workers who have legal status can change jobs more easily and don’t find themselves stuck in the lowest-wage jobs. Hence the importance of passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation—or, as a stop-gap measure until Congress gets its act together, implementing the Obama Administration’s “deferred action” initiatives. Read More
Texas Judge Places Preliminary Hold on President’s Deferred Action Initiatives, Government Likely to Counter
A Texas Judge has placed a preliminary hold on the two initiatives announced by President Obama last November that would expand the two-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents (DAPA). These two programs would provide temporary relief from… Read More
Texas Decision at Odds with Legal Precedent, History and Facts on Immigration Enforcement
Washington D.C. – Late last night, a Texas judge issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks the implementation of President Obama’s new deferred action initiatives. These initiatives, announced last November, came in response to more than 10 years of political stalemates and failure by Congress to address America’s broken immigration… Read More
How Leveraging Immigrants’ Skills Could Further Boost U.S. Economy
Now is certainly a good time to think about ways in which to realize the full potential of the immigrant workforce. There are more than 26 million foreign-born workers in the United States, and just over 8 million of them are unauthorized. Two-thirds of all unauthorized immigrants have… Read More
Senate Hearing Shows Deferred Action Programs are Beneficial to Social Security
The Senate Homeland Security committee on Wednesday held its first hearing about President Obama’s immigration executive actions. The hearing and the witnesses testifying focused on the “implications and unanswered questions” about the deportation relief offered to some undocumented immigrants included in the president’s actions. First, the… Read More
House Approves DHS Funding With Anti-Immigration Executive Action Amendments
The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the $39.7 billion funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, including five amendments that attacked parts of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 236-191 vote for the spending measure passed… Read More
Top Five Immigration Stories of 2014
This year, the narrative on immigration swung from hope that the House of Representatives would follow the Senate’s lead and act on comprehensive immigration reform legislation to hopelessness when Republican leaders refused to act. Then attention turned to anticipation of the President’s announcement of temporary executive actions to… Read More
Five Things to Know About Deportation Relief for Some Immigrant Parents
The most impactful component of President Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action will be the creation of a new program designed to offer deportation reprieves and work authorization to undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders who pass a background check and meet other requirements. Here are… Read More
American Immigration Council Executive Director, Ben Johnson Comments on Executive Action
Washington D.C. – Ben Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council offers the following quotes on the policies released yesterday by the Obama Administration: What this all means: “After decades of congressional neglect, President Obama took a crucial and courageous step toward reforming our immigration system. Read More
