SARASOTA (WSNN) – Nearly 800 thousand young people, brought into the country illegally as children, are part of the DACA program, which gives them temporary legal status in the U.S.
However the dream was put on a hold last week when Texas federal Judge Andrew Hanen ruled the program was illegal, as part of a federal lawsuit brought by Texas and 8 other states.
“It’s been a journey so far, but this new ruling that came out recently basically puts it all on pause, so for people who are affected by the program like myself, in the program, or want to be in the program, it just makes us go back into uncertainty, back into the unknown, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the program, we’re back in the limbo,” said DACA recipient, Joshua Contreras.
The ruling keeping the department of homeland security from approving new applications.
Contreras, who works at Wise, a global technology company, has been on an administrative leave from his job as his work permit expired two months ago.
“I’m currently still part of the backlog of 16 thousand DACA renewal recipients that are still stuck with USCIS, so this affects a good chunk of the community, people that everybody works with,” said Contreras.
President Biden, a supporter of DACA, took his thoughts to Twitter, calling the federal court ruling “deeply disappointing.”
Saturday, during a joint border security briefing alongside Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, Texas Governor, Greg Abbott criticized the president’s current immigration policies.
“I think what the Biden Administration is blind to, and that is because of the administration’s open border policies. They are enticing millions of young children into a life where they could be trafficked or they could be harmed or some lose their lives,” Texas Governor, Gregg Abbott.
For now Dreamers like Contreras, hope congress will step up to find a permanent solution.
“At the time of the program, a lot of people were kids, now the program has been in existence for ten years, more than ten years, and we’re contributing to the economy with full families and we’re going back to uncertainty..” said Contreras.
This new legal battle, comes a year after the supreme court stopped the Trump administration from ending DACA.
