‘I don’t have to keep worrying’: California DACA recipients celebrate Supreme Court ruling

Adrián Escárate woke up around 6:45 a.m. Thursday to check his Twitter account in bed at his home in Santa Cruz.

For weeks, Escárate, 31, has woken up early anxious for news about the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, fearing that the Supreme Court would uphold President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate the program that has protected immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

He got the news he’d hoped to see. The court by a 5-4 decision sided with DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, and rejected Trump’s 2017 repeal of legal protections for DACA recipients.

“It’s a big sigh of relief that I don’t have to keep worrying about this decision coming down,” Escárate said, a DACA recipient who moved to Miami from Chile with his family when he was 3. “It takes away that baggage that I had and people across the country were carrying.”

The court decision upholds a policy former President Barack Obama adopted in 2012, protecting about 800,000 people from deportation and allowing them to work or pursue higher education in the U.S. About 223,000 DACA recipients live in California.

Trump revoked the program in 2017, criticizing what he called the country’s “unfair” immigration system. Jeff Sessions, his attorney general at the time, argued that the DACA program effectively denied jobs to U.S. citizens.

In 2017, California was among other states, including the University of California, to sue the Trump administration over its directive. The case the court decided is known Department of Homeland Security vs. Regents of the University of California.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, finding that the Trump administration did not satisfy administrative requirements to explain its reasoning when it moved to repeal DACA protections.

“This is a great victory. But it’s not necessarily permanent,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “Every dreamer in America deserves to dream in his or her own bed in his or her own home and make it permanent.”

Trump administration criticizes ruling

The Trump administration could attempt to undo DACA again, and a top-ranking official at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sharply criticized the court decision.

“Today’s court opinion has no basis in law and merely delays the president’s lawful ability to end the illegal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals amnesty program,” said Joseph Edlow, the department’s deputy director for policy.

For now, though, Californians with DACA protections are celebrating.

“I am thrilled that I am going to be able to continue to complete my residency training and be able to take care of communities in the ways I had envisioned and had dreamed of,” said New Latthivongskorn, a Dreamer who moved to the U.S. from Bangkok when he was 9. “It’s a historic day.”

He just finished his first year of training at the San Francisco General Hospital where he works as a resident physician. He said DACA recipients who work as educators, health care workers, entrepreneurs and farm workers have “continued to show up for our country” during the coronavirus pandemic.

An estimated 29,000 DACA recipients are health care workers and about 200,000 of them are believed to be so-called essential workers in the country’s effort to slow the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Center for American Progress.

“We see ourselves as Americans,” said Dulce Garcia, a DACA recipient who works as an immigration and criminal defense attorney in San Diego. “We keep asking Congress for a path to citizenship to one day call ourselves American citizens.”

‘Relief to so many’

DACA recipient Andaiye McAndrew, a recent graduate of the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, said she was anxiously waiting by her computer for the Supreme Court decision this week. As soon as she heard the ruling, her face erupted with tears, not just for herself, but for others like her.

“Today for the first time, there’s a sigh of relief within our community. There is a celebration to be had, but at the same time, we all understand that this fight isn’t over,” McAndrew said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the Supreme Court’s decision “an important victory” as he urged Congress to strengthen protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

“We need a permanent solution for undocumented Californians and acknowledge that a pathway to citizenship is not enough. This moment reminds us we are confronting the systemic injustice and racism that exists within our nation and institutions,” Newsom said.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, said in a statement that DACA’s creation in 2012 allowed hundreds of thousands of young people to “step out of the shadows” and contribute to society.

“In these eight years, they have made incredible contributions to our cities, the state and our nation as a whole.” Gonzalez said. “Today’s news that the Supreme Court made the right decision to uphold this successful program is a welcome relief to so many of our neighbors, friends and family members.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 9:05 AM.