Impacts in the Borderland to judge stopping immigration expansion
The debate over immigration reform is red hot again. A Texas judge blocked the start of President Obama’s expanded immigration order.
“I’m happy to report that late last night a federal judge halted the President’s executive action plan,” said Governor Greg Abbott, who as attorney general filed a lawsuit to stop the law last year. “In Texas, we will not sit idly by while the President ignores the law and fails to secure the border.”
Governor Abbott praised the action taken by a federal judge who temporarily blocked the executive order. The President’s program seeks to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. In response to the injunction, the Department of Homeland Security is halting all preparations for the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that would have started Wednesday.
President Obama’s executive action taken last year would have loosened the restrictions on who would qualify for temporary legal status under the program, meaning they could stay in the country and get things like work permits if they were brought to the United States as a child under the age of 16.
The expanded DACA program would have widened the window to qualify from arrival in the U.S. before June 2007 to the start of 2010 and removed the age maximum to apply, which is currently restricted to those under 34 years old.
The executive action was also working to create a new program – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. Planned to start in May, DAPA would have allowed the parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to gain temporary legal status as long as they haven’t committed any major crimes and have continuously lived in the U.S. since 2010.
Immigrant advocates said the judge’s action to block the program could make applicants afraid of coming forward, but ultimately won’t stop their efforts to stay in this country legally.
“It’s not the final decision where the court said ‘This is not right, he over stepped,'” said Melissa Lopez, executive director for the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Service. “This is something temporary, a ‘let’s hold off until we know what we’re dealing with’ type of decision.”
Because of the legal action, young undocumented immigrants ready to apply for legal status are back in limbo.
“I guess I’m going to be depressed or, I don’t know,” said Elizabeth Hernandez, in the country illegally since she was 14. “I guess I’m going to find other ways to get a permit.”
Hernandez came to the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Service a day early to start applying for the expanded program that was supposed to start Wednesday. She arrived in the U.S. in late 2007, just after the cutoff date to qualify for the existing program. She said she wants to do things legally now, and go to school and start her own business.
“I want to study business administration,” Hernandez said. “And I also want to get my license for insurance agent in order to open my agency.”
Lopez expects that the judge’s block may only be a temporary setback.
“The next step I expect is for an appellate judge to make a ruling on the injunction,” Lopez said. “That would be best for us to know are we going to be moving forward, or are we going to be planning for it as something a little bit further down the line.”
But while the national debate rages, undocumented immigrants Hernandez are left wondering what might happen if the program expansion is blocked for good.
“Really disappointed,” Hernandez said. “Because a lot of the people that have dreams like me, we want a better future. So it’s really going to affect me if they stop the DACA program.”
President Obama has vowed to fight the injunction, while Governor Abbott has said this was just the first step to defeating what he calls the President’s illegal action.
