UUSC Applauds Supreme Court Decision Upholding DACA

Contact: Michael Givens
mgivens@uusc.org
857-540-0617 (cell)

The Court’s ruling offers long-overdue relief to thousands of immigrant young people; passing H.R. 6 into law will provide a clear path to citizenship for thousands

The Supreme Court today wisely ruled in favor of plaintiffs in the case Wolf v. Batalla Vidal, rejecting the administration’s cruel and racist attempt to cancel the immigration status of roughly 700,000 immigrant youth. Since 2017, the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to terminate DACA in order to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda. Today’s decision vindicates the countless immigrant youth, their families, and allies who fought to defend the right of DACA holders to their home.

The court’s ruling indisputably offers much-needed relief to thousands of DACA holders, who have been forced to wait years without knowing how long their protections from deportation will last. The result has been countless lives interrupted and overcome with fear. The administration chose to subject these young people—and their more than 250,000 U.S. citizen children—to needless terror largely in order to bargain for other anti-immigrant policy goals. One does not need to look further for an example of gratuitous cruelty.

The Supreme Court’s decision today cannot wholly undo these earlier harms; likewise, it is beyond the court’s power to grant permanent status to DACA recipients. As a result, they, like hundreds of thousands of TPS holders—a similarly-situated group of immigrants—remain at risk of losing status from future executive action. Only Congress has the power to grant the path to citizenship that will protect DACA and TPS holders permanently from the threat of deportation and to protect family unity in the face of family separation.

Fortunately, a legislative solution to accomplish this already exists. More than a year ago, the House passed H.R. 6, a bill to provide a path to citizenship for DACA and TPS holders. The Senate should take up this bill now and finally pass it into law. DACA recipients have waited long enough. This country, and no other, is their home. It is time our nation’s laws reflected this truth, as well as the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support DACA holders. Congress must pass H.R. 6 into law.

With this decision, the Courts have protected the spirit of our nation by protecting our culture of belonging where every person’s dignity is upheld. Now it is time for the Trump Administration and our elected officials to follow suit.

—Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, CEO and President, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee