NJ Dreamers celebrate as high court upholds DACA

By: Monsy Alvarado
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Randolph's Cynthia Osorio was surprised by the outcome, after expecting the worst.
..... Tony Chio, who grew up in Bergen County, said he immediately felt "tremendous relief" and was "hopeful" for his future.
..... Engrid Zuley Silva-Troya was on a break at work when her mother called with the news. The Jersey City woman couldn't help herself from crying.
..... "I didn't realize how bad it as going to affect me until this moment," and I feel relieved," said Silva-Troya, 30, who was born in Ecuador and moved to New Jersey when she was 2 years old. "I feel a weight has lifted off my shoulders, and I can finally breathe peacefully."
..... For Dreamers" in New Jersey - the young undocumented immigrants protected by the federal government's DACA program - the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Thursday [06/18/2020] to preserve the program brought tears and joy after three years of fretting over their future in the country they'd grew up in.
..... The narrow ruling left DACA's fate far from certain, but supporters nonetheless celebrated. Defeat could have meant deportation or a life back in the shadows of beneficiaries, immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children but still lack legal status.
..... "I feel very relieved we still have our work permits and are still able to renew," said Edgar Vazquez Molina of Bridgewater, a bilingual teacher in Franklin Township.
... "Hopefully now that the Trump administration sees it's a popular program, they will begin to work on something that is more permanent," said Vazquez Molina, who emigrated from Mexico when he was 5.
...... The 5-4 ruling maintains work authorizations and protection form deportation for the 650,000 beneficiaries of Deferred action for Childhood Arrivals. The long-awaited decisions was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, part of the court's conservative majority, and joined by its four liberals, justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Soto-mayor.
..... Roberts wrote that the justices weren't deciding whether DACA was a sound policy, but instead ruling that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to comply with procedural requirements when it moved to end the Obama-era program in 2017.
..... The agency failed to consider "conspicuous issues," including "what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients," Roberts wrote.
..... The program covers 16,480 people in New Jersey, according to the most recent figures from U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services. The state has the ninth-most participants among the 50 states.
..... The ruling doesn't prevent President Donald Trump form trying anew to end the protections. That leaves the fate of DACA on the line in this fall's [2020] presidential election between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
..... "The reality remains that the Trump administration could again attempt to terminate the DACA program," Maneesha Kelkar, interim director the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said in a statement. "We call on Congress and [New Jersey's] Legislature to put in place policies that create permanent protections for all immigrants."
..... Former President Barack Obama, who launched the program in 2012, tweeted that he was "happy" for DACA recipients and urged supporters to elect Biden, his former vice president.
..... "We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals, and now to stand up for those ideals, we have to move forward and elect @JoeBiden and a Democratic Congress," he tweeted.
..... Trump in his own tweet, blasted the ruling as "horrible & politically charged" and a betrayal of Republican and conservative values.
... Dan Stein, president of the federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that supports limits on immigration to the U.S. called the decision an "enormous setback."
..... "On a practical level, today's [06/18/2020] ruling will likely lead to future waves of illegal immigration, as people around the world see the opportunity to bring minor children to the United States illegally in the expectation that they will be granted permission to remain permanently," he said in a statement."

HOLD HER BREATH:

..... Osorio, a social worker who was born in Mexico, said it;s felt like she has been holding her breath ever since Trump announced his intention to end the program three years ago. The decision renewed her resolve to fight for a permanent solution for all undocumented immigrants in the country."
..... "Time and time again, we have seen the DACA program threatened to be removed," and although I grew comfortable with just having DACA, now more than ever I realized that we as Dreamers old and new need a push and advocate for a pathway to citizenship," said the 25-year-old. "Not just for ourselves but for our parents, for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country who don;t have the opportunity that we have in having DACA."
..... "I am fighting for myself but also for my family, and I know that we can win," said the Randolph woman, a member of the Morristown-based immigrant-rights group Wind of the Spirit.
... Choi, who was born in South Korea and moved to the United States when he was 9, called the ruling a victory, although he acknowledged that a permanent solution is still far off.

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