Tramp administration rescinds DAPA program for parents of Dreamers

With the DAPA program ended, families may be separated again as parents are deported.

THE Department of Homeland Security rescinded an Obama administration memo that would have protected the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, known as DAPA, and Expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (expanded DACA) program.

While DAPA was rescinded, for the time being, it appears the DACA program designed for those young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as undocumented children will remain in place although the door is still open the administration might review that decision at a later date. Thus, the breaking up of families becomes more likely with parents being deported and children allowed to remain in the U.S.

“Maintaining the DACA program is a critical step to protecting the millions of undocumented youth who have been able to come out of the shadows since the program was first launched in 2012," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific Americans Caucus.

DAPA, had never actually taken effect after being signed in 2014. Courts had blocked it pending further litigation, which has been ongoing. While the program was argued in the courts, deportations in this group were minimal. With the program ended, the parents become vulnerable to deportation.

There are an estimated 1.5 million unauthorized AAPI immigrants in the country, 169,000 of whom are eligible for original or expanded DACA. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, however, AAPi enrollment has not been great.

"Like many undocumented communities, undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders face language access challenges, access to resources such as healthcare, livable wage, and many more," says Anthony Ng, a policy advocate for immigrant rights at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles legal advocacy group.

"During times where we see policies targeting immigrant communities, undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders don't necessarily think they may be as vulnerable as someone who crossed the border. Most undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders come over with some form of visa that expires, they think they are less vulnerable when, in fact, any non-citizen is susceptible to these policies targeting immigrants."

"However, by rescinding DAPA and continuing to build a mass deportation force, the Trump Administration continues to generate fear and anxiety within our immigrant communities," she said.

"The decision is bittersweet, coming on the 5th anniversary of DACA," said the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice), an affiliation of five civil rights organizations. 

"Due to the strong advocacy by undocumented youth and their allies, the Administration has not kept its promise to end the DACA program, which provides work authorization for around 800,000 people. We celebrate the continuance of the program as a victory," said the AAAJ statement.

Trump has voiced his anti-immigrant views since the first days of his presidential campaign. In his address to Congress earlier this year, he created VOICE, a new agency to tally the crimes committed by immigrants and attempted to restrict travel from six predomiantly Muslim countries.

In the meantime, AAAJ encourages DACA recipients and DACA-eligible people to know their rights and consult with an attorney or BIA-accredited representative about applying for or renewing their DACA applications.

For a variety of know your rights materials, visit Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA’s website.

To schedule an appointment for immigration or citizenship related services, contact immrelief@advancingjustice-la.org or call Advancing Justice-LA's toll-free in-language hotline numbers:

• Chinese: (800) 520-2356
• Korean: (800) 867-3640
• Tagalog: (885) 300-2552
• Thai: (800) 914-9583
• Vietnamese: (800) 267-7395
• Khmer: (800) 867-3126
• English: (888) 349-9695

"If this Administration truly cares about immigrant families, they must stop pursuing xenophobic and hateful policies that do not reflect our widely-shared values as a nation," said Chu. "Instead, we must take more substantive steps to ensure that we keep families together and work toward a permanent solution to fix our broken immigration system.”

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Bipartisan effort introduces bill to keep the Dreamers in the U.S.

About 18,000 Asian/Americans are registered in the  DACA program.

A BIPARTISAN group of lawmakers that included California Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Judy Chu introduced a bill to protect undocumented young people brought to the United States as children should the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program be discontinued under the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

"DACA is not a partisan issue — it’s an issue that touches on respect, justice, dignity, and equality," said Harris. 

The Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act, which was first introduced in the Senate late last year, would provide temporary relief from deportation and work authorization to undocumented youth. 

About 740,000 young people known as Dreamers, 18,000 of which are Asian/Americans, would be affected if DACA is repealed.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the bill in the Senate and Representatives Mike Coffman (CO-06) and Luis V. Gutiérrez (IL-04) are introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“In my view, the DACA Executive Order issued by President Obama was unconstitutional and President-elect Trump would be right to repeal it," said Graham. "However, I do not believe we should pull the rug out and push these young men and women -- who came out of the shadows and registered with the federal government -- back into the darkness. 

"Our legislation continues to provide legal status to them for three years as Congress seeks a permanent solution. These young people have much to offer the country and we stand to benefit from the many contributions they will make to America."

The BRIDGE act is a temporary measure that would give Congress time to come up with a permanent resolution the dilemma of the Dreamers.

"While we strongly support these efforts to save DACA, we have grave concerns about placing anyone in permanent second-class status," said Mee Moua, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

"Asians Americans were the first immigrants to be excluded from the U.S. based on race and national origin. Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, Asians were effectively barred from immigrating to the U.S. and ineligible for citizenship,"

The BRIDGE Act has broad support from the faith, business, higher-education, civil rights, and immigrant communities. This week, 88 business leaders from around the country sent a letter to President-elect Trump and House and Senate leadership asking them to support the BRIDGE Act.

Rep. Gutierrez added that immigrants do not detract from American society: “The DREAMers who have DACA are not competing with Americans for a slice of the pie, they are helping to bake a bigger pie for our country and our economy.”

A report last month determined that a reverse of DACA would slash the country’s GDP by $433 billion over the next decade, including losses in contributions to Social Security and Medicare.

Sen. Harris said that people had shared stories about the crying children of immigrants and Muslims asking their parents if they were going to be sent away, and that law enforcement officials told her they worried victims of crimes would not report incidents out of fear that the police would turn them over to be deported.

“I feel very strongly that California’s voice must be a voice of leadership in Washington, D.C., on all the issues that we discussed,” she said. “We have an outsized stake in the outcome of the conversation about immigrants … and I feel very strongly that we must defend all people.”

California's schools chief encourages districts to become 'safe havens'

AAPI students fight for immigration rights.

IN A LETTER, California's top school official released a letter Wednesday (Dec. 21) encouraging all public schools in the state to be declared “safe havens” for students and their parents and to remind families about existing laws that protect students’ records from questions about immigration status.

“Unfortunately, since the presidential election, reports of bullying, harassment, and intimidation of K-12 students based on immigration status, religious, or ethnic identification are on the rise,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in his letter to county and school district superintendents, charter school administrators, and principals.

“As State Superintendent of Public Instruction, safety is my top priority. And my strongest commitment to you, your students, and their families is that schools remain safe places to learn. California serves more than 6.2 million kindergarten through twelfth grade students with the most diverse population in the nation,” said Torlakson. 

Citizenship status is not a condition for enrollment in California K-12 schools. All kids must go to school, regardless of their paperwork. Citizenship is also not a condition for enrollment in California's system of community and four-year colleges. It is estimated that one in ten California students are "unauthorized."

While the majority of California's unauthorized students are from Mexico and Latin America, the next biggest group is from Asia.

The California Department of Education (CDE) will continue to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with guidelines about existing laws that protect student records, including the 1984 Plyler v. Doe U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires schools to enroll all eligible children regardless of immigration status.

Schools must verify a student’s age and residency, but they have extensive flexibility in what documents are used and do not need to use pertaining to immigration status. No records can be released to law enforcement without a parent’s written permission, a court order, or subpoena. Schools should not collect or maintain any documents pertaining to immigration status, Torlakson said.

Some California schools districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District and Sacramento City Unified School District, have already declared themselves safe havens and let their communities know they will maintain a welcoming environment for all students and parents.

The full letter is available on the California Department of Education (CDE) Public Schools Remain Safe Havens Web page.

Undocumented Asian immigrants eligible for DACA. not taking advantage of program

Asian/Americans demonstrated in support of President Obama's immigration reform policies that were being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court last Spring.

Reprinted from AsAm News

Annette Wong, Chinese for Affirmative Action
 Director of Programs, speaks at a DACA press conference
in San Francisco .

MUCH CONFUSION and uncertainty may be overwhelming undocumented immigrants seeking a path to citizenship, reports New American Media.

Last month’s 4-4 split decision in the U.S. Supreme Court was a blow to DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) and the expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) programs.

Still in effect is the original DACA program which protects eligible undocumented immigrants from deportation for two years and allows them to work legally in the United States. Those that qualify must have entered the United States before age 16 and be under the age of 31. Expanded DACA would have eliminated the upper age limit.

RELATED: Asian/Americans condemn SCOTUS  ruling on immigration

Many of those who were under the original DACA program must now renew their application as their two years is nearing an end. However, with the uncertain political climate, some have expressed fears that they may put themselves in jeopardy if the new president ends DACA.

“There is no evidence of this,” said Sally Kinoshita, deputy director of Immigrant Legal Resource Center. “There have been numerous programs like this, and there is no evidence of the government going after you.”

Since 2012, 728,000 have received DACA, however researchers say Asians have been severely underrepresented in the applicant pool.

Only 18,000 people from South Korea, the Philippines, India and Pakistan have applied.

RELATED: Asians are part of the immigration debate

Among eligible Filipinos, just 24 percent have applied. The application rate among eligible Indians is 21 percent, and just 17 percent among eligible South Koreans have applied for DACA. The Chinese American application rate is so low it didn’t make the list of the top 20 countries of DACA applicants.

RELATED: Dreaming with the American dreamers

The accompanying graph from the Center for American Progress compares the application rate of those from Mexico to those from South Korea.

Some blame a cultural stigma attached to being undocumented for the low application rate among Asians. Others point to a language barrier with Asians in the U.S. having the highest rate of limited English-proficiency. Efforts among AAPI groups to increase the application rate have so far not been successful.

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400,000 undocumented Asian immigrants in California may be impacted by Supreme Court ruling

Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas,was among the hundreds of immigration activists demonstrating outside the Supreme Court as the justices heard arguments in the case challenging President Obama's executive actions on immigration.

LAST MONDAY (April 18) at the U.S. Supreme Court, the eight justices heard oral arguments for and against President Obama's executive actions on immigration: Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Based on questions from the Supreme Court justices, it appears to court-watchers that the case will end in a 4-4 tie based on party lines. That would be bad news for the White House. The high court has been operating one justice short since the death of Antonin Scalia in February.

If SCOTUS remains deadlocked in the U.S. vs. Texas, the lower court ruling that said the president went too far in his executive actions would stand, voiding Obama's effort on  immigration reform.

“We know that DAPA and expanded DACA stand on the right side of the law,” said Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles. “In the last five decades, Presidents from both sides of the aisle have taken executive action to shape immigration priorities.”

RELATED: Asians are part of the immigration debate

The decision could impact about 4 million undocumented immigrants; 400,000 of whom are from Asia. Asian immigrants have surpassed immigrants coming from Latin America.

In California, an estimated 15 percent of the state’s undocumented residents are Asian, comprising approximately 416,000 people. Of those, 130,000 are in Los Angeles County and 52,000 are in Orange County. Statewide, Advancing Justice-LA estimates that the largest groups of undocumented Asians are: Filipinos (143,000), Chinese (76,000), Koreans (71,000), Vietnamese (60,000), and Asian Indian (46,000).

RELATED: Dreaming with the American dreamers

"For the average person, what's at stake is: What are you going to do with all of these millions of undocumented people?" asked Jose Antonio Vargas in an interview with Rolling Stone. Vargas is a Filipino/American immigration advocate who himself is undocumented.

"It's been perpetual limbo for them. Nothing is getting done. Congress is saying the president is overreaching, but I would argue that Congress has been irresponsible in not doing anything," said Vargas.

RELATED: Jose Antonio Vargas - an undocumented American

“While the legal battle ensues and anti-immigrant campaigns on the state and national level continue, we must remember that these actions have a real human cost,” said Anthony Ng, immigrant rights policy advocate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA). “A ruling against DAPA won’t just impact undocumented immigrants; it will impact their families, as well as our neighborhoods and communities.”

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Americans, read AsAm News.