Supreme Court DACA Decision – What You Need to Know

The DACA program is something that helps a lot of children across the world come to the United States and start getting an education. The program was started by the Obama administration back in 2012 and this year, the Trump administration attempted to shut it down. This would have affected a lot of children with undocumented or illegally documented parents who wanted a chance at a better life in the U.S.

Did the Trump administration succeed, though? What is the Supreme Court DACA decision?

What Did the June 2020 DACA Decision Say?

In 2012, the Obama administration came up with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program was meant to help protect the children of illegal or undocumented people in the U.S. Many children would have been at risk of deportation, but considering children are innocent and shouldn’t suffer the consequences of their parents’ situation, the DACA program was born.

This program doesn’t only protect recipients from being deported, but it also offers work authorization for them, one that is renewable in two-year grants. USCIS declared that there were about 650,000 DACA recipients in the U.S.

However, the Trump administration wanted to put an end to this program. Luckily for the thousands of recipients, they didn’t succeed. In June 2020, the highest court rejected the attempt of the administration. Apparently, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rules that it was not possible for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to proceed with this plan. Having said that, the decision is in and DACA will continue to exist, even though it’s not certain for how long.

One more thing that you should keep in mind is that the DACA decision didn’t call the attempt of the administration unconstitutional. The ruling focuses on the fact that the Trump administration had no good justification for wanting to put an end to DACA in the first place.

So, it means that the administration could still try to end the program by other means. It might still be possible that we’ll see something similar happen in the future. However, it may not be in the close future, considering there is an election coming up.

What Does the Supreme Court DACA Decision Mean?

It’s important for you to know what the Supreme Court DACA decision means if you’re a DACA recipient. That being said, here’s all you need to know:

DACA Applications

After the Supreme Court’s DACA decision, the program will go back to the state it was in back in 2012. This is very beneficial for DACA recipients because if they meet the requirements, they will have their initial applications accepted by USCIS, as this is one of the things expected to happen.

DACA Renewals

There was already an injunction put on the DACA shut down by the lower courts, so the recipients were able to renew their two-year grants of deferred action. After all, DACA wants to make sure that recipients are up-to-date. Otherwise, if the DACA protection lapsed, then people would only spend time in an unlawful presence. Consequently, they would lose a lot of benefits, such as protection against deportation and employment authorization.

It is possible for people to simply renew their DACA the same way they did in the past. It’s important to remember that the renewal package needs to be submitted at least 90 days before the expiration date. You should not go beyond 150 days before the expiration date arrives. The package for your renewal should be sent to USCIS, and it should include the following documents:

• The renewal fee for DACA ($495)
• A cover letter
• I-765, Application for Employment Authorization
• I-821D, Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
• Two passport-style photos
• I-765 worksheet
• A copy of the previous employment authorization document

So, make sure that when you submit the renewal package to USCIS, you have the documents listed above, as they are typical contents of the package. You should just be aware that there are moments when some of the answers you gave on your application may require additional documentation.

If you want to prepare your forms properly, then make sure to check out the instructions given by USCIS.

DACA Advance Parole

After the ruling from June 2020, it is still not clear whether there’s any open up advance parole for DACA. Beforehand, it was possible for a DACA recipient to apply for an advance parole travel document, which allowed him/her to go abroad for a trip for a temporary period. The trip should have been for education, employment, or humanitarian reasons.

The amazing thing when it comes to advance parole is that when you come back to the country, it is going to be considered a lawful entry. If DACA recipients have parents who entered without being inspected, it is going to be much easier for eligible people to obtain a green card after the lawful entry.

It’s crucial to talk to an immigration attorney first before you try to obtain an advance parole document.

Future of DACA

The future of DACA may be uncertain, even though the Trump administration didn’t succeed in taking it down. There will be many issues with the DACA recipients if the program disappears and they will have to be sent back to their country of origin.

Basically, many DACA recipients were children when they were brought to the United States, and now they’re probably adults or they’re growing up. Moreover, there are a lot of them who got high education and served in the military as well. Concurrently, some of them were even able to become lawyers or doctors. Just like people born into the U.S., they are making contributions to society and paying their taxes. It can be said they are, in fact, Americans, even though they were born in another part of the world.

DACA was created as a temporary solution to a long-term problem. If you think about it, there are a lot of DACA recipients who probably cannot even speak the language of the country they come from or have no idea about the country’s culture. Because of that, “going home” wouldn’t be the best thing to happen to them.

For now, things are great as the SCOTUS DACA decision allowed the program to keep going. However, the DACA recipients need to receive legal status, and they need a permanent path for that. Therefore, Congress will need to take action to make it possible, and the president will have to use his leadership to make it possible as well.

Conclusion

Many people were brought into the U.S. under illegally documented parents or undocumented ones. DACA protects these children against deportation, so the program is of great importance for them. Its termination would mean that thousands of children would have to return to a country they didn’t live in for too long, a country they don’t know much about. Sending them back would be cruel. So, for now, it’s amazing that the Supreme Court DACA decision didn’t allow for it to be terminated by the Trump administration.

At the same time, we never know if they will attempt to end it again, which is why DACA recipients need a way to get their legal status.

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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