Major Progress: Administration to Grant Deportation Relief Amidst Mounting Criticism

Wow. Just weeks ago, UCLA graduate and award-winning Dreamer David Cho posted a petition on Change.org commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the federal DREAM Act and asking President Obama and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to do everything in their power to stop deporting talented youth who had been brought to the US at a young age and want nothing more than to give back to the country they call home.

It was the same demand that four determined youth first made as they embarked on their historic 1,500-mile trek from Miami to DC known as the Trail of Dreams, over a year ago now. It was a plea that Congressman Luis Gutierrez and dozens of U.S. Senators made directly to President Obama in the aftermath of the latest DREAM Act obstructionism in Congress.

Cho argued, "While the possibility of passing the Federal DREAM Act seems slim to none this year, President Obama himself can take action through executive power. With the stroke of a pen, the President can halt the deportation of all DREAM-eligible students... For many, this is  the only country they have ever known...  It is a terrible waste of federal resources and an abuse of human rights to prosecute these young  people, to deport them, and to separate them from their family and  friends."

Well, today David and thousands of courageous Dreamers who have put their lives (literally) on the line in some cases to push for immigration reform have cause to celebrate a hard-won and historic policy shift by the Obama Administration.

On Thursday, August 18th, DHS announced it will begin a thorough review of its pending deportation caseload to refocus enforcement efforts away from "low priority" immigrants like Dream youth and toward "high priority individuals," such as those who have committed crimes.  DHS will now consider DREAM Act-eligible youths, relatives of veterans, and other individuals who are currently in the deportation process and who have no prior criminal convictions, non-threatening; they will move to dismiss their cases and, on a "case per case basis," issue work permits.

In a media statement, Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), praised the relentless grassroots advocacy that led to the historic announcement, saying, " After two and a half years of pressuring the Administration for key changes and one million deportations later, DHS inched a step closer to more humane, smart, and sensible immigration enforcement.  If the process announced today is implemented, we believe hundreds of thousands of honest, hard-working families, including DREAM-eligible students, in deportation proceedings should have their cases stayed."

National Immigration Law Center executive director Marielena Hincapié said, “This new process comprises a positive first step toward ensuring that the country’s limited resources are not misspent on ripping families apart or deporting students who came as children to the U.S., or workers who exercised their civil rights, or countless other immigrants who have been caught up in the deportation dragnet."

Many advocates, while heartened by the historic news, remain wary of DHS and ICE's track record on implementing policy changes thus far, and are quick to point to the reality that millions of undocumented immigrants will be unable to benefit from this policy change. Salas argues, "Keeping millions in the darkness without immigration reform or administrative remedy, however, should ease no one's conscience or improve a failed immigration policy.  Without necessary reforms such as the elimination of the "Secure Communities" (S-Comm) program, the updates announced today will remain nominal in comparison to the suffering our community is experiencing with the remaining uncertainty and the blind enforcement of our broken immigration laws."

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights also questioned the Administration's controversial expansion of the "Secure Communities" deportation program while at the same time praising the step forward in preventing needless deportations. "We hope that DHS follows through with this process to offer humane consideration to hardworking immigrants. We also hope that DHS will also furthermore review its policies to end programs like “Secure Communities” that are devastating families and undermining law enforcement."

Jose Torres-Don, coordinator of The NIYA Education Not Deportation campaign, a project focused on preventing the deportation of youth and their families, argued that the announcement, “shows that the president does actually have the power he previously claimed to not have" and that it was a direct response to tremendous organizing by immigrant youth and their allies.

"It is still unclear the mechanisms and how it will actually work," Marisol Valero-Davila, leader of United We Dream said in a statement. “The President has earned our mistrust by deporting our community and ignoring our calls for relief. He now must earn our trust, by showing us that he is serious about this new proposal. The proof is in the pudding.”

A major thank you to everyone who has organized tirelessly against unjust deportations here at Change.org and in your communities. While many questions remain about how this targeted announcement will be implemented -- as well as how it will benefit Dreamers who are not facing deportation and cannot work (if at all) -- we can safely say that the 300,000 immigrants who will now have their cases reviewed by the joint DHS-DOJ working group would not have been protected from deportation without your support.

And if you needed more proof that our voices are being heard, same-sex spouses may now be protected under the new guidelines. That's got to be a sigh of relief for so many bi-national couples facing banishment, who've found themselves on the brink of having to choose between their family and their country.

As we await more details, we ask that you continue to show support for Dreamers Manuel and Luisa, both of whom have court dates in September and should be able to stay in the US under the new guidelines. Join their communities in fighting to make sure they do.

More: Read press statements from Sen. Reid, Senator Durbin, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez.