Just a year after the Supreme Court ruled that former President Trump could not legally end the Obama-era policy known as 'DACA,' a federal judge in Texas recently ruled the policy itself unconstitutional. For almost a decade, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has protected people who were brought to the United States as undocumented immigrants as children. And while the ruling does not impact current DACA recipients — at least for the time being — it does affect those who had applied but not been approved, and it also once again raises uncertainties about the future for so-called Dreamers in general. Jim Braude was joined on Greater Boston by two Massachusetts residents who have benefitted from the program: Lucas Lomba, who came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 8, and Allie Rojas, who immigrated from Mexico when she was four years old.
Lumba came to the U.S. as a child after his parents sold everything they owned to buy plane tickets, and has built his life here. Having to renew his DACA status every two years, and not knowing whether the program would be taken away,was “like a cloud having over your head,” he says. Lumba is currently a citizen, but his sister is not.
“She came here at such a young age, she’s basically an American. She speaks English, her Portuguese is not that [good]. She can communicate but it’s a completely different culture,” he said about the possibility of her being sent back to Brazil. “She doesn’t know anyone there [in Brazil]. It would be completely inhumane to throw somebody in the middle of a place she has no idea how to navigate.”
Rojas said she hopes the Biden administration will push for legislation to permanently protect DREAMers.
“I’m hoping that this is like a jolt to the system, that people wake up and see that DACA is not safe even under this current administration. We need a permanent reform,” she said.
WATCH: Two local DACA recipients on what a federal judge’s ruling means for them
