Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) welcomes today’s announcement that the Obama Administration has formally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court litigation that has blocked the president’s expansion of deferred action for immigrants.
One year ago today, President Obama announced executive actions on immigration that would have provided relief to approximately five million immigrants with strong family ties in the United States and would have reaped enormous financial benefits for our country and local communities. The package included Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), to provide temporary protections for parents of U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident children, expanded relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and new guidance on immigration enforcement. Unfortunately, a politically motivated lawsuit by 26 state governors has delayed the implementation of the expanded deferred action programs, and with it the economic benefits numerous studies have shown American communities will gain by allowing immigrant families to live and work without fear of deportation.
NIJC’s August 2015 survey of 200 Illinois residents who obtained temporary protection under the 2012 DACA program demonstrated overwhelming benefits for local communities when people have access to legal status and are able to pursue work and educational opportunities. Sixty-eight percent of Illinois DACA recipients have become financially independent, growing Illinois’s tax base. Americans lose out each day that passes without executive action or common-sense immigration reform.
Litigation against the deferred action programs has left thousands of American families in limbo, with the threat of deportation looming large over millions living in mixed status families. Each and every day, NIJC sees families at risk of separation who are desperate for immigration relief. All eyes are now on the U.S. Supreme Court, who we are confident will find that the administration’s actions were on the right side of the law.