JULY 2 • 2020 | 25
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
FOR DACA RECIPIENTS?
Local immigration attorney
Ellie Mosko of Mosko Law PC
put it this way: “DACA recipi-
ents … can now feel a little less
anxiety. DACA was always a
stopgap measure, a Band-Aid,
imperfect at best. It gives peo-
ple the chance to live here, to
work, to travel and return, to
help family members. It does
not lead to citizenship (for
people who know no other
country).
”
Mosko continued, “
Applying
for DACA status is always
a difficult choice. To apply,
a person comes out of the
shadows
and exposes
himself or
herself to
the govern-
ment. This
gives rise to
legitimate
concerns in
which a government could
end such a program and turn
around and target those pre-
viously protected and their
families.
”
Furthermore, “Homeland
Security has not yet issued
guidelines for accepting new
DACA applications.
”
Sedler agreed the decision
does not protect DACA recip-
ients from future deportation.
“There is no security for
‘
dreamers,
’
”
he said.
However, “for
the foresee-
able future
at least, they
need not
worry about
losing that
status. And public opinion is
strongly in favor of their being
able to remain in the U.S.
”
Questions about how the
Trump administration will
implement this ruling remain.
According to Mosko, “the ini-
tial response from Homeland
Security indicates that they
consider DACA illegal.
”
Chad Wolf, acting
Homeland Security chief,
simply said of DACA, “The
program’
s unlawful.
” U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration
Services Deputy Director for
Policy Joseph Edlow similarly
rejects the Supreme Court
decision: “Today’
s court opin-
ion has no basis in law and
merely delays the President’
s
lawful ability to end the
illegal Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals amnesty
program.
”
Legal historian Paul
Finkelman, president of
Gratz College in greater
Philadelphia, finds Edlow’
s
statement
“disturbing.
”
“
Almost
all American
Jews are the
children,
grandchil-
dren and
great-grand-
children of refugees,
”
Finkelman said. “Thus, we
should be applauding this rul-
ing on DACA, which reinvig-
orates our nation as a refuge
of ‘
the tired, the poor, the hud-
dled masses, yearning to be
free’
as the Jewish poet Emma
Lazarus wrote in the poem
that is on the Statue of Liberty.
”
According to Mosko, the
court did not address the
legality of the original DACA
program. “In effect,
” she said,
“the court creates a roadmap
for the Trump administration
to try again following the
appropriate legal process.
”
Robert Sedler
Paul Finkelman
Ellie Mosko
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