BY TEQUILA MINSKY | Hundreds traveled from around the country to rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington DC, yesterday.
Seven hundred people traveled from New York State —13 buses full of people from Buffalo to Long Island— with the New York Immigration Coalition to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Dreamers as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether to nix the program, which would affect the future of over 700,000 young people.
DACA is an American immigration policy allowing some undocumented individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit, driver license and attend college in the U.S. It was announced by executive memorandum by President Obama in 2012. President Trump wants to end the program.
There are 42,000 recipients in New York State.
To be eligible, applicants must have arrived in the U.S. before age 16, and were no older than 30. They must have lived in the country for the previous five years, were in school or a veteran, and had committed no serious crimes. The application, which costs $500 and must be reapplied for every two years and does not provide a path to citizenship.
