California AG Becerra to argue for DACA before US Supreme Court
LOS ANGELES - With thousands of Southlanders expecting to be affected by whatever the Supreme Court decides regarding DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, L.A.-area students will stage walkouts Tuesday and hold a rally to express support for DACA's survival as the court hears oral arguments on the issue.
Protesters out in force in support of DACA in downtown LA
DACA has allowed nearly 800-thousand young people known as dreamers to avoid deportation. Today the justices heard over an hour of oral arguments based on the justices' questions. Legal experts say it appears the court's five conservatives were inclined to end DACA.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is scheduled to argue on behalf of DACA before the Court Tuesday.
"We take our historic fight to the Supreme Court to defend the DACA program," Becerra said. "This fight is about protecting the doctors, the teachers, the innovators in the tech community. All those people who are out there doing great things for America and happen to be Dreamers," he said.
Immigration rights activists take part in a rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on November 12, 2019. - The US Supreme Court hears arguments on November 12, 2019 on the fate of the "Dreamers," an estimated 700,000 people brought (Getty Images)
"President Trump's reckless, heartless decision to end DACA runs counter to the values that we hold most dear that everyone who works had and plays by the rules deserves a chance to get ahead," Becerra said on Twitter.
In contrast, President Donald Trump today described many of the immigrants dubbed "Dreamers" as "hardened criminals," but said that if the Supreme Court backs his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he will cut a deal with Democrats regarding the future of DREAMERS, as DACA beneficiaries are known.
"Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from angels. Some are very tough, hardened criminals," Trump said in a tweet.
The high court is set Tuesday to hear arguments over the legality of Trump's 2017 plan to rescind DACA, the Obama-era program that protects from deportation almost 700,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children. A decision is expected by June 2020, amid the presidential election campaign.
The high court case is not over whether DACA itself is legal but the administration's approach to ending it. For the tens of thousands of people affected by DACA, the difference is largely academic.
The Trump administration has argued that Obama exceeded his constitutional powers by bypassing Congress when he created DACA by executive action. He has made his hardline immigration policies, including pursuing construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, a centerpiece of his presidency and his re-election campaign for 2020.
DACA currently protects roughly 660,000 immigrants, mostly Hispanic young adults, from deportation and provides them work permits, though not a path to citizenship.
The Supreme Court is hearing Team Trump's appeals of lower court rulings in New York, California and the District of Columbia that blocked the president's move and left DACA in place.
The lower courts ruled that Trump violated a U.S. law called the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires policy changes be done in an orderly way, in seeking to rescind DACA.
In his 2017 statement on phasing out DACA, Trump alleged there are "tragic consequences" to the United States of a decades-long failure by leaders in Washington to enforce immigration laws, citing "the illicit entry of dangerous drugs and criminal cartels."
The program, which allows eligible immigrants to be issued renewable two-year work permits, remains in effect for those already enrolled, but the administration has refused to approve new applications.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, a former Obama cabinet member, will hold a news conference in Los Angeles this morning to showcase support for DACA beneficiaries. She will be joined by DACA beneficiaries, Rigoberto Reyes, executive director for the county office of Immigrant Affairs, L.A. Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez, and members of civic groups.
Additionally, supporters of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights will hold a series of actions in support of the DACA program. At 10 a.m., students will stage walkouts at Garfield, Warren, Academia, Avance, Marshall and other high school campuses. At 11 a.m. a rally with students and members of the public will take place at the Molecule Man sculpture at the Federal Building at 255 E. Temple St. in Little Tokyo.
At 12:15 p.m., rally participants will march to MacArthur Park at 2230 W. Sixth St. And at 3 p.m., an information fair, rally and concert will be staged at the Levitt Pavillion in MacArthur Park.