- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (opens in new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - Will hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants lose protection against deportation?
The United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case that defies the way the Trump administration ended an Obama-era program that protected some 700,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation , putting to the top of the issue of immigration an issue that has been in limbo for years.
In November 2017, then-Secretary of Justice Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration was rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Closing the DACA cancels the immigration policy characteristic of President Barack Obama and could end the lives of more than 700,000 people.
But the Trump administration gave Congress a window to act before any currently protected person loses their ability to work, study and live without fear in the United States. But that year the Democrats tried to reach an agreement with Trump to maintain the protections, but failed.
Here is a look at some key questions about the program and its future.
- How did the DACA issue reach the Supreme Court? What can happen?
Who are the beneficiaries of DACA?
The beneficiaries of DACA are undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, a group often described as dreamers.
Approximately 690,000 young adults are currently protected by the DACA program and officials are processing more than 34,000 additional applications for the first time, according to the latest government figures.
As of June 30, 2017, 793,026 people had been approved for the program since its inception and almost 900,000 renewals had been approved during the term of the program.
To be eligible, applicants had to have arrived in the United States before the age of 16 and had lived there since June 15, 2007. They could not be more than 30 years old when the Department of Homeland Security enacted the policy in 2012.
Among the accepted applicants, Mexico is by far the largest country of origin, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
What does DACA do for them?
DACA recipients have been able to get out of the shadows and obtain valid driver's licenses, enroll in the university and have legally safe jobs. They also pay income taxes.
The program did not give them a path to become U.S. citizens or even permanent legal residents, something that immigrant rights advocates have criticized, saying it left the dreamers in limbo.
- Activists march 300 kilometers to the Supreme Court to attend hearing on DACA suspension
How long is the postponement?
Under DACA, dreamers were able to defer deportation and legally reside in the United States for two years. After that, they could request renewal.
In September 2017, the Government announced plans to eliminate the DACA program, but lower court judges prevented the administration from doing so and ordered the renewal of protection for beneficiaries to continue until appeals are resolved.
But in November 2018, a federal court of appeals confirmed a ruling that prevented the Trump administration from ending DACA, so that decision made DACA still in force. The Trump administration then asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.
So what does the administration plan to do?
In principle, the Trump administration planned to phase out DACA in a way that will provide "minimal disruption."
But after court orders, and without a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, the program is still in force.
In January 2019, Trump proposed extending the protections for the beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and individuals with Temporary Protected Status for three years in exchange for border wall funds.
For current DACA beneficiaries, protections remain in effect, for now:
What did Trump say about DACA?
When it comes to talking about dreamers and DACA, Trump has been all over the map.
He promised to dismantle the program in the election campaign, but once he took office, he suggested that he could take a softer stance.
Even after his administration announced his plans to end the program, Trump seemed to indicate a desire for Congress to intervene and save him, tweeting: “Does anyone really want to throw out good, educated and successful young people who have jobs, some serving in the army? Really!
But in the past, the White House has also published an aggressive list of priorities for any agreement to protect DACA recipients, a list that could make an agreement almost impossible to reach if strictly followed.
Is there any hope for dreamers?
Some lawmakers have proposed a bipartisan measure that could protect Dreamers from deportation now that the Trump administration is ending DACA. A couple of Senate Republicans have also submitted a proposal that they call a conservative approach to protect DACA recipients.
But a series of past efforts to protect the Dreamers, widely seen as the most sympathetic group of undocumented immigrants, have stalled in Congress, and it is unclear if a new initiative could gather the momentum it needs to pass.
The final decision is now in the Supreme Court of Justice.
Why did the Trump administration decide to end DACA?
In 2017, 10 state attorney generals wrote to President Trump asking him to end DACA and giving him an ultimatum on September 5 of that year.
Your message: end DACA, or get ready for a legal challenge on your part.
The measure was praised by groups advocating stricter immigration controls, which have long denounced DACA as executive overreach and argued that it is similar to providing amnesty for violators of the law.
Immigrant rights activists had said that the attorney generals gave Trump what amounted to a false term, asking the administration to stand firm and keep the program in place.
But in September, Trump administration officials said they had their hands tied. They described the program as unconstitutional and something they could not defend successfully in court, so they took the case to the Supreme Court.
- Trump expects the Supreme Court to validate the repeal of DACA
Why are they called dreamers?
The term dreamers comes from the DREAM Act bill, which offered legal status in exchange for attending college or joining the army. It was first introduced in 2001. The latest version was rejected in the Senate in December 2010.
But the name stayed. And when the Trump administration decided to end DACA, the term dreamer was widely heard in the halls of Congress.
What information and fees were required for DACA?
DACA applicants had to provide evidence that they lived in the United States at the prescribed times, proof of education and confirmation of their identities. They also had to pass background, fingerprints and other verifications that seek to identify biological characteristics.
The fee to request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals, including employment authorization and biometric services, was $ 495.
It also costs $ 495 to request renewal, a price that critics feared would be prohibitive for some.
Could this information be used against dreamers if the program is determined to end?
This is something that immigrant rights advocates say are very worried and have promised to take action to prevent it from happening.
An official from the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that all information provided to the government by DACA applicants will remain in the department's system.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services UU., Who administer the program, will give that information to ICE if requested “when there is a significant interest in law enforcement or national security,” said the official.
Where can I find more information about DACA?
There are answers to more complex questions on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website. The Department of Homeland Security has also posted answers to a list of questions about its plans to terminate the program.
- Steve Almasy of CNN contributed to this report.
Editor's Note: This story was first published in 2017 and updated in 2019.
DACADreamers