Breaking - Supreme Court Will Hear DACA Cases

Dear Presidents' Alliance Member,

We write to share breaking news that the Supreme Court of the United States announced it would hear the legal challenges against the rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The Court will hear the case during its fall term, likely issuing a decision in spring or by the end of June 2020.

You can see the Court’s order here and below, which outlines that the Court decided to consolidate and hear the cases from California, New York, and Washington, D.C. Even though the Court made a decision to hear the cases and issue a final decision, DACA renewals remain protected by three district court injunctions. Consequently, DACA recipients still have the opportunity to renew DACA.

What can you do now?

Consider utilizing the Presidents’ Alliance letter sent yesterday to the Senate or your own statement to personally follow up now with your Senators to call for swift bipartisan action to protect DACA, Dreamers, and TPS recipients with a permanent legislative solution. In addition to the Presidents' Alliance letter, many higher education associations also sent a letter to Senate leaders this week urging them to pass legislation to protect Dreamers.

For your convenience, for contact information of Senate offices, please click here . The password for the page is “congress” all lower case.

The Presidents’ Alliance will continue to work with Congress on a permanent solution for Dreamers with added urgency in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Consider joining the future amicus brief opportunity to support DACA .

The Presidents’ Alliance will be coordinating an amicus brief for higher education institutions to sign onto. The brief will lay out the key reasons as to why the Court should uphold the various district court injunctions and that the rescission of DACA was unlawful and unconstitutional.

For institutions that are interested, you can gather narratives and information that could be used in an amicus brief. Before doing so, please read these Tips for Gathering Material for Higher Education Amicus Briefs in DACA litigation .

Expand our collective action . You can take this opportunity to recruit your peers who are looking to support undocumented students to join the Alliance.

Major takeaway for campuses:

Support for Dreamer students on campus, including student services and access to legal and financial support for DACA renewals, continues to be a top priority. Consider sharing information regarding resources with the campus community and to encourage those who can renew their DACA to do so. We also provide resources below that you may consider sharing with your campuses and DACA students on next steps affected individuals may take.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Miriam Feldblum, Executive Director, and Jose Magaña-Salgado, Director of Policy and Communications

Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration

Resources for DACA Students and Campuses

Below, we share guidance provided by United We Dream , that may be shared with your campuses, Dream Centers, and students.

The UWD social media toolkit provides sample tweets, renewal fund information, and other templates you can use regarding the Court’s decision.

DACA recipients should consider applying for renewal now; DACA renewals remain open.

Check-in with a legal service provider if you’re unsure whether to apply and if you qualify.

We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future but you do have options. You can consider applying for DACA renewal if your DACA expires within a year. You can consider applying for DACA renewal even earlier than the recommended 150 days before expiration. We recommend you weigh the benefits and risks of applying and decide for yourself. Considerations include:

If you apply early, USCIS could deprioritize your application and, while you’re waiting for your case to be processed, the option to renew may end. If the option to renew ends, USCIS may “grandfather in” already-accepted applications and continue processing them or USCIS may stop processing already-accepted applications and may return the application fees that were submitted with the unprocessed applications (like what happened when DACA and advance parole for DACA recipients were terminated in September 2017).

If you apply early and are granted DACA renewal, your “new” DACA and work permit may start being valid before your “old” DACA and work permit expires. Nevertheless, your new work permit will expire two years after its date of approval.

The processing times listed on the USCIS website range between 5 to 39 months depending on which service center has your case. The processing times seem long but anecdotally we’ve heard of cases taking 3-5 months to process still. Consider the possibility of your case taking longer to process than the previous times you applied.

New applications are still NOT being accepted at this moment, and advance parole is NOT available. No one knows for sure whether either will be accepted in the future.

Donate to help pay for DACA renewal fees and help immigrant youth stay protected! We can’t let the ability to pay determine whether someone is protected. Donate to United We Dream’s DACA Renewal Fund and FWD’s GoFundMe Hub.

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