Senator Catherine Miranda welcomes DACA ruling, urges DHS to keep program

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Senator Catherine Miranda today welcomed US District Judge John Bates’

Sen. Miranda

decision giving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 90 days to provide the legal rationale behind the Administration’s decision to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This is the third federal judge that rebukes the Trump administration’s attempt to end DACA but the first to order DHS to accept new applications. It is also the first judge appointed by a Republican president to issue such a ruling, which underscores the bipartisan consensus on the legality of the DACA program. The lawsuit was brought, among others, by Princeton University; highlighting the importance of this issue to the nation’s higher education system and economic security.

“Beyond the legal basis for the decision, DACA is simply good policy for America. The fact that one of the plaintiffs in this case is Princeton University shows once more that Dreamers are some of our best and brightest. You don’t deport the next Einstein because he crossed a border illegally as a child. You don’t get rid of the doctor who could save your life because you resent that her parents brought her here 20 years ago when she was six years old. The American people realize that and reject the Trump administration’s throw-out-the-baby-with-the-bathwater approach to governance,” said Senator Miranda.

Senator Miranda is a member of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), which represents the voices of more than 400 Hispanic state legislators from across the country, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which also celebrated the court decision and warned the Trump administration not to terminate the program until a permanent solution is enacted by Congress and signed into law.

NHCSL recently approved an emergency resolution regarding DACA and the DREAMers during the group’s annual Summit in Chicago, IL in February. The resolution states that: “…the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators urges Congress to take action with no further delay to stop the uncertainty with which thousands of families are living regarding DACA preferably by granting that pathway to citizenship or, at least, by extending DACA while a deal can be reached that creates that pathway…”

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NHCSL is the premier national association of Hispanic state legislators working to design and implement policies and procedures that will improve the quality of life for Hispanics throughout the country.  NHCSL was founded in 1989 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)3 with the mission to be the most effective voice for the more than 400 Hispanic legislators.  For more information visit www.nhcsl.org.