In reaction to today’s Supreme Court ruling allowing the DACA program to continue, the Immigrant Justice Network – a collaboration of the Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Just Futures Law, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild – issued the following statement:
Today, the Supreme Court made the right call, and we are very glad that DACA recipients will have a measure of stability for the time being, particularly amidst the COVID19 crisis.
This decision comes as Black communities and allies are rising up to demand justice and a profound transformation of our society and institutions which are permeated with white supremacy and anti-Blackness. We stand in solidarity with Black people who are fighting for their lives, including Black immigrants who face the threat of deportation.
This moment in history must galvanize us into action. The machinery of criminalization will continue to threaten communities, which makes bold grassroots organizing – years of which are what won DACA – more necessary than ever.
The Trump administration has eagerly sought to exploit the racism of the U.S. criminal legal system, including local police and prisons, in order to demonize Black people and immigrants and to exclude vulnerable and marginalized groups from full membership in our country. In addition to ending the federal government’s abusive system of immigration enforcement — including against DACA recipients — we must defund the police. [NEEDS LINK] These agencies are part of the same system, which is deeply rooted in anti-Black racism and White Supremacy, and have led to the destruction of so many lives.
The current administration was handed the keys to a well-oiled deportation machine, making it clear that our long-term solutions must be focused on radically transforming systems that were built to sow racial inequity. We pledge to continue to fight for a new way forward that upholds our values of dignity, and respect for human rights.
Last month, the Immigrant Justice Network held a video chat featuring reflections on DACA with a group of movement leaders and organizers.
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