Coloradans go to New Orleans in support of DACA

A Colorado-based organization supporting immigrants is not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition sent a delegation of more than a dozen to New Orleans this week to attend oral arguments at Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of 13 federal courts of appeals, where a decision about the fate of DACA – a program that allows undocumented people to live and work in the US – could be made.

“The goal of sending Colorado representatives there and leaders and people from the community was to show how vital DACA and Keeping Families Together [a similar program launched by the Biden administration] are to our families here,” said Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for CIRC.

CNN reported Thursday afternoon that “A federal appeals court appeared unlikely to fully reverse a judge’s ruling that would end the immigration program known as DACA, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors. . . . However, at a hearing Thursday in New Orleans, judges on the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals asked questions suggesting openness to letting parts of the program survive.”

Texas and eight other states filed a lawsuit saying it was spending millions of dollars on health care and education for DACA recipients. A Houston judge agreed with them, sending the case to the court of appeals.

“We had 16 people from our team and our members head out yesterday morning,” Lane-Arellano said. “They're going to be there through Friday. They're going to be there all day today for the hearing of DACA at the Fifth Circuit.” 

She shared a photo from the courthouse steps, where the group of mostly-t-shirt clad 20- and 30-somethings posed, some with signs stating, OUR HOME IS HERE. News organizations reported there were about 200 protestors present.

"Our purpose here is to be present for this historic moment," Gladis Ibarra, co-executive director of CIRC said in a phone interview. "This morning, we arrived at the Court of Appeals around 6 a.m. to make sure we had a place in line and make sure we had a presence in the courthouse. We got into the building at 8 a.m. and the hearing started at about 9:30. Essentially, we were able to be present; we were front row in the courthouse to watch the attorneys representing Texas and the attorneys making an argument for DACA. It was evident that there were no new talking points, and no new arguments."

Colorado Community Health Network reports: "As of June 2022, there were approximately 13,180 active DACA recipients in Colorado, 8,240 of whom live in the Denver-metro area. An estimated 594,120 people live in the U.S. with this status and the majority have a family member who is a U.S. citizen."

Many of our team have DACA themselves,” Lane-Arellano said. “They're part of our communities. They own businesses.”

The publication Documented gives some background about DACA, which was put in place 12 years ago. 

“DACA, which was passed by president Obama through an executive order in 2012, granted temporary protection from deportation to individuals who had arrived to the United States as children. The protection lasted two years, which could be renewed, and individuals could also apply for work permits and obtain a social security number. 

“The program had suffered multiple setbacks during the Trump administration, which in 2017 had rescinded the program, and was reinstated for existing DACA recipients (meaning no new applications) in the summer of 2018. Following multiple court battles, including a Supreme Court decision that sided with DACA, it was not until December of 2020 that DACA started accepting initial applications once again.”

According to a report in fwd.us, an advocacy organization focused on fixing the US immigration and criminal justice systems, “In September 2023, Judge Andrew Hanen, a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas, issued a ruling declaring that the DACA program is illegal. While that ruling does not impact DACA recipients’ current protections or their ability to continue to renew them, it halted new applications

The appeal was filed, and that’s what’s being heard in New Orleans, beginning Oct. 10.

Lane-Arellano said many Coloradans, including some who went to Louisiana, have lived in a state of anxiety about the possibility of the program ending, another motivator for them to head south to show their support.

“If this program is ended, they risk being deportable and removed from their families and from their communities,” she said. “So the goal in sending people from Colorado was to show how much DACA matters to Colorado.”