FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2020
CONTACT: Mark McCormick, Director of Strategic Communications, 913-490-4113, [email protected]
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA is safe for now, and the ACLU of Kansas joins the millions of people nationwide celebrating this morning’s Supreme Court decision declaring President Trump’s efforts to end the lifeline program as reckless and unreasonable.
Nationwide, there are nearly 700,000 DACA recipients, and 6,000 of them in Kansas grew up here and have dedicated their lives to give back to our communities. Many of these DACA recipients are frontline workers supporting us and protecting us through this unforgiving COVID-19 pandemic. This was a fair and just decision.
But this victory is potentially only temporary.
The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, made it clear that the Trump Administration, through the Department of Homeland Security, has the authority to rescind DACA with solid justification. The problem here was that the way his administration went about trying to end the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” and therefore violated administrative law.
Like the constant vigilance we have dedicated to guarding civil liberties civil rights at the ACLU of Kansas, protecting the rights of undocumented young people remains an on-going fight.
We are in solidarity with the undocumented youth and their families. We celebrate the immeasurable contributions DACA recipients bring to our families, our communities, our state, and our country. We are here for the celebration, but more importantly, for the work ahead.
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About the ACLU of Kansas: The ACLU of Kansas is the statewide affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For more information, visit our website at www.aclukansas.org.