Donald Trump blames everyone but himself for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last September, and has now sabotaged the numerous bipartisan congressional proposals to fix it. But as Vox’s Dara Lind reports, “the fact is that Dreamers are at risk because of Donald Trump. Period.” Protecting the 122 DACA recipients who lose their work permits and protection from deportation every single day is a serious matter that is being treated without seriousness by an unserious president. But with Trump blocking legislative solutions for both DACA recipients and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, local and state governments are moving forward on their own with proposals to protect their communities:
Participants in either DACA or TPS generally qualified for driver’s licenses and in-state college tuition even in states where those privileges are otherwise unavailable to undocumented immigrants. Now, with the programs in jeopardy, lawmakers in about a dozen states are arguing that those immigrants should not be pushed into a shadow economy after living in the United States for decades.
“Because of the change in national rhetoric, it’s going to be a really interesting year at the state level, in terms of how states are going to portray themselves as welcoming or not welcoming to certain immigrant populations,” said Ann Morse, who oversees an immigration project at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “There is a real public debate going on that is just getting started.”
While only 12 states and Washington, D.C. allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, DACA and TPS recipients in all states have generally been eligible to apply. But because both are only able to hold valid licenses so long as they hold valid protections, numerous states are both weighing and enacting protections should Congress fail. “In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order last month preserving driver’s licenses for DACA recipients whose protections expire, while legislation in the state Assembly seeks to keep driving privileges and state-funded Medicaid benefits for immigrants from Central America, Haiti and Sudan who had been granted TPS.”
Last month, Cuomo also announced immigrant youth would “’remain eligible for state-funded Medicaid’ and the New York Child Health Plus insurance known as CHIP.’” Cuomo said that “the federal government’s failure to take action to protect DACA recipients is appalling, un-American, unjust and puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk. Here in New York we will do everything in our power to protect DACA recipients and ensure they receive health care.”