Hundreds of UCSB students walked out on March 5, 2018 to demand more resources and support for undocumented students on campus
Erika Carlos (file)

Since the University of California sued Homeland Security over DACA last September, 117,446 individuals have been able to renew their status as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival immigrant for two years. Because of the UC lawsuit, filed three days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded DACA on September 5, 2017, a federal judge temporarily halted Homeland’s suspension of the program. The UC suit was soon joined by lawsuits filed in New York and Washington, D.C.; the judges in those cases agreed to uphold District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco’s preliminary injunction.

The DACA program, which began in 2012 under President Barack Obama, allows minors who were brought to the United States to be eligible for work permits that must be renewed every two years. Presumably, DACA enables them to be free from the fear of deportation until their immigration status is decided.

“Our efforts on behalf of our DACA students and the hundreds of thousands of other DACA recipients throughout the country are far from over,” said UC President Janet Napolitano earlier this month; she had formerly been President Obama’s Homeland Security chief. “But these numbers provide some good news. For the next two years, these immigrants brought to the country as children, who have done all that has been asked of them to authorize their U.S. residency, can continue to work, pursue their educations, help support their families, and live without fear of deportation.”

The case is currently at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and under review, the UC stated.

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