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Arizona and California Heat Up The Immigration Issue While Democrats Shelve DACA
Here’s how immigrant rights have been threatened this week… and why some are accusing the Democratic Party of dropping the ball.
In the ongoing battle for immigrant rights, this last week has been a mixed bag.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Arizona must continue issuing driver’s licenses to young adult immigrants, also known as Dreamers, Reuters reports, despite the state’s attempt to refuse to issue driver’s licenses to young, undocumented immigrants with valid federal work permits.
Arizona had attempted to challenge Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program created under the Obama administration in 2012. The court refused to hear Arizona’s Republican-led case, however, choosing instead to let a lower court ruling stand that blocked the state from denying driver’s licenses to DACA recipients.
But with two steps forward often comes two steps back; while Congress is set to vote next week on an omnibus spending bill, Democrats are reportedly planning to leave protections of DACA recipients off of the negotiation table this time, seemingly in an effort to avoid another government shutdown much like the one that occurred in January.
Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland defended the party’s decision, commenting, “I think that’s probably the best policy for us to do. It’s also politically the most feasible way to get an omnibus passed.”
When it comes to DACA, he continued, “Our best leverage is 90 percent of the American people — 87 percent — think this ought to be done.”
One town in Southern California wants to increase deportations. City council members of Los Alamitos have voted to exempt the town from California’s “sanctuary” policy — and the legality of this initiative is murky. Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar told Fox Business Network that his city doesn’t have “an illegal alien crime problem” and his police department has not complained about California’s policy that aims to protect immigrants from wanton questioning.
Meanwhile, ICE has detained over 100 undocumented immigrants in San Diego and Imperial counties in California over a three-day sting.
[Photo: Thousands of immigrants and supporters join the Defend DACA March to oppose the President Trump order to end DACA on September 10, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)]
