WASHINGTON — The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains uncertain with another federal appeals court hearing scheduled for Thursday. DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, to live and work in the country. After more than a decade, those Dreamers are no longer kids. 

What You Need To Know

  • The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday will consider oral arguments in the latest Texas-led challenge to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program

  • In 2012, President Barack Obama announced the DACA program, which has offered protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, and ever since it has been the subject of major legal battles 

  • Attorney General Ken Paxton argues the federal government overstepped its authority and has put a burden on states like Texas

In September, at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Juliana Macedo do Nascimento attended a panel that discussed the importance of creating safer communities for Latinos. Later in the month, Macedo do Nascimento expressed support for new legislation to address the root causes of migration and work on building relationships with staff members on Capitol Hill. Macedo do Nascimento is the deputy director of federal advocacy for the group United We Dream. She is dedicated to enhancing the rights and dignity of immigrants in the U.S., a cause that holds personal meaning for the 38-year-old.

“I am originally from Brazil, and came to the U.S. at 14-years-old in 2001 so, and I grew up undocumented,” Macedo do Nascimento told Spectrum News 1. 

“It was so much easier to make a living out here than it was back home. So, my mom and my dad decided that we should come even, you know, if that meant they left everyone that they knew behind,” she continued. “They did that for us.” 

Macedo do Nascimento and her family moved to Orange County, California. 

“It was a really difficult transition. I don’t know many 14-year-olds who want to move countries where they don’t speak the language, or they don’t know anybody,” she said.

In 2012, when Macedo do Nascimento was 26 years old, President Barack Obama announced the DACA program. It offered protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. 

“This morning, Secretary (Janet) Napolitano announced new actions my administration will take to mend our nation’s immigration policy, to make it more fair, more efficient and more just specifically for certain young people,” Obama said on Jun. 15, 2012 when he announced the program from the White House Rose Garden.  

“It was life changing, possibly lifesaving,” Macedo do Nascimento said. “I could see myself working in the fields that I was passionate about. I didn’t have to clean houses anymore. I didn’t have to, you know, work in the kitchen at a fast food place anymore.”

For nearly a decade, Macedo do Nascimento worked to put herself through college in California. It was during that time that she established a connection with student organizers and persuaded a financial aid director to make tuition requirements more lenient. 

“We changed policy, and it was amazing to me. It was like I had lived 26 years of my life being quiet and keeping my head down, scared, and all of a sudden I didn’t have to be and I didn’t get in trouble, and I didn’t get deported,” Macedo do Nascimento said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ This is what I want to do.”

For the past 12 years, DACA has been the subject of major legal battles. Texas has led a coalition of Republican-led states attempting to end the program. Attorney General Ken Paxton argues the federal government overstepped its authority and has put a burden on states like Texas.

In a statement from 2022, when Paxton renewed efforts to dismantle DACA, he said, “The Biden Administration is once again attempting to ignore the rule of law by abusing executive authority to implement its own version of mass amnesty.”

DACA’s long legal saga continues on Thursday when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans hears Texas’ latest challenge. 

Attorneys arguing in favor of DACA say Texas cannot show any injury because DACA recipients pay taxes and contribute to their communities. 

“DACA recipients only bring benefits to states in which they live, and if a state is not injured, then it lacks what we call, ‘standing,’ to sue,” said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Meanwhile, Congress has failed to agree on providing permanent protection or pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients. 

“I have a lot of sympathy for these young people, because we don’t hold children responsible for the mistakes their parents made, but this is directly a result of President Obama doing something he knew he didn’t have the authority to do, and the consequences are pretty predictable,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Spectrum News.  

With Congress deadlocked and the legal uncertainty looming, DACA recipients like Macedo do Nascimento have been reapplying to renew their status every two years. She said it has been stressful to feel like she has been living in a “two-year increment.”

“We are your neighbors. We are part of your communities. We are your family, and even if you don’t know that we are, you should realize that, that there’s no way to send us all away,” Macedo do Nascimento said. “This country needs us, too. We are part of it now.”

“We really need Congress to act, because it’s the only way that we’ll have a real solution to this problem,” she said.

A 5th circuit ruling could take months and, depending on what the judges decide, the ruling could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.