A Pathway to Citizenship: Seizing the Moment
From the Journal of Daniela Peña ’22 | Date: September 17, 2021
Captured by Daniela Peña, “Immigrants are Essential Rally!”, July 2021
Make the Road (MRNY) drew me in due to their community partnership and organizing work. Aside from being an effective direct legal services provider, they engage in a lot of movement work, including the fight for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Having never worked a DACA case before, it was my dream experience as a MRNY Intern to work with attorneys and organizers laboring to push DACA and a pathway to citizenship forward. My casework showed me the arduous and painstaking process that is a DACA application, and I saw first-hand the uncertainty and crippling anxiety that changes to DACA have brought individuals whose immigration stories are not too different from my own.
In July a detrimental decision came out of the 5th circuit deeming DACA unlawful and precluding new applications. Following July’s decision, we had to put a pause on the first time DACA applications I was working on. While this was demoralizing in many ways, I was able to step up and provide support at community meetings at a time when our legal team was inundated with questions from clients about why their applications were halted and what this decision meant for the future of DACA.
In some ways, Judge Hanen’s DACA decision had the necessary and opportune consequence of setting all eyes on our legislature to do what the courts will not—deliver real progress for DACA holders. Now, a pathway to citizenship is on the table for groups including DACA and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders as part of the budget reconciliation bill, though long overdue, this could not be timelier. The Biden-Harris Administration and Congress have an opportunity to reverse course from Judge Hanen’s decision. A pathway to citizenship for DACA holders is intuitive for so many of us, making it difficult to understand how so many people don’t see the value and practicality of this measure—this bill isn’t radical and should be just the beginning of offering citizenship more widely in this country.
Daniela Peña is a 2021 Sorensen Center Fellow. Funding for Daniela’s Fellowship was provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.