Then @alexnowrasteh organized a left-right briefing on the harms of E-Verify where the bill sponsor’s chief counsel started SCREAMING at us in the middle of the Q&A, a hilarious moment. I like to think this was part of why the bill failed.
In 2012, on the day that #DACA was announced, @neeratanden got pizza for the whole staff and we watched the rose garden speech together. What an incredible day.
We’ve done so much amazing DACA work over the years, so here are a few highlights:
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In the days after #DACA was announced, we put out an RFP for a one-year program analysis. That led us to @TomWongPhD and this amazing study in the fall of 2013:
And every single year since 2015, we along with @TomWongPhD, @UnitedWeDream, and @NILC have run an incredibly successful survey of #DACA recipients, work that has been integral to the defense of DACA.
As the Obama administration grappled with unaccompanied children and families at the border (migration is cyclical!) I worked on a number of seminal reports on how to fairly and humanely deal with asylum in the region.
In 2016, @dan_restrepo, @silvamathema, and I worked on two reports, which together encompassed a short, medium, and long term plan to address migration in the Americas.
And then we come to the Trump era. One of my earliest projects was with @NILC and @AILANational on a study on what funding for so-called sanctuary jurisdictions was being threatened by the Trump administration, to contextualize what was at stake:
When Trump tried to gut protections for kids in custody, by overturning the Flores rule, I ran the numbers on what that would cost, submitted a comment to OMB, and forced the admin to take the time to respond, almost certainly delaying its release.
And I’ve been so proud to work with my team on a suite of research on protecting essential workers, DACA recipients and TPS holders; on rethinking immigration enforcement; on rebuilding the refugee program; and so much more.
As I look to the future, to a Biden administration that is starting to undo the massive damage to the immigration system that the Trump admin had done, to a Congress that has the power to put undocumented immigrants on a pathway to citizenship through multiple pathways...
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…with #DACA still in place even with the Trump attacks. As I watch, again and again, the amazing resiliency and power of the undocumented young people, the BIPOC organizers and advocates, who lead the movement, and all of my colleagues in this fight, I am optimistic.
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So why is the moratorium so important? Over the 4 years of the Trump administration, ICE and CBP took actions that were both cruel and illegal, from family separation, to much much more.
The 100 day pause gives the administration time to get to the bottom of what happened.
Need more evidence? Last fall ICE deported someone even without a deportations order and even before he could go before a judge. They admitted their wrongdoing in court.