For Immediate Release
The court will hear oral arguments about the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
Media Contact:
John Henry, jhenry@childrensdefense.org, Media Relations Manager, 708-646-7679
AUSTIN, TX—Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a case that will largely determine the futures of hundreds of thousands of children and their families across the country, including in Texas.
In Texas v. United States, the court will consider the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has impacted more than 835,000 young people over the past 12 years by temporarily shielding them from deportation while allowing them to legally work, pursue higher education, and establish stable lives and families.
Listen to the Oral Arguments here: Court and Special Hearings Calendars (uscourts.gov)
The Fifth Circuit was originally scheduled to hear arguments in Texas v. DHS today as well, as to whether impacted families can intervene as parties in a lawsuit brought by Texas and other states that seeks to block the Keeping Families Together parole program. However, on the night of October 4, 2024, the Fifth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion affirming the lower court’s decision not to allow impacted families to intervene, and canceling the oral arguments on that appeal. Keeping Families Together, also sometimes known as “parole in place”, would allow an estimated 500,000 non-citizen spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 non-citizen stepchildren to receive temporary protection from deportation, apply for legal work authorization, and apply for permanent residency from inside the United States. The only way for these individuals to adjust their immigration status without parole in place would be to apply from outside the country, which would could potentially separate them from their families up to ten years, according to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
CDF-Texas supports implementing the Keeping Families Together program and upholding protections for DACA recipients, according to Trudy Taylor Smith, Esq., senior administrator of policy and advocacy at CDF-Texas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows there were 95,430 DACA recipients living in Texas as of March 2023. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizen children have at least one DACA-recipient parent. All those children deserve to grow up in stable families where they experience safety and secure attachment.
“Across the U.S., there are more than 300,000 U.S. citizen children living with at least one parent who is a DACA recipient, and 600,000 U.S. citizen children live in mixed-status families that are eligible for relief under the Keeping Families Together policy. If anti-immigrant actors prevail in these court cases, these children could all face family separation,” she said. “Family separation has a lasting impact on the lifelong health and wellbeing of children. Having a parent detained or deported can inflict severe trauma and compromise a child’s mental health into adulthood. Yet the long-term, chronic stress of living under the threat of family separation can also cause significant damage to children’s mental and physical health as well, interfering with brain development and a child’s ability to learn. Ending DACA would also put DACA recipients at immediate risk of losing benefits, work authorizations, and employer-provided health insurance, cutting off their children’s access to reliable medical care and subjecting their children to economic, food, and housing insecurity. These harms have far-reaching, intergenerational consequences for society as a whole. When so many of our children grow up without material and psychological security, all Americans are affected.”
*Journalists are encouraged to call CDF Media Relations Manager John Henry at 708-646-7679 if they would like to set up an interview with CDF-Texas to discuss the potential impacts of both legal cases.