Zoe Lofgren leads coalition to file Supreme Court brief to defend DACA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — San Jose Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin announced Friday they’d led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to file a brief with the Supreme Court in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

A coalition of 172 current and former lawmakers — 49 from the Senate and 123 from the House of Representatives, filed an amicus brief stating President Donald Trump had violated the law by terminating DACA.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on DACA on Nov. 12. An executive order first implemented by then President Barack Obama deferred deportation for undocumented immigrants who’d been brought to the U.S. as children. It was terminated by President Donald Trump in 2017, but recipients have continued to apply for renewal while a legal battle ensued.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, as of Aug. 2018, there were 699,350 DACA recipients in the state of California, about half of the total eligible to apply in state.

According to the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, there are a total of 4,300 DACA recipients in California’s 19th Congressional district.

There have been several calls for congressional action on immigration. Lofgren co-sponsored one of the latest bills, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which aimed at creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants. The House passed the bill in June, but it has not been brought up in the Senate.

At one of the most contentious times on Capitol Hill, the brief firmly argues that then President Obama acted within his powers enacting DACA.

“This Administration’s purported justification for terminating DACA is wrong as a matter of law and history, and the Supreme Court must join us on the right side of history,” said Lofgren.

The bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, referred to in the brief as amici, join a chorus of groups submitting letters to the highest court in the land in support of DACA. Bay Area companies Facebook, Google, Tesla, and Microsoft joined 139 others in a brief also filed on Friday. Last week, Apple filed its own, revealing the company employs 443 DREAMers from 25 different countries.

“We did not hire them out of kindness or charity,” states the company’s brief, “Because they thrived in the face of adversity, they often exhibit extraordinary levels of grit and drive.

Contact Elizabeth Mendez at [email protected] or follow @izziemae on Twitter.