Supreme Court ruling to uphold DACA is a triumph for human rights
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 18: DACA recipients and their supporters rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 18, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, denied the Trump administration’s attempt to end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Image by Getty Images
More than 650,000 American immigrants have a reason to breathe a sigh of relief today following the Supreme Court ruling to protect immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
The court’s decision to block the current administration from proceeding with its plan to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program marks a ray of hope amid a presidency that has consistently shown flagrant disregard for the wellbeing of vulnerable Americans.
The “Dreamers” protected by DACA are young people who were born or brought to the U.S. as children and have never known any other country. The average age of those enrolled in the program is 24 years. Most do not remember life in their birth countries, have not met family members in those countries, and do not speak the native language fluently.
These are people who have lived and worked in our country for years — and in some cases served in the US armed forces.
Yet, under the present administration, America’s Dreamers have, until today, lived in fear of the looming threat of deportation to countries that are completely unfamiliar to them.
The court’s decision, however, has not completely dispelled the cloud of uncertainty. This administration may try again to terminate the program by putting forth a different justification.
That is why it is crucial that Congress provide a secure long-term solution guaranteeing the rights of citizenship for Dreamers who contribute so much to our national identity and prosperity.
Congress should make a bipartisan effort to pass the Dream and Promise Act, which would provide legal citizenship to more than 2.5 million Dreamers and immigrants currently living with temporary status.
With the moral force of our tradition, Jews must ask — indeed we must demand — that the government work toward realizing a just path forward for Dreamers.
To quote the esteemed late Jewish Theological Seminary Professor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “This is no time for neutrality. We Jews cannot remain aloof or indifferent. We, too, are either ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil.”
So today while we commend the Supreme Court for preventing the wholesale deportation of Dreamers, we realize there is much yet to be done by our representatives in Congress to secure their portion of the American Dream.
It is critical to note that most Americans agree with the court’s decision. In fact, according to a recent survey from researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Texas, 61 percent of US citizens favor allowing Dreamers the chance to become US citizens.
The same survey found that this isn’t a strictly partisan issue: at least 30 percent of Republicans also support the DACA program. Leading conservative Republicans in Congress, like Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley, have joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting a legislative solution that would protect the rights of Dreamers to stay in this country.
This should not be a partisan issue; it is about fundamental human rights.
For many American Jews, it is also personal.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more than two million Jewish immigrants fled Eastern Europe and sought refuge and religious asylum in the US. They formed close-knit communities, adapted to a new environment, established successful businesses, and eventually became a part of the American social fabric.
As we consider the Dreamers, we must remember the path that was made open not only to Jews — incredibly difficult though it was — but to many other waves of immigrants seeking a better life in the country. We owe Dreamers the ability to pursue the same opportunity.
So, we cannot remain aloof or indifferent when many of our own were in a similar position not too long ago. Today’s decision is just one of many that will lead our country down a more just and virtuous path.
Moving forward, we must not only continue to uplift the voices of those who oppose the current administration’s policy — one that would strip Dreamers of their dignity, their communities, and the country that is truly their home — but offer an alternative vision, grounded in empathy for our fellow Americans, and make it a legislative reality.
Marc Gary is the executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer of The Jewish Theological Seminary.
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