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Call to Action: Support Dreamers and Pass the Dream Act of 2021
UPDATE: On July 16, 2021, a federal judge ruled that accepting new DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) applications is illegal. While this does not change the status of current DACA recipients, it does bar new applicants, emphasizing the need for legislative action. The House passed the Dream Act, but the bill is currently held up in the Senate. We need to continue to encourage our senators to work together to find a legislative solution to ensure Dreamers are protected from deportation and are provided a reasonable pathway to permanent status. The American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 is a bipartisan bill that would provide permanent protection and a…
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MWEG Town Hall Recap: Immigration Updates on DACA and Asylum Proposals
Mormon Women for Ethical Government hosted a Town Hall on July 7 to update members on asylum and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) changes in U.S. immigration law. Panelist Nefi Oliva, president of the Immigration Law Forum at Brigham Young University, explained that recently proposed changes to immigration regulations are a codification of the recent practices of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security, and the immigration courts. The purpose of the regulations and policies under President Trump seems to be cruelty and to make it harder and harder to get into the U.S., said Kif Augustine-Adams, professor of law…
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The Supreme Court’s Ruling on DACA: Adherence to Process Matters in the Law
The Supreme Court ruled on June 18 that the president did not end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in a lawful manner. This ruling does not permanently protect the DACA program, as the main point in the ruling is that the president did not follow the proper legal process to end DACA. In short, adhering to correct processes matters. While the decision is good news for Dreamers and the majority of Americans who support DACA, the struggle is not at an end. The office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indicated the president will continue his attempts to rescind DACA, this time attempting to do so with…
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MWEG Deep Dive Recap: Immigration Op-Ed Tutorial with FWD.us
For our inaugural Deep Dive event, MWEG hosted two communications professionals from FWD.us to talk about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — and how to advocate for it. FWD.us is a bipartisan organization working to fix the failed immigration and criminal justice systems that have locked too many out of the American dream for too long. In their presentation, Leezia Dhalia, immigration press director, and Alexis Sosa, communications fellow, shared the facts about DACA and why defending it is important. Leezia is a DACA recipient herself, having been brought to the U.S. from Canada as a pre-teen. DACA protects 750,000 young immigrants — Dreamers — who have…
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Urgent Call to Action: Proposed Fee Increase by USCIS
December 10, 2019 On November 14, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed a fee schedule adjustment that would drastically increase fees for naturalization, asylum, DACA, work permits, and more. The proposed rule would also eliminate fee waivers for citizenship, lawful permanent residency, employment authorization, and other applications. In addition, it would increase fees for obtaining family history records through USCIS by 500% — a move that would have a significantly negative impact on genealogy and family history research. These drastic fee hikes functionally change immigration policy by placing almost all immigration procedures out of financial reach. The fee for an application for citizenship, for example, would be raised…
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MWEG Op-Ed: “Love Leads the Way in Rescuing DACA”
“In September of 2017, President Trump rescinded DACA, the program that protected nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from being deported. Then he put the ball in Congress’s court and gave them a March 5 deadline to pass some kind of permanent legislative solution for DACA recipients.” Click here for the full text of this Salt Lake Tribune opinion piece written by MWEG founder Sharlee Mullins Glenn.
