FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 2, 2018

Contact: Kevin Saucedo-Broach, 571-336-2147, DelALopez@house.virginia.gov

Delegate Lopez welcomes DACA ruling, urges DHS to keep program

RICHMOND, Va. – Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington) today applauded the decision by U.S. District District Court Judge John Bates to order the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to accept new applications and renewals for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. According to the Judge’s decision, DHS has 90 days to provide a legal rationale for ending the DACA program and must accept new applications and renewal applications during that time.

“I’m overjoyed to hear that the Department of Homeland Security has been ordered to begin accepting new applications for the DACA program,” said Delegate Lopez. “DACA has been a lifeline for so many young people who know themselves as Americans and who have known no other home but the United States. The end of the program was a huge blow to the hopes of many of those Dreamers who wanted nothing more than to live, study, and work in the nation they call home. Now that the legality of the cancellation of the program is in question, I hope a deal can be crafted that will allow Dreamers to stay in the United States permanently.”

This is the third federal judge that has rebuked attempts to end DACA, but the first to order DHS to accept new applications. It is also the first judge appointed by a Republican president to issue such a ruling, which underscores the bipartisan consensus on the legality of the DACA program. The lawsuit was brought by, among others, Princeton University—highlighting the importance of this issue to the nation’s higher education system and economic security. 

Delegate Lopez is the founding member and Co-Chair of the Virginia Latino Caucus, the first legislative caucus of its kind to represent Virginia’s large and growing Latino population. He is also a member of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), which represents the voices of more than 400 Hispanic state legislators from across the country, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The NHCSL also celebrated the court decision and warned the Administration not to terminate the program until a permanent solution is enacted by Congress and signed into law.

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