For Immediate Release
April 18, 2016
Contact: Armando Carmona, armando@ndlon.org, (323) 250-3018
NDLON: In the Midst of the Battle for DAPA
Los Angeles, CA & Washington, DC—In the wake of oral argument before the Supreme Court this morning in the case of U.S. v. Texas, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) representatives, Jessica Karp Bansal and Salvador G. Sarmiento, made the following statements:
Litigation Director, Jessica Karp Bansal
“It’s a sign of how bad the immigration debate has become that this morning lawyers for the Obama Administration—which is responsible for more deportations than any other—were forced to defend the President’s use of “discretion” in immigration enforcement before the nation’s highest court against an attack from the right. At stake in the case is whether the President will be permitted to publicly acknowledge the existence, humanity, and civil rights of one portion of the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States by allowing them—at least temporarily—to come out of the shadows.
“In many ways, the President has created this dilemma himself. Had he not spent most of his presidency deporting as many people as possible in an ill-advised attempt to win Republican support for immigration reform, he would not now be in a battle to determine whether he will go down in history as the Deporter-in-Chief or be remembered for a more nuanced record.”
National Campaign Coordinator, Salvador G. Sarmiento
“Sadly, in the midst of this fight for DAPA, the White House is still hanging on to its failed efforts to trade ramped-up enforcement against some immigrants in return for protection of others. As the Administration defended DAPA in Court this morning, ICE continues its offensive, targeting Central American refugees, immigrants that have lived and worked in the U.S. for decades, and—through the PEP-COMM jail deportation program—collaborating with the very states that are suing to prevent DAPA.
“As we call on the Justices to reject nativists’ attempt to thwart progress on racial justice, we will continue to demand that the White House and DHS leadership come clean about their detention and deportation agenda, starting with its PEP-COMM jail deportation offensive and ending with taking ICE Out of every local jail in the U.S.”
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