Of Lions and Lambs This March: Where Will Immigration Policy Go in the Next Month?

With negotiations, proclamations, Supreme Court declinations and twitterations, Immigration policy and budget talks are going into March like lions, but will they come out like lambs with resolution, or will this back and forth continue?
To recap: This week the Supreme Court declined a request from the President to decide whether or not the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program could be shut down. DACA is an American immigration policy in place since 2012 that allowed some individuals who entered the U.S. as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for work authorization. As of 2017, approximately 800,000 individuals, often referred to as DREAMers after the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, originally introduced in 2001 and re-introduced several times, enrolled in the program created by DACA. Last fall, the Trump administration ended the DACA program and no new applications were accepted after September 2017. Since that time, a bipartisan groundswell of action supporting DACA recipients has emerged, but negotiations between the parties have not led to a solution, although the majority of Americans favor supporting an opportunity to allow DREAMers to remain.
Recently, the Supreme Court announcement allows DACA recipients to continue to apply to renew their DACA status past a March 5 deadline that was set by the administration. However the more crucial issue is to find a resolution to this policy that keeps getting batted about in talks, especially those about the budget – which brings us to the next March deadline in play: a 2018 budget resolution must be reached by March 23, or there will be yet another possibility of a government shutdown. Meanwhile debate continues over allocations for bills such as those funding transportation, energy, labor, education, housing and safety net provisions.
Continued support of our communities is our main motivation, and whether it is DACA or public education, health or workforce development opportunities, we hope you’ll keep up with us in order to keep supporting the policies that help people and families become independent and realize their full potential. Don’t stay on the sidelines this March, connect with us at our Legislative Action Center to get in on the action and be heard!