Continuation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program

WHEREAS, on June 15th, 2012 under the Obama Administration, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, under which undocumented young people who came into the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request a deferral of deportation for a period of two years, subject to renewal; and 

WHEREAS, DACA has allowed approximately 800,000 people who were brought into the United States illegally as children to remain in the country provided that they are working and/or going to school and meet other eligibility requirements; and  

WHEREAS, there are an estimated 1.3 million people who meet DACA criteria and could have applied for the program; and   

WHEREAS, DACA recipients are people who have grown up in the U.S., are in college, own businesses, pay taxes, and contribute to society; and 

WHEREAS, the DACA program was created to give Congress time to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would offer those who were brought to the U.S. as children the opportunity to potentially gain permanent legal residency; and 

WHEREAS, Congress has yet to enact such legislation; and 

WHEREAS, on September 5, 2017, the Trump Administration unlawfully announced plans to rescind the DACA program and to not accept new applications; and 

WHEREAS, if Congress does not come up with a solution, recipients will lose protection when their two-year statuses expire, making them vulnerable to deportation; and 

WHEREAS, an estimated 200,000 U.S citizen children born to DACA participants and DACA-eligible residents risk losing their parents to deportation if the DACA program is terminated, and such deportation would lead to extreme hardships for such children who are U.S. citizens; and 

WHEREAS, the NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit to halt the above-stated consequences. 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the NAACP strongly supports legal and political action to extend DACA; and  

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all NAACP branches should immediately identify DACA-eligible individuals who are NAACP members and submit their names to the National Legal Department immediately; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP supports the passage of the DREAM Act to allow a path towards citizenship for "Dreamers."