DENVER — A lawsuit moving forward in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals could upend the lives of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients across the country.
DACA recipients include people who were brought to the U.S. as children before June 2007. The DACA program allows them to remain in the U.S. while working or going to school. They must re-apply for the program every two years.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, along with 23 other attorneys general, penned a brief urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court’s decision to end the program.
“Many of the Dreamers feel like they’ve been forgotten,” said Arturo Jimenez , a Colorado-based immigration lawyer.
Jimenez said the case could ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“In the worst case scenario, if DACA has been declared to have been unlawfully implemented, then there would be some type of termination of the program,” he said.
If DACA was terminated, recipients, also known as Dreamers, could be forced out of the U.S.