Georgetown Law & UBN Life on Hold

” “ The diversity visa lottery program was designed to ensure that the United States remains a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith nation for the benefit of us all. The program has provided an opportunity to immigrants who have historically been discriminated against in their pursuit of the American Dream, due in largepart to immigration laws that prohibited their participation. - Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY)27 Temporary Forms of Relief for Black Immigrants: DACA, TPS, & DED In addition to being refugees, asylum seekers, or recipients of certain types of visas, Black immigrants also qualify for other types of temporary relief from removal, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). Black immigrants with these types of temporary statuses are forced to live in limbo, building a life in the United States that may be uprooted at any time at the whims of changing administrations. Members of Black immigrant communities who hold these temporary forms of relief are held hostage by a system that could hurl them back to dangerous and unfamiliar conditions, based on the outcome of litigation or a change in an administration’s priorities. Black immigrants who have DACA, TPS, or DED are essentially holding their breaths between intervals of renewal and redesignation. Only with a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship can they finally take a collective sigh of relief. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Brief Overview of DACA DACA stems from an executive action issued in 2012 under the Obama Administration, which allows certain people who came to the United States as children to qualify for deferred action for a period of two years and the opportunity to work legally. 28 Deferred action refers to deferring the removal of an individual for a specific period of time. 29 DACA lives within DHS’s prosecutorial discretion and does not provide any legal status to the beneficiary. 30 DACA recipients must renew their status every two years in order to avoid being removed from the country. There are specific, stringent criteria 31 that all applicants must meet to qualify for DACA initially and upon subsequent renewal. These requirements are often difficult for Black immigrants to meet due to systemic racism and fewer educational and employment opportunities. Further, Black DACA recipients are erased from debates and policy conversations about “Dreamers.” 27 Rep. Clarke Statement on Trump Attack on Diversity Visa Lottery, Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, https://clarke.house.gov/rep- clarke-statement-trump-attack-diversity-visa-lottery/ (last visited May 4, 2021). 28 Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., https://www.uscis.gov/ humanitarian/consideration-of-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca (last visited May 4, 2021).

29 Id. 30 Id. 31 See Appendix for detailed eligibility requirements.

Life On Hold: Black Immigrants & the Promise of Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness

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