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DACA ruling jolts Dems' urgency to pass Dreamer bill

20 July 2021
 Dan Ackermann
Data: Migration Policy Institute, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Chart: Will Chase/Axios

The fate of roughly 80,000 people who applied for but hadn't been approved for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program rests with Congress — and the Senate parliamentarian.

Why it matters: A federal judge Friday blocked roughly 500,000 to 700,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from participating in DACA and receiving its deportation protections. Nothing changed — for now — for the more than 600,000 active DACA recipients.

By the numbers: California, Texas and Florida have the largest number of immigrants qualified for DACA but not actively enrolled in the program. That's based on data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles legal immigration, and the Migration Policy Institute's December estimates of DACA-eligible populations by state.

  • California, Texas and Illinois have the greatest number of active DACA recipients.
  • As of the end of March, 81% of DACA recipients were from Mexico, and 9% were from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).
  • Most are now in their 20s.

What they're saying: Multiple Democratic Senate aides told Axios that last week's ruling heightened the urgency to pass pathways to citizenship for so-called Dreamers.

  • Even before the ruling, Democrats planned to include pathways for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status holders and essential workers in their sweeping $3.5-trillion, "soft" infrastructure reconciliation package.
  • That would allow them to pass the provisions with a simple majority.

What to watch: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has set Wednesday as a deadline for Democrats to come to an agreement on the general framework of the bill, which includes immigration.

  • Details of the bill — including specifics on pathways for undocumented immigrants — likely won't be available until late September or early October, one Democratic Senate aide familiar with the negotiations said.

But, but, but: There's a chance the Senate parliamentarian says immigration changes can't be passed through a budget reconciliation process.

  • That happened earlier this year with the Democrats' effort to raise the minimum wage.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.