GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments to decide the fate of the deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA program. The program protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and gives them eligibility to work and go to school.
One local advocate for the Latino community is questioning the hearings. Father Ken De Groot is a former pastor and the co-founder of Casa ALBA Melanie, a Hispanic resource center in Green Bay. De Groot calls the hearings “ridiculous.”
“They’ve contributed, they’ve paid taxes,” says De Groot, “The biggest danger I see is the way that the immigrants are being treated these days by the government.”
DACA also allows the estimated 660,000 immigrants to work in the US legally. The program began under former President Barack Obama, but President Donald Trump wants to end it.
Trump argues President Obama had no legal right to start the program but claims if the Supreme Court overturns the program, he’ll work with Democrats on a deal to allow those immigrants to stay in the U.S.
De Groot says the laws do affect many locally, and he is seeing eligible people shy away from renewing their status. He believes the supreme court’s hearing on DACA is only intensifying that fear.
“Here at Casa Alba we’ve processed almost 500 young people in DACA, and we’re still working with them and their renewals and everything,” De Groot says, “Right now people are a little bit more shaken, a little more nervous.”
DACA recipients around the country are speaking out and demonstrating against the hearings and ending the program.
“In Green Bay, I don’t think there’s anything locally going on, but they are certainly paying attention,” says De Groot.
DACA applications are not being accepted while the hearing continues.
