Northwestern professors available on DACA ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision upheld the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, (DACA), allowing the approximately 700,000 “Dreamers” to remain safe from deportation for now. 

“Today’s ruling was, of course, good news for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who will no longer have to live under the constant threat of deportation,” said Northwestern history professor Geraldo Cadava. “Their situation is an important piece of the immigration puzzle that is now in place, but it’s not the whole puzzle.”

Northwestern University professors from history, law and political science are available to comment.

Ronald Allen is the John Henry Wigmore Professor of Law and a constitutional and criminal law expert. He can be reached at rjallen@law.northwestern.edu.

Cadava is an associate professor of history in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He focuses on Latinos in the United States and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Cadava is the author of the new book “The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump.” He can be reached at g-cadava@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Cadava
“We still have to find solutions to the plight of legal migrants, asylum seekers and the millions of undocumented persons living in the United States. 

“I agree with everyone who says that Dreamers aren’t pawns, but in political terms, the Court’s decision can only be seen as a defeat for President Trump, not only because it said his rescind order was illegal, but also because it took away the possibility of DACA’s reinstatement as part of a broader immigration deal.”

Jaime Dominguez is an assistant professor of instruction in the department of political science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. His teaching and research focuses on race and ethnicity, immigration, urban politics, Latino politics and Chicago politics. He can be reached at j-dominguez@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Dominguez
“The Supreme Court decision makes clear that the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA was done with discriminatory intent and thus, violated the Equal Protection clause. More so, the manner in which the process was handled was clearly biased and arbitrary. In the end, the Court felt there was no evidence of fairness and objectivity in its decision to end DACA. For now, the 700,000 plus Dreamers are once again, temporarily protected from deportation.”   

Jacqueline Stevens is a professor of political science and legal studies and director of the Deportation Research Clinic in Northwestern’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. Her areas of research interest include citizenship, deportation and the rule of law. She can be reached at 847-467-2093 and jacqueline-stevens@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Stevens
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a surprising victory for 700,000 DACA recipients. The 5-4 opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts rebuffs the Trump administration's rescission of their ability to work and live in the United States. The ruling focused on the ad hoc fashion by which Homeland Security had revoked DACA, including the failure even to consider DACA recipients’ ‘legitimate reliance’ on the Obama-era program. The opinion quotes Supreme Court decisions saying that ‘the Government should turn square corners in dealing with the people,’ and says that DHS was ‘cutting corners.’ The decision does not provide any permanent protection against any new orders to end DACA.”