WIRAC Suit Letter Asks SCOTUS to Consider Impact of Pandemic on DACA Termination

The Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC) at Yale Law School filed a letter with the Supreme Court on March 27, 2020 in Wolf v. Batalla Vidal, its case challenging the 2017 termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy by the Trump Administration.

Filed on behalf of six individual DACA recipients and Make the Road New York, the letter informs the Supreme Court of how the COVID-19 pandemic bears on the case. 

Tens of thousands of DACA recipients are on the front lines of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 700,000 recipients are facing the same economic and health vulnerabilities as the rest of the country, worsened by the uncertainty of whether they may face deportation. The letter asks the Court to take full account of the catastrophic consequences of terminating DACA.

One of the claims in Batalla Vidal is whether the administration adequately considered how American society came to rely on the continuation of the DACA program. The pandemic highlights how important the interests at stake in this case are — first and foremost to DACA recipients and their families, but also to healthcare providers, states, and localities desperately trying to combat the pandemic. The ongoing pandemic requires that the U.S. take extraordinary steps to protect everyone, including DACA recipients, thousands of whom are helping the country battle against the public health crisis.

The Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC) at Yale Law School represent immigrants, low-wage workers, and their organizations in labor, immigration, criminal justice, civil rights, and other matters.