I am a little bewildered at the arguments presented to the SCOTUS for keeping the Federal Dreamers program (DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) going:
Lawyers told the Supreme Court in a filing Friday that allowing termination of the program that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children could mean the loss of nearly 30,000 health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Supreme Court held arguments on the Trump administration’s desire to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in November, and the court’s conservative justices seemed ready to find the president has such authority. The court could rule at any time.
But lawyers for DACA recipients said this would be an especially bad time for such an outcome.
“Healthcare providers on the frontlines of our nation’s fight against COVID-19 rely significantly upon DACA recipients to perform essential work,” said the letter, filed by the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School. “Approximately 27,000 DACA recipients are healthcare workers — including nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physician assistants, home health aides, technicians, and other staff—and nearly 200 are medical students, residents, and physicians.”
The letter asked the justices to pay close attention to a brief in the case filed last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges and 32 allied organizations that “presciently identified” the current problem. The brief said the country is not prepared to “fill the loss that would result if DACA recipients were excluded from the health care workforce.” [WaPo]
This is, at it’s heart, a practicality argument, and the Court doesn’t usually address practicality. Even when it does, such as in Brown v Board of Education, they find a way to pin their decision to a bit of law or Constitution. And, I’ll note, deciding a decision on practicality comes close to legislating from the bench.
I don’t really see this as a matter for the courts, but a matter for Congress. They make the laws, and laws are often, even always, based on the practical needs of the citizens. In this particular case, I’m not talking about the needs of the so-called Dreamers, the illegal immigrants who arrived in this country as babies – too old for birthright citizenship, too young to even remember coming, much less their country-of-origin.
I’m talking the patient population of the United States. At the moment, the medical profession is under stress, and while not all specialties are seeing the same stress, it would certainly not do the profession, and the population it serves, any favors to dismiss 27,000+ healthcare workers.
So I think it is the duty of Congress to pass a law that defines healthcare worker and Dreamer, and then states
Any Dreamer who is a healthcare worker, as defined in this legislation, shall not be subject to deportation under any Federal law whatsoever; and, at the conclusion of this crisis, each healthcare Dreamer who has served selflessly and tirelessly shall receive expedited consideration for American citizenship.
I do believe the Democrats would find this an honorable law; and if the Republicans find it more palatable to embrace their xenophobia than the health of their friends and family, the Democrats can use that reprehensible decision to bash them again in the November elections.
I am going to write my Congressional representatives on the matter. And maybe Speaker Pelosi.
