For Immediate Release: May 21, 2025
Contact: Fermin Vasquez at [email protected]
Washington, DC – Yesterday, MALDEF announced that “none of the parties in the case of Texas v. United States sought discretionary Supreme Court review of the Fifth Circuit decision by yesterday’s extended deadline.” Since 2018, MALDEF (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) has represented the intervening DACA recipients in the case to defend the program.
As MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz explained, the news means, “the Fifth Circuit decision of January 17 is now final. As a reminder, that decision held that DACA’s protection from removal or deportation is a lawful exercise of presidential discretion, and therefore may be granted in response to new and renewal applications throughout the entire country … following implementation of the Fifth Circuit decision, DACA and work authorization should be available to those renewing and those newly applying for DACA in the 49 states other than Texas … The district court in the Texas case will initially determine how to implement the Fifth Circuit decision … the implementation is likely to be phased in over a significant period of time. Thus, no DACA holder in Texas should be in danger of losing work authorization imminently.”
The following is a statement from Gaby Pacheco, President and CEO of TheDream.US, the nation’s largest largest college and career success program for Dreamers:
“For more than a dozen years, DACA has been a life-changing program for hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who have grown up in America but lacked the opportunities and protections to pursue their career dreams and more fully contribute to their communities. So we are heartened by the news that DACA and its accompanying work permits and deportation protections will continue for the foreseeable future for most current recipients. Along with Dreamers and their employers, classmates, family members, and others who rely on DACA, we offer our deepest appreciation for MALDEF and the brave plaintiffs who have fought tirelessly to preserve and protect the program.
Yet despite this landmark news and the prospect of DACA continuing, we also recognize that DACA has never been the solution or end goal. Instead, DACA has been a lifeline and a bridge to a permanent legislative solution, such as the Dream Act. Today, most Dreamers do not qualify for DACA and even the prospect of expanded application eligibility does nothing for Dreamers like Ximena Arias Cristobal, the 19-year old Dreamer college student and recipient of TheDream.US National Scholarship who has been held in a ICE detention center in Georgia and still faces potential deportation.
Unless and until Dreamers’ lives and futures have certainty in this nation, the strong majority of Americans in favor of DACA should continue to push for a permanent fix that officially recognizes Dreamers as the Americans they already are.
As President Trump himself said last December, ‘We have to do something about Dreamers… Some of them are running small businesses. They have great jobs. They’ve become successful.’ And more recently, President Trump and the White House have been touting that we currently have “the most secure border in modern American history;” meaning that now is the time – the perfect time – to deliver a permanent legislative fix for Dreamers.”
For more information on the details and implications of the news, please read the MALDEF Statement on the “Deadline To Seek Supreme Court Review Of Fifth Circuit DACA Ruling.”
About TheDream.US
TheDream.US is the nation’s largest college and career success program for undocumented immigrant students, having provided more than 11,000 college scholarships to Dreamers attending close to 80 partner colleges in 20 states and Washington, DC. We believe everyone, regardless of where they were born, should have equitable access to a college education, a meaningful career, and opportunities to contribute to the communities they call home. For more information on TheDream.US, visit www.thedream.us.
Read TheDream.US 10-year impact report: “From Dreams to Destinations: A Decade of Immigrant Achievements and the Future Ahead.” Filled with never-released data and snapshot profiles of some of the organization’s 4,000-plus Alumni, the report documents how increased access to higher education and career opportunities catalyze social mobility and positive outcomes for individual Dreamers, as well as their families, workplaces, and broader communities.
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