Today, the Human Rights Campaign applauded a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that affirmed protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“This is a critical step in the right direction for young people across the country,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “The DACA program provides an opportunity for young people, including LGBTQ Dreamers, to live productive, safe and happy lives in the United States. Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court keeps the DACA program in place, but there is still work left to be done. Now, we must elect pro-equality leaders to Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act -- that is how we permanently protect the nearly two million Dreamers, for whom today’s ruling is only a temporary solution.”

In The Department of Homeland Security v. The Regents of the University of California, the Supreme Court determined that the Trump Administration’s decision to end the DACA program was arbitrary and capricious and thus violated the Administrative Procedures Act.

The eight-year-old program has allowed hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the United States as minors to stay in the country, to continue their studies and to continue making positive contributions to our nation. In 2017, HRC joined coalition partners in demanding a clean DREAM Act and consistently challenging the Trump-Pence White House’s callous attempts to hijack the federal budget process in order to end programs that help Dreamers. HRC has also worked to reveal the high stakes of inaction through a video series that shared the deeply moving personal stories of individual LGBTQ Dreamers. According to research by the Williams Institute, about 267,000 undocumented adults identify as LGBTQ and about 75,000 of the Dreamers − those who would have been eligible for DACA — are LGBTQ.

The Human Rights Campaign is proud to join with our allies, including United We Dream and UnidosUS, to draw attention to the intersectional nature of social justice movements and how efforts to roll back any of our rights impact us all.