Cupertino City Council Joins Other Agencies In Opposing Termination Of DACA

From the City of Cupertino:

Post Date:10/02/2019

On October 1, in a unanimous decision, the Cupertino City Council joined numerous cities and counties opposing the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The City of Cupertino will sign a City and Counties amicus brief authored by the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. An amicus brief is a legal document filed by non-litigants with a strong interest in the subject matter to advise the court of relevant and additional information, or arguments that the court might wish to consider. The case is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The issue involves the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to rescind the DACA program. Under DACA, certain immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children are temporarily protected from deportation and receive authorization to work and attend school in the U.S.

The City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County previously prepared an amicus brief on behalf of 40 cities and counties, the National League of Cities, and the United States Conference of Mayors to support the plaintiffs/respondents in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. That brief urged the Court to allow DACA to continue.

The brief argued that:

• DHS did not have an adequate justification to rescind DACA and thus violated federal law;
• Terminating DACA will harm cities and counties because DACA promotes economic prosperity and benefits taxpayers due to the economic contributions of DACA recipients; and
• Termination of DACA would remove hundreds of thousands of workers, business owners, and taxpayers from cities and counties across the U.S.

There could be potential negative impacts to the City’s economy and its residents if DACA is terminated. There are about 23,000 DACA-eligible individuals residing in Santa Clara County who would be impacted by losing DACA, the County estimates.

This press release was produced by the City of Cupertino. The views expressed here are the author’s own.