A federal judge’s Monday injunction against President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty has angered DREAMers.
Steven Arteaga, a DREAMER who met with President Barack Obama at the White House, said he was “mad” when he heard about the injunction “because they are playing with people’s lives.” He said he had been encouraging his mother to apply for Obama’s executive amnesty before he heard about the injunction that Judge Andrew Hanen issued.
“What they are doing to the community, they are taking what little hope they have from not being deported or having a work permit or having a better view of the American Dream,” Arteaga told NBC News. “They are taking what little vision we have and are throwing it away and tearing it apart.”
The Department of Homeland Security decided the Obama administration would “comply” with the injunction and not accept temporary amnesty applications until the case was resolved.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the injunction was “sad for our impacted DREAMers and their families.”
Janet Murguía, President and CEO of La Raza, said the injunction is “only a delay” and urged illegal immigrants to continue gathering amnesty documents.
“We are very confident that both DACA and DAPA will move forward,” she said. “In the meantime, it is of the utmost importance that those who are eligible continue gathering all necessary materials and prepare to submit their applications as soon as the program starts.” She also accused detractors of attacking immigrant families.
“Detractors of these programs may try to paint this as a fight with the president, but make no mistake: attempts to dismantle these programs are attacks on American families. They are attacks on U.S. citizen spouses and children who are seeing their families torn apart because some of our lawmakers refuse to do what is necessary to fix our immigration system,” Murguia said. “Those behind this lawsuit would do a much greater service to their states if they devoted this level of energy to getting their congressional delegations to act on immigration reform, rather than putting targets on the backs of families to settle a score with the president.”