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Featured Tag: DACA & Dreamers

Community Readiness in the Face of ICE Arrests

President Trump campaigned on a threat to deport one million immigrants from this country per year.  We saw an ongoing escalation of the numbers of immigrants targeted in Massachusetts throughout 2025 and continuing into early this year, but still well below deporting one million people.  However, this is beginning to change. Over this past year … Continued

Back to School: What Immigrant Families Should Know

As immigration enforcement increases across the country and protections such as Temporary Protected Status end for some countries, many immigrant families are living with fear and uncertainty. That fear is affecting whether some children make it to school. Recent data show that 17% of parents cited ICE activity near schools as a barrier to attendance. And that … Continued

14 Years of DACA: A Broken Promise

14 Years of DACA: A Broken Promise

Fourteen years ago June 15, the federal government made a commitment to young people without permanent residency who had grown up here, gone to school here, and who called the US home. The message then was: You belong. Stay and contribute.

Now the stability DACA granted is under threat – in part because the government has chosen inaction as a weapon.

Policy Update Federal

Policy Updates – 10/2/2025

With Congress and the White House unable to agree on federal funding for Fiscal Year 2026, the government entered another shutdown on October 1st. Here’s how the government shutdown will impact various federal operations: ICE: Considered “essential” law enforcement work and will continue with little disruption. The OBBBA provided $35 billion through Sep 2029, which … Continued

13 years of DACA

13 Years of DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Friday marks the 13th anniversary of the implementation of DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. For more than a decade, this program has provided hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, all of whom came to the U.S. as children, with the chance to live, work, and contribute to their communities without the constant fear of deportation. … Continued

Policy Update Federal

3/6/25 Policy Update

Last Monday, USCIS launched a new webpage explaining “Alien Registration”, the first step in fulfilling the president’s order to register all non-citizens in the United States. This process is still in the early stages, and little is known outside of what is contained on the USCIS webpage, including how registration is expected to occur or … Continued

Good News (yellow sun coming out from behind grey cluds)

2/26/25 The Good News

On Monday, a federal judge in Maryland issued a very limited preliminary injunction restricting ICE enforcement actions at houses of worship. The injunction only applies to the plaintiffs – a coalition of Quaker, Baptist, and Sikh organizations – and essentially revives the Biden Administration’s Sensitive Locations memo only for their houses of worship. A coalition … Continued

Biden Administration Expands ACA to include DACA Recipients

On Friday May 3, the Biden Administration finalized a rule to expand healthcare access to DACA recipients. The new rule, from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), includes DACA recipients in the definition of “lawfully present” under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), giving them access to Health Insurance Marketplace where they can purchase … Continued

STATEMENT: DACA Ruling

Boston, MA – In response to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful, but may remain in place as the policy works through the legal system, Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition issued the following statement. “The most recent ruling on the … Continued

STATEMENT: MIRA Coalition Praises Biden Administration Action on DACA

Boston, MA – In response to the Biden Administration‘s move to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition issued the following statement: “We are appreciative that the Biden administration is embracing and protecting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy by working to transform it into federal regulation. Transforming DACA into a federal regulation helps to protect the … Continued