Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Index / Policies Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Transcripts Dan Pfeiffer ...of We Can't Wait, and the work done on DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...Can't Wait, and the work done on DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ] in 2012, and those kinds of things? ... Rebecca Tallent ...a few years later, the announcement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA]. Where did the politics of wha... ...Action for Childhood Arrivals [ DACA ]. Where did the politics of what woul... ...that the timing of the original DACA announcement was August of 2012... ...about immigration reform again. Then, DACA gets announced in August of 2012. Th... ...done or if you get something done for DACA recipients, does that take the pressur... ...becoming—and at that point, they had DACA , so they were coming to the Hill... ...proposal that said we can legalize the DACA recipients or the DREAMers, but we'r... Show more... Alan Bersin ...effort was undertaken but also that the DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...was undertaken but also that the DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ] program was conceived and the... ...the administration put in place DACA . Could you talk about your role i... ...in helping to develop and implement DACA ? Having been a prosecutor, and ... ...were the challenges for implementing DACA ? Were you working on that end of it? ... ...you working on that end of it? No. DACA implementation, for the most part, wa... ...want to ask you about. We talked about DACA , and then in 2015, I think, that wa... ...was a viable path, as it had been in DACA , where it was never challenged; yo... ...system, to make allowance for the DACA recipients. Which is something tha... Show more... Marielena Hincapié ...think about what ultimately became DACA , the Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...about what ultimately became DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. But we know that Jane... ...she also oversaw the creation of DACA , which was announced back in June o... ...want that for everyone? Speaking of DACA , how did you see that policy unfold... ...did you [crosstalk]—? Yes, yes. Pre- DACA being announced, the role that we wer... ...quiet, behind-the-scenes development of DACA as a new policy, so I was not loope... ...organization that sued to protect the DACA recipients and the program itself. ... ...do want to talk about that, plus DACA expansion and DAPA [Deferred Action fo... ...then also is rolling out something like DACA . How did you reconcile those things? ... ...Let's shift gears.” To some extent, DACA represents that shift, but that's fou... ...challenge. Again, I think, with DACA , they tried really hard. They reall... ...Immigration Law Center related to DACA ; this was one of the cases that wen... ...Supreme Court. We represent courageous DACA recipient plaintiffs. We are now th... ...immigrants, both those who have had DACA , that have been relying on DACA, bu... ...had DACA, that have been relying on DACA , but also the first-time applicant... ...denied that opportunity to apply for DACA over the last four years. And so whe... ...of young immigrants who fought for DACA , but also the administration tha... ...just to tie it back to the DACA conversation: in 2012, we had the sam... ...that, was actually, “When we announce DACA , we're not going to allow them to hav... ...term, but by the end of the first term, DACA has been rolled out. You've helped wit... ...Yes. I think the combination of DACA having been announced before the 201... ...The fact that he had announced DACA beforehand also made a differenc... ...folks that are cynically saying why DACA was announced before the election, t... ...had gotten a temporary protection under DACA for immigrant youth, but the fact i... ...wanted a permanent solution, not just DACA . So, yes, we were very involved bot... ...thought that we needed to expand on DACA . Again, really finding, what are th... ...about the development of this DACA expansion and what would become DAPA? ... ...mothers, who were parents of the same DACA recipients that the administration wa... ...to millions of people, and to build on DACA , and to ultimately what became DAPA... ...able to get the systemic changes like DACA , eventual DAPA, etc. I'm curious, i... ...inclusive society, and that by creating DACA and seeing what's possible, and to se... ...We have an opportunity now to take the DACA experience, to take the last four year... Show more... Cecilia Muñoz ...in 2012 because that's when we did DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...2012 because that's when we did DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ], and that was Janet. Right. Sh... ...But that's ultimately what led to DACA , right? Each time we tweak the policy... ...were quietly vetting a policy like DACA . We were kicking the tires legally, w... ...spark that encouraged Janet to bring DACA forward. Before DACA, there was th... ...Janet to bring DACA forward. Before DACA , there was the DREAM [Development... ...have the DREAM Act, and then you have DACA . You talked about how DACA came about... ...you have DACA. You talked about how DACA came about, but how was it receive... ...As we were getting ready to announce DACA , we were excited about what it woul... ...about how Democrats would receive DACA because it is a really pretty muscula... ...like Dick Durbin, who would embrace DACA . We weren't sure that Democrats all u... ...and down the line were going to embrace DACA , so that was a source of—and we had n... ...that even though I knew what a big deal DACA was, I didn't give myself th... ...Obama will forever be known for DACA , regardless of what happens to DACA i... ...for DACA, regardless of what happens to DACA in the Supreme Court. The DREAMer... ...collapse? Yes. Because we had done DACA , at some level, the notion that yo... ...legal authority, we did. And because DACA had been so successful, we had a lot o... ...plans to implement it. We had done DACA really quickly, but very successfully... ...quickly, but very successfully. So DACA was announced in June; we starte... ...I wasn't surprised that we got sued. DACA , we got sued for DACA too, but we wer... ...that we got sued. DACA, we got sued for DACA too, but we were sued by the ICE union... Show more... Stephanie Valencia ...of immigration policy, and that is DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...immigration policy, and that is DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ]. Can you talk about what role, i... ...in the development and execution of DACA ? After the DREAM Act didn't pass i... ...So a lot of the conversation around DACA and whether or not we had the lega... ...one of the staunchest advocates for DACA was a guy named Jose Antonio Vargas... ...announcement in the Rose Garden on DACA , and being able to call a certain se... ...who, like the shift in policy with DACA , who now can just work a full-time jo... Show more... Janet Napolitano ...came back with the idea for what became DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...with the idea for what became DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ]. We were very careful about how w... ...President Obama was able to announce DACA from the Rose Garden. The actua... ...Rose Garden. The actual paperwork for DACA is not a presidential executive order... ...thousand, or ten thousand. In the end, DACA became very popular. There were ove... ...eight hundred thousand young people in DACA . Actually, when I became president o... ...Trump administration tried to rescind DACA , we were the first out of the gate t... ...the Supreme Court, and we prevailed. So DACA is still there, although the Trum... ...I've been asked is why we didn't do DACA earlier in the administration. And th... ...wanted to follow up on a few things on DACA . When DHS was developing DACA, wer... ...things on DACA. When DHS was developing DACA , were you in conversation at all wit... ...and that Congress needed to do its job. DACA was kind of an exception to that. So w... ...thousands more individuals than DACA did, millions of people. When we di... ...did, millions of people. When we did DACA , we had considered whether we shoul... ...DAPA, they also did some tweaking to DACA and enlarged it a bit. That case wen... ...DAPA's incorporation of a change to DACA , but they never ruled, actually, o... ...but they never ruled, actually, on DACA itself. I only raise that because whe... ...case contesting Trump's rescission of DACA , the government tried to make a bi... ...Circuit already has spoken against DACA .” So we had to squish that argumen... ...down. When you were working on DACA , did you have any meetings wit... ...semi-regular basis, not just focused on DACA , but on what we were doing i... ...you mentioned ICE: How did you sell DACA to ICE and ICE agents? Or how di... Show more... Tommy Vietor ...are things like the announcement of DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...things like the announcement of DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ], or the shooting at Sandy Hoo... Chris Lu ...the flexibility to do something like DACA [Deferred Action for Childhoo... ...flexibility to do something like DACA [ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ], which is what we ended up doing. ... 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