Is it now or never for DACA?

With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo, Jesús Rodríguez and Teresa Wiltz

Hey there! I’m Myah Ward, a White House reporter at POLITICO, subbing in for Brakkton today. Brace yourselves for the post-election, lame-duck session push, because Congress has a long to-do list. On there is something that has long been put on the back burner — immigration reform, particularly when it comes to the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to receive work permits and deportation relief.

Around 300 DACA recipients, Dreamers and immigrant advocates are descending on Washington this week to kick off their lame-duck push for action on immigration. They’re flying in from all over the country — New York, Texas, Nevada, California, Florida, you name it.

Immigrant advocacy groups are calling the campaign the “Week of Action,” in which hundreds of meetings will take place with lobbyists, business and faith leaders, White House officials and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. To name a few, groups have scored meetings with key Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, but they’re also starting talks with Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Mike Lee of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

This isn’t the first DACA push on the Hill, but supporters of immigration reform argue that this time, it’s now or never. As DACA recipients remain in legal limbo, advocates and legal experts warn the program is likely headed to the Supreme Court, where the conservative bench seems likely to rule it illegal.

“This is about our lives. This is about my life,” said Greisa Martinez, executive director of United We Dream. “I have every intention to ensure that there’s no way that in this country — when my life and the lives of undocumented young people are on the line — to allow politicians to just say the right words and not deliver.”

Martinez said they’ll also flood lawmakers’ phone lines with calls to pass permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship for immigrant youth. And Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received a letter late Monday, signed by more than 200 state, local and national immigrant, labor, faith, civil, health and human rights organizations, urging the Democratic leaders to “prioritize DACA protections in any end-of-year package.”
“The writing on the wall is pretty clear that DACA is on its way to end,” said Diana Pliego, a policy associate at the National Immigration Law Center and a DACA recipient. “We need them to feel the urgency that we feel in our daily lives.”

The election results have given advocates a morale boost. A Democratic majority in the Senate and a much slimmer, though likely, GOP majority in the House opens the door for bipartisan discussion during the lame duck, said Will Dempster, a spokesperson at the NILC. But potential GOP control in the House come January still scrunches the timeline for a deal, advocates warn, making it all the more urgent to pass something in the next few months.

Durbin, who first sponsored the DREAM Act more than 20 years ago, is already urging his GOP colleagues to make the most of the moment — to end the year with legislation “we can be proud of.” And on the Senate floor Monday, Durbin directly addressed “Republican colleagues, particularly those who are leaving and have told me privately they’ve always wanted to vote for the DREAM Act.”

“This time will give us a chance to work together, to come up with a good sensible approach to our border, a good sensible approach to the DREAM Act and help bring workers that we desperately need,” Durbin said, citing worker shortages in agriculture and health care. “We could do this. There’s no reason we can’t do it.”

If Republicans and Democrats can strike a deal on anything immigration-related, odds are it would be DACA: 68 percent of voters support Congress taking immediate action to provide permanent legal status to DACA recipients and Dreamers, according to the 2022 Midterm Voter Election Poll, conducted by the African American Research Collaborative.

Advocates told POLITICO they’ve seen early signals that some Republicans are interested in coming to the table, but talks this week will be critical in determining just how interested they are — and the likelihood of a DACA deal.

As always, we’ll be watching.

All the best,
The Recast Team


Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you’ll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy.

Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.


NATIVE ADOPTION UP AT SCOTUS

The fate of indigenous children now rests in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Last Wednesday, the panel heard arguments for Haaland v. Brackeen, a case that looks at the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act — aka ICWA.

The 1978 Act prioritizes the placement of American Indian children with Native — rather than non-Native — families in cases of neglect, abuse and adoption. It was enacted after an investigation revealed 25 to 35 percent of Native children were being removed from their homes, with 85 percent placed in non-Native homes.

Supporters say ICWA is the “gold standard” in child welfare policy because it emphasizes a child’s connection to their community and cultural heritage. Yet critics argue it is a race-based policy that commandeers states and exceeds Congress’ power over American Indian affairs.

In last week’s session, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked how one draws the line between respecting tribal sovereignty and race-based discrimination. An attorney representing the state of Texas — which is working alongside non-Native adoptive families to overturn ICWA — said the act is “clearly on the invidious race discrimination side of that very tricky line.”

The lawyer representing the tribal parties countered that ICWA rests on tribes’ “political relationship with the United States.”

Ahead of the hearings, 23 states, the District of Columbia and 27 child welfare agencies filed amicus briefs in support of ICWA.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative and ardent supporter of Native rights, said other laws — relating to health care, the environment and religious liberties — would become vulnerable if ICWA was overturned on the basis of congressional overreach.

A “huge bite” would be taken out of the U.S. Code’s Title 25, which outlines the federal government’s relationship with tribes, he added. “We’d be busy for the next many years striking things down.”

Indeed, this is a major concern for tribes, as The Recast reported in May. ICWA’s narrowing — or total overturning — could pose a threat to tribal sovereignty itself. “I fear that the Brackeen lawsuit is the first in a row of dominoes—if the Court strikes down ICWA, everything else could soon go with it,” wrote Cherokee Nation citizen Rebecca Nagle in The Atlantic last week.

The court is expected to decide on the case before the current term ends in June next year. We’ll be watching closely.


A NEW VISION FOR JOURNALISM

On Tuesday, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine writer and author of the best-selling “1619 Project,” launched the Center for Journalism and Democracy, an institute at Howard University that aims to examine the erosion of democracy in the United States and train journalists to cover how racism animates political power.

In particular, Hannah-Jones is taking aim at how the journalistic tradition of giving equal importance to both sides of an issue helps mainstream dangerous ideals like white supremacy and authoritarianism.

”We are here to openly grapple with how our profession has failed — sometimes with intention, sometimes because of blind spots, and sometimes through a misperception of our role,” Hannah-Jones told the roughly 200 guests in attendance during opening remarks. “We must understand that when it comes to democracy and equality, neutrality is an abdication of our duty.”
The launch of the center is the culmination of Hannah-Jones’ battle with the University of North Carolina over being denied tenure there. The college’s board of trustees took the unusual step in May 2021 of rejecting the journalism department’s recommendation that she be granted tenure.

The pushback against her work came from Walter Hussman, a prominent Arkansas publisher and UNC donor after whom the college’s school of journalism is named, who discredited her historical arguments about the role slavery played in triggering the American founding.

Less than a week after UNC reversed itself and voted to grant Hannah-Jones tenure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author took her work to Howard University, where armed with nearly $20 million in funding from the Knight Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation, she founded the center along with journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Today’s “Democracy Summit” is the center’s first public event, and will include panels on propaganda, anti-trans and anti-CRT state bills, the role of the Black press and the shortcomings of mainstream journalism, featuring well-known defenders of democracy such as Sherrilyn Ifill, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Maria Hinojosa and Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Even Barack Obama cut a 2-minute video for those in attendance.

“What really sets the center apart — and this is not surprising, given Nikole’s background — is a focus on historically-informed journalism in service of democracy and equity,” Obama said. “As a society, we need journalists who will report not just what’s happening, but why it’s happening and who’s being affected.”

Hannah-Jones said the center will hire visiting assistant professors, train journalists at Howard and other historically Black colleges and universities, and compile public-facing resources and toolkits for reporters.

“Despite the results of the election last week, the fight for democracy is not over,” Hannah-Jones said.


ICYMI @ POLITICO

How Did People of Color Vote? — While every racial group moved right this year, the shift wasn’t as drastic as expected. Democrats did well among Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander voters, but the party shouldn’t get too comfortable, reports POLITICO’s Marissa Martinez.

A Close-Up on Cincinnati’s Mayor — POLITICO Magazine’s Michael Kruse gives us a deep dive on Aftab Pureval, the first Asian American mayor of a major Midwest city. The Recast chatted with him back in May.

What Brittney Griner Can Expect — Journalist Anastasiia Carrier talks with Olga Romanova about penal colonies, where overcrowding and physical and sexual abuse are all too common. The WNBA star was moved there after being sentenced to nine years for smuggling and possessing cannabis oil.


THE RECAST RECOMMENDS

The Atlantic’s Clint Smith traveled to Germany to see how the nation commemorates the Holocaust — and how that compares to how the U.S. commemorates the shameful episodes of our past alongside all that there is to be proud of.

Couldn’t get enough of “Becoming”? Michelle Obama‘s new book, “The Light We Carry,” is out today.

For his SNL monologue, Dave Chappelle talked about the craziness that is Ye, antisemitism and Hollywood, pissing off quite a few people in the process. Did you see it? Tell us what you think at [email protected]

Jaswinder Bolina gives us a sneak peek of his forthcoming collection, “English as a Second Language and Other Poems,” with “Ancestral Poem.”

“Master of Light,” premiering tomorrow on HBO, chronicles the story of George Anthony Morton, a painter who honed his skills during a decade in federal prison. He’s since been navigating the white-dominant art world.

Lupita Nyong’o — who stars in the newly released “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — tells you her fashion life story.

London’s Ezra Collective is here to liven up your Tuesday with some jazz fusion.

Don’t miss the Latin Grammy Awards at 8 p.m. Thursday on Univision. Bad Bunny has 10(!) nominations, while Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro follow closely behind, with eight each.

Speaking of Alejandro ... the Puerto Rican singer has a new album, “Saturno,” and new visuals to boot, with his new single, “Lejos del Cielo” (“Far from Heaven”).

TikTok of the Day: RIP Nico