On June 15, 2012, former President Barack Obama announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA happened because of the efforts of young immigrants across the country who organize and challenge the Obama administration. DACA has benefited approximately 800,000 young immigrants throughout the country, providing them with a social security number and a work permit that has allowed them to work and financially help their families.

One of the focal points for the Trump administration was to end DACA, claiming it was an unconstitutional executive order taken by former President Obama. On September 5, 2017, his administration announced that it would be ending DACA, leaving 800,000 people unprotected. However, immediately after the announcement, a preliminary injunction was issued in January of 2018 and DACA was re-establish once again. But ever since then, the constitutionality of DACA has been challenged by different courts, ending up in the Supreme court.

We know that DACA is not a permanent solution, but we understand the implications that could happen if DACA is canceled indefinitely. In MA approximately 7,934 DACA recipients would be left unprotected once more and in fear of being deported.

The SIM DACA fund is being created to provide economic support to DACA recipients in MA. Applicants have to pay $495 in fees for their renewal application. Many members of our community, including DACA folks, live paycheck to paycheck and often are not able to pay for the application fees. We are asking our community to help the DACA recipient here in MA who are part of our community with any monetary support for their DACA renewal application.