US Immigration and the Immigration Debate

An accomplished New York law professional, E. Abel Arcia has served as senior partner and managing attorney of Jackson Height’s Arcia & Associates since 1995. One of E. Abel Arcia’s main areas of focus as a lawyer is representing immigrants to the US who would otherwise have trouble finding representation. 

According to an independent report by the Pew Research Center, immigrants comprise approximately 17 percent of the American workforce. And a 2017 Gallup poll determined that 71 percent of US citizens consider immigration a “good thing.”

However, a higher percentage of the US population disapproves of the 5 percent of immigrants who are in the country without official documentation. For this reason and many others, immigration has been a key political subject in the US for decades. 

Despite its prominent role in the sphere of public debate, the federal government has long struggled to introduce and enact comprehensive immigration reform. In 2013, Congress came close to significant reform when the Democrat-led Senate passed a major bill which would have provided undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship while simultaneously strengthening security at the US/Mexican border. However, a Republican-led House of Representatives ultimately voted the bill.

DACA Extensions Continue under Current Injunction

A former prosecutor, E. Abel Arcia is the senior and managing attorney for the Law Office of Arcia & Associates, where he guides various practice groups, including one focused on immigration law. E. Abel Arcia and his team of highly-competent lawyers represent clients in complex immigration cases in several states, including California.

As a result of legal challenges filed against the federal government by the University of California (UC), enforcement of the decision to end the protections conferred to immigrants under Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been blocked by a federal injunction. UC filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in September 2017. 

UC brought the DHS to court over the infringement of DACA recipient’s rights. Since early 2018, an injunction issued by Judge William Alsup has enabled more than 117,000 DACA recipients to extend their status for two more years. The injunction provides relief for current DACA immigrants while the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reviews the district court’s decision. As of July 2018, the injunction remains in place.

Federal judges in New York State and Washington, D.C., have also made similar rulings finding that the federal government violated the law by rescinding DACA.