News

Supreme Court Rebuffs Trump’s Attempt to Dismantle DACA

Published

6 years ago

June 18, 2020

Kiki

On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Pres. Donald Trump’s
administration cannot immediately end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, which was created in 2012 by former Pres. Barack Obama when Congress
would not create immigration reforms.

The participants in DACA are called “DREAMers”

In 2017, Trump targeted DACA and vowed to end the program that allowed about
700,000 people brought to the U.S. as children to apply for a temporary status that
prevented their deportation.

Trump tweeted his reasoning for ending the program, saying that DREAMers “are far
from ‘angels.’ Some are very tough, hardened criminals.”

Prospective DREAMers, when applying to DACA, go through a background check and
cannot be felons or commit a “significant misdemeanor offense.” At this time, it is known
that 29,000 health care professionals working on COVID-19 are DREAMers.

“The appropriate recourse is, therefore, to remand to DHS so that it may reconsider the
problem anew,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the majority opinion and was
joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Steven Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia
Sotomayor. In the split decision, 5-4, the justices seemed to suggest that the Trump
Administration may have violated the law by attempting to end DACA so abruptly
without considering the overarching impact of the end of the program not only on people,
but on organizations and educational institutions.

Under Trump’s directive, according to the Supreme Court, the Dept. of Homeland
Security’s (DHS) methodology in attempting to end DACA was “arbitrary and
capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Sotomayor added that Trump initially told the DREAMers that they were “safe” and then
started on his campaign to end DACA. She said the termination of DACA would
“destroy lives.”

Of the 700,000 DREAMers/undocumented immigrants, many are from Mexico and
Central America.

Oral arguments were held Tuesday morning, June 16. A plaintiff, Antonio was present
during oral arguments and other DREAMers were in line to be present also.

According to a CNN interview, Antonio said “they will decide my fate.” CNN also
interviewed DREAMer Cynthia De la Torre Castro from Fort Worth, Texas, who
said: “This decision is historic and can disrupt everyone’s lives”

Plaintiffs, including Antonio, other individual DREAMers, the University of California
and individual states argued that the Trump Administration’s proposal to end DACA was
in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that lets agencies know
how to establish regulations and, in this case, dismantle programs. In other words,
the administration would have to follow certain regulations to eliminate DACA and those
regulations were not followed.

Briefs in support of DACA were filed by 143 business associations and
companies. Research from the Cato Institute found that it would cost companies $6.3
billion to replace DREAMers “if they can even find new employees to fill the empty
positions.”

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, filed a brief in support of DACA.  Apple employs 443
DREAMers from 25 different countries and four continents.  Cook said:  “We did not
hire them out of kindness or charity.  We did it because DREAMers embody Apple’s
innovative strategy.  They come from diverse backgrounds and display a wide range of
skills and experiences that equip them to tackle problems from different perspectives.”

Through a tweet, Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court’s decisions
on DACA and on granting employment protections for the LGBTQ community:
“These horrible and politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are
shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or
Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd Amendment & everything
else. Vote Trump 2020!”

Kiki

Posts by Kiki

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

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#NNPA BlackPress

Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.