While Congress struggled in 2013 to enact just and meaningful reform, and the President is close to surpassing 2 million deportations, immigrants won victories in many states and many levels.<\/p>\n

In no particular order:<\/p>\n

1. The Supreme Court Strikes Down Section 3 of the\u00a0Defense of Marriage Act<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the\u00a0fall of DOMA’s Section 3<\/a>\u00a0has brought much-needed relief among members of the LGBT community. While there is much more left to do in terms of winning rights for all members of the LGBT community, over 36,000 bi-national same-sex couples can finally live together without worrying about imminent family separation due to archaic U.S. immigration policies. With same-sex couples now scoring green cards throughout the country, and non-immigrants gaining the ability to finally bring their partners to the U.S., this is one giant step forward for immigrant rights.<\/p>\n

Honorable mentions: The Supreme Court also\u00a0struck down Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship to vote<\/a>, and also\u00a0provided relief from removal for many individuals who were charged for drug trafficking for mere possession of marijuana<\/a>\u00a0under state laws.<\/p>\n

2. Driver’s Licenses for Undocumented Residents<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2012, only three states–Washington, New Mexico, Utah–granted driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Great local organizing in 2013 saw additional states such as\u00a0Maryland<\/a>,\u00a0Nevada<\/a>,\u00a0Illinois<\/a>,\u00a0Vermont<\/a>,\u00a0Colorado<\/a>,\u00a0Connecticut<\/a>,\u00a0Oregon<\/a>,\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0District of Columbia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Puerto Rico<\/a>,\u00a0will see those states granting driver’s licenses to undocumented residents in the New Year.<\/p>\n

Driver’s licenses for undocumented residents is a public safety issue because immigrants have to pass the road test before they can get licensed, and they are also more likely to purchase auto-insurance.<\/p>\n

3. Instate-Tuition for Undocumented Students<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Jersey<\/a>,\u00a0Colorado<\/a>,\u00a0Minnesota<\/a>, and\u00a0Oregon<\/a>\u00a0passed laws\u00a0that permit in-state tuition for undocumented students.\u00a0Massachusetts<\/a>,\u00a0Florida<\/a>,\u00a0and the\u00a0Ohio Board of Regents<\/a>\u00a0also approved a tuition-waiver for\u00a0DACA<\/a>-eligible students. These states joined\u00a0California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington state, who have similar laws on the books.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong>\u00a0Drop the I-Word<\/strong><\/p>\n

More media outlets such as the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>,\u00a0USA Today<\/a>,\u00a0Denver Post<\/a>,\u00a0Good Morning America<\/a>, and the\u00a0San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>,\u00a0took a step towards dropping the use of “illegal immigrant” in their coverage of stories about undocumented or unauthorized immigrants. Last year, I wrote an article for the New America Media as to why journalists should drop the word as\u00a0it is more complicated than legal and illegal<\/a>. Race Forward has\u00a0more information about the Drop the I-Word campaign<\/a>. Hopefully, more outlets decide to drop the use of this inaccurate and dehumanizing discourse, and adopt less politically charged language such as “irregular” migrants.<\/p>\n

5. More Use of Administrative Measures to Provide Relief for Immigrants<\/strong><\/p>\n

After issuing the successful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to provide relief for undocumented people brought here as minors, federal officials also issued memos to stop\u00a0disrupting the parental rights of undocumented parents<\/a>\u00a0and issued\u00a0parole-in-place to stop the deportation of\u00a0immediate family members of U.S. military personnel<\/a>. As NDLON’s growing\u00a0Not 1 More Deportation<\/a>\u00a0campaign puts more pressure on the Executive Branch, it would be interesting to see whether\u00a0President Obama can continue using administrative measures to decrease or stop deportations until Congress can enact some meaningful immigration reform.<\/p>\n

6. States Fight Back Against “Secure Communities”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joining the District of Columbia and Illinois,\u00a0California passed the TRUST Act<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0prohibit local law enforcement officials from detaining immigrants longer than necessary for minor crimes in order to hand them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Now, local law enforcement in California can only hand over non-U.S. citizens to ICE in the event of serious crimes and sex offenses. California also saw the passage of a spate of pro-immigration bills, such as one to\u00a0grant law licenses to undocumented law school graduates<\/a>, and\u00a0made it a crime for attorneys and employers to “induce fear” by threatening to report someone’s immigration status<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7. Federal Court Provides Due Process for Detained Immigrants<\/strong><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Rodriguez v. Robbins<\/em><\/a>, the Ninth Circuit held that the government must provide automatic bond hearings to immigrants detained six months or longer. Before this case, non-U.S. citizens facing removal from the country would languish in detention for months, even years, until the adjudication of their cases. According to the American Civil Liberties Union,\u00a0this ruling should benefit thousands of immigration detainees across the Ninth Circuit, which includes states such as California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Arizona. Here is\u00a0more information on how to request a Rodriguez bond hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

8. Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a long wait, Congress\u00a0reauthorized<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Violence Against Women Act<\/a>\u00a0(VAWA), with several new protections that are of relevance to immigrants. Most notably,\u00a0Congress added \u201cstalking\u201d to the list of crimes covered by the U-visa, available for victims of crime in the U.S. The reauthorization of VAWA also allows the surviving minor children of a VAWA self-petitioner to retain the ability to qualify for lawful permanent residence in the event that the qualifying relative passes away after the filing of the application.<\/p>\n

9. Federal Court Delivers Blow to Alabama Anti-Immigrant Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\u00a0legal settlement<\/a>\u00a0proved to be a death-knell for one of the worst immigration laws in the country.\u00a0Alabama’s anti-immigrant law,\u00a0HB 56<\/a>, followed the same fate as anti-immigrant laws passed by states like Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina, when the\u00a011th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down many of its most invidious provisions, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal from the state. Under the settlement agreement, Alabama can no longer detain persons solely for their immigration status.<\/p>\n

10. Bring Them Home – The DREAM 9 and DREAM 30<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a bold act of civil disobedience,\u00a0three undocumented youth leaders self-deported to Mexico<\/a>, in order to bring back their previously deported counterparts. All nine were paroled into the United States, but spent weeks at El Paso Detention Center where they uncovered various different cases of abuse against immigrant detainees. Similarly, the DREAM 30 were another group of formerly undocumented immigrants who came back to the United States. While\u00a0some were deported as part of a cynical political ploy<\/a>, most were paroled into the U.S. and allowed to stay here to pursue their asylum claims. Their bold actions reunited families, expanded the definition of a “Dreamer” beyond U.S. borders, placed pressure on the Obama Administration to stop deportations, and\u00a0highlighted the prolonged detention of asylum seekers<\/a>\u00a0who had already established “credible fear” of returning to their countries of origin.<\/p>\n

We look forward to some more inspiring victories for immigrants and racial justice in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Congress struggled in 2013 to enact just and meaningful reform, and the President is close to surpassing 2 million deportations, immigrants won victories in many states and many levels. In no particular order: 1. The Supreme Court Strikes Down Section 3 of the\u00a0Defense of Marriage Act Undoubtedly, the\u00a0fall of DOMA’s Section 3\u00a0has brought much-needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[829],"tags":[641,1073,1071,1070,454,96,633,1072],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-deportation","tag-detention","tag-drivers-licenses","tag-immigrant-justice","tag-immigrant-rights","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-reform","tag-instate-tuition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7377"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11325,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions\/11325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racefiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}