Supreme Court immigration decision impacts Sonoma County

An estimated 11,000 undocumented immigrants in Sonoma County no longer have an opportunity to gain a temporary reprieve from the threat of deportation following a U.S. Supreme Court decision|

Saul Diaz only wanted his parents to receive what President Barack Obama granted him four years ago - a small taste of what it’s like to be legal in America, to have a work permit and to live without fear of deportation.

The 22-year-old Santa Rosa man got that in 2012, when Obama issued an executive order granting “deferred action” to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. Two years later, Obama, again through executive action, proposed extending relief to undocumented adults.

But the hopes of some 5 million immigrants across the country - including an estimated 11,000 in Sonoma County - were dashed on Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked in a case challenging Obama’s latest immigration plan.

“This could have helped my parents, helped them find a better job, further their education,” said Diaz, who works as a case worker in an immigration law firm. “Without this, it really limits them.”

Saul, a graduate of Elsie Allen High School, has plans to get a degree from Sonoma State University and currently works at Kerosky Purves & Bogue, an immigration law firm with offices throughout Northern California and in Los Angeles. Diaz is among more than a half-dozen young people working at the law firm who benefited from the president’s 2012 executive order known as deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA.

“It makes me sad and a little bit angry,” Diaz said, speaking of how the Supreme Court’s decision affects his parents and other undocumented immigrants. “It narrows down to how I can help them at this point, even though I work in an immigration law firm. It’s still not as simple as people think. ... Just like DACA helped a lot of people, this could have helped my parents, helped them find better jobs and maybe further their education.”

Obama’s latest immigration program was called deferred action for parents of Americans and legal residents, or DAPA, and is similar to his earlier DACA plan.

The Supreme Court’s 4-4 tie decision - resulting from the absence of a ninth justice - effectively lets stand a preliminary injunction against Obama’s plan on the grounds that the president may have exceeded his executive power, said Santa Rosa attorney Christopher Kerosky, who supports both the DAPA and DACA programs.

For several years, Kerosky has been working closely with local undocumented youth, using video documentaries to chronicle how DACA has dramatically changed their lives. Kerosky said the next president could greatly affect the lives of millions of undocumented immigrants and their families.

“Now the election becomes the key factor. Who wins the election - and who decides who that ninth judge is going to be?” Kerosky said. “Now, because of this decision, the goal of immigrants and those who favor immigration reform has to be reaching the hearts and minds of the American people.”

Not all approve of Obama’s executive actions.

Edelweiss Geary, chairwoman of the Sonoma County Republican Party, applauded the Supreme Court’s deadlock, calling it “a little sign of hope.”

“The major fear of the Founding Fathers was a centralized government that made all the decisions,” Geary said. “Congress did not pass a law that said he could just arbitrarily do what he was doing.”

The president’s DAPA plan also included an expansion of DACA. Of the estimated 29,000 undocumented immigrants in Sonoma County, a total of 15,000 undocumented immigrants would have benefited from DAPA and DACA plans, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

An estimated 4,000 immigrants could have qualified for DACA and expanded DACA, while another 11,000 would have benefited from DAPA.

Suzy Becerra, legal assistant with VIDAS, a Santa Rosa-based immigration services and advocacy group, said the Supreme Court’s decision is a major blow for a community that has been hoping for some kind of relief for decades.

“For the community, it’s very difficult,” Becerra said. “It’s the only remedy that people had. Many people are disillusioned.”

Becerra said VIDAS will likely work closely with other local organizations, such as the Graton Day Labor Center, Catholic Charities and California Human Development to come up with a “plan of action” for responding to immigrants’ concerns and questions. Many, she said, ask about the future if the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, wins the election.

“When we go to community meetings, the first thing people ask is what happens if Trump is elected,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.

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