My cell phone buzzed and I saw a text from my little sister:

“SCOTUS saved DACA!!!”

I immediately started sobbing and pulled up the news story.

 

Breaking News: The Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can’t immediately end DACA, the program that protects 700,000 young immigrants from deportation https://t.co/0KulgQBtV6

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 18, 2020

This is a huge win, not just for “Dreamers,” the undocumented young people who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but also for those of us who believe in basic human decency and equality.

As someone of Puerto Rican descent, I am lucky that the island became a United States territory in 1917, that my grandparents and mom were born U.S. citizens, and that my mom was able to come to the mainland as a child and grow up with all the benefits of citizenship. I’m lucky that I was born in New York City and never had to question whether I could go to school or work or exist here legally.

So many of these Dreamers look like me and my family and were raised in the U.S. as young children, like my sisters and I were, and so my tears come from knowing that this country—as broken and beautiful as it is—is home for them. And now it can stay that way.

 

Wow!!!!!! I cannot hold back the tears of joy I feel for all of the young people in our country who have been petrified and can now breath a sigh of enormous relief. Supreme Court rules Trump administration illegally ended DACA https://t.co/XpP5eW55CO

— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) June 18, 2020

“This is a wonderful, wonderful day,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says in emotional statement on the Senate floor following the Supreme Court DACA decision.

“It gives you some faith that the laws, rules and mores of this country can be upheld.” https://t.co/ZwJVPphHWA pic.twitter.com/6QdFu40zg1

— ABC News (@ABC) June 18, 2020

Watch an anti-racism hour with Jane Elliott talking with Waylon Lewis of Elephant, here.