Young US Immigrants Protest as DACA program Gets Heard in the Supreme Court

Nine justices inside the United States of America's Supreme Court are debating and talking about a decision that will affect approximately 700,000 young US immigrants. Some of the signs of the protesters read, "home is here".

"It was amazing to be in there, taking up space where historically, [there] probably have not been so many undocumented people of color. But it is surreal to have nine justices deciding your fate and then having lawyers fight for you. And at the end of the day, a court isn't going to tell us that we deserve basic human decency," said Karen Reyes, a31-year-old undocumented immigrant present in the rally.

The Supreme Court will need to come up with a decision to either continue or discontinue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) of former President Obama. The DACA program was created to protect from deportation to a majority of undocumented immigrant youth. The program also helps these youth to allow them to work legally in the United States of America. The DACA program was created under the leadership of former President Obama to assist and protect undocumented immigrants aged 30 and below who were illegally brought to the country by their parents when they were below 16 years of age.

President Donald Trump had stopped the program in 2017. The current president called the program as an example of "executive overreach". This act of President Trump had caused the birth of multiple lawsuits that are not being heard in the Supreme Court.

One of the DACA beneficiaries, Karen Reyes, is a pre-kinder teacher from Texas. She had traveled to Washington, D.C. to observe first-hand the oral arguments on Tuesday. She had described the court area as smaller than she had expected it to be judging from the size of the building.

Being part of the young US immigrants group, Karen was glad to have spotted Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She described Justice Sotomayor to be an "a woman of color who is not afraid".

"telling DACA-eligible people that they were safe under him and that he would find a way to keep them here. (It was) "surreal," said Karen Reyes, sharing the context of the statement by Justice Sotomayor regarding President Trump's previous statements and his move to cancel the DACA program.

Karen Reyes believes that whatever the lawyers and justices will be debating on will significantly affect her future.

During the debate on Tuesday, the Supreme Court's conservative majority had taken the side of Trump's argument. This decision would significantly affect the undocumented immigrant youth in the United States to acquire higher education and work legally in the country.

The attorneys of President Trump argued that the DACA program was illicit and the Department of Homeland Security can legally stop its implementation.

The opponents of the president argued that the cancellation of the DACA program will negatively affect the lives of thousands of people in the US including the young US immigrants. The party demands a more acceptable reason for the cancellation of DACA.