[caption id="attachment_10144" align="alignnone" width="300"]U.S. SUPREME COURT[/caption]

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration failed to provide “a reasoned explanation” for ending the “Dreamers” program. So, for now, the nearly 800,000 young immigrants it covers remain free from the threat of deportation.

For Local 888 activist Jonathan Dudley, the issue is personal. One of the Dreamers is Dudley’s brother-in-law, Jonathan Vargas, an intensive-care nurse who works with COVID-19 patients in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Dudley, a Head Start teacher with the Montachusetts Opportunity Council, said he was “so thankful” for the court ruling, “which will make a huge difference in the lives of people I love.”

President Obama set up DACA — or the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program — in 2012 as Congress failed to act on immigration reform. These “Dreamers” were brought up in the U.S. — which is their home.

But the Trump administration may act again to end DACA. Dudley, therefore, is urging people to sign a petition calling on Congress to OK the Dream Act — (https://tinyurl.com/888Dreamer) a congressional proposal that would cement Obama’s program into law. Dudley acknowledges that, for this to happen, there would have be new president and a changed Congress.

To find your congressional representative or U.S. senators, go to: https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress

DACA allowed hard-working young adults like Vargas to get work papers and attend college, while shielding them from deportation if they had a clean criminal record.

Vargas came to this country with his family from a small town in Mexico when he as 12. He has worked in intensive care for four years — along with his wife, who is Dudley’s sister, and a brother.

DACA targets young adults who were, through no fault of their own, brought to the country as children.