WASHINGTON, DC — Earlier today, a letter was filed with the Supreme Court on behalf of the DACA recipient plaintiffs in Wolf, et al, v Batalla Vidal, et al, one of the cases being considered by the Supreme Court regarding the future of the DACA program. The letter urged the Court to consider the ramifications of allowing the Trump Administration to terminate DACA, which would result in removing nearly 30,000 frontline healthcare workers who are DACA recipients in the midst of a global pandemic. FWD.us President Todd Schulte issued the following statement on the filing:

“Terminating DACA will mean there are nearly 30,000 less healthcare workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. There has never been a worse time to gut our healthcare workforce and it would be malpractice for the Supreme Court to ignore the reality during a global healthcare crisis.

“Healthcare workers risking their lives to protect our communities shouldn’t have to worry that they will be ripped from their jobs and deported during a healthcare crisis. Further, terminating DACA would result in 5,000 people being ripped from the workforce every week, adding to the already unprecedented increase in unemployment across the country. The Trump Administration should immediately renew DACA protections for any recipient whose protections expire within the next year, and should drop their appeal before the Supreme Court while we are responding to this crisis.

“The Trump Administration’s termination of DACA was illegal. The current national health emergency vividly illustrates the Trump Administration’s failure to consider the impact of terminating DACA on DACA recipients’ employers, state and local governments, and communities across the country, not to mention our health care workforce—an issue that Justice Breyer highlighted in questioning during oral argument—because it shows the terrible consequences of removing DACA healthcare providers from the workforce at this critical time.

“Allowing the termination of DACA to proceed now would be catastrophic.”