[dramatic musical sting] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] Initially I was thinking about having it go down like that, but I don't know.

What do you think?

- I think across will be better.

- Yeah.

Okay, let's do that then.

I can tolerate pain so go as hard as you want.

No, Me aguito.

¿No aguitation?

No aguitation.

I say that right now Im about to start crying.

[laughing] [speaking faintly] [upbeat music] So what's up with you?

What do you do?

- I work as a lawyer for immigrants.

It's really, you know, you meet a lot of people from a lot of different areas.

You hear a lot of about what brought 'em here.

Some of them querían venir, some of them... they had to come... forced out.

It's rewarding work, you know, a lot of people who need help.

- [Tattoo artist] Where'd you study?

- I went to community college first and then I went to San Jose State and I studied Chicano studies.

That was dope.

I loved it.

One time I was en como una pela and she was like, “you like to argue so much” “you should be a lawyer.” And I was like, oh [beep], maybe I should be a lawyer.

It was like the first time I heard it out loud and then so I looked into it 'cause I didn't even know like what the process was or anything like that, you know?

You know what I mean?

Not a lot of people can do that.

[jazzy music] - This was a historic moment.

We defended DACA at the Supreme Court.

If they wanted to rescind this program, they have to give reasoned decision making and explain all of the reasons as to why it did it and that it considered the real human stakes that are here.

This case really highlights how badly we need overall comprehensive immigration reform.

We're hoping that we get a decision soon so that people like myself and other DACA recipients feel a sense of stability.

[light music] [guitar music] ¡Hey, hola mijo!

Hola mijo, ¿cómo estás?

Bien.

Por poco no la alcanzo.

Les traje unas flores.

Us ted se va mañana, ¿verdad?

Sí, yo me voy mañana, papi.

!Feliz día de las madres!

¡Gracias, papá!

Que bonito, mio Vamos a dentro.

Vamos a cocinar.

Luis, él quería ver a Luis.

[Abuelo] Dice, me voy a ir sinv No, no, para eso vine.

¿Cómo está?

¿Cuándo llegó?

Ya vine ahorita.

Son bastantes años.

como 30 años sin verla mis hijs Yo no conocía en los de ma nieo nada más a Luis pero cuando ten Pudiera a Dios.

Él nos ayudó aa la visa para poder venir a vera ¿Qué Pingüino?

¿Qué pasó?

¿Querías ver qué te trajeron at - It's some mixed emotions because on the one hand there's a sense of relief that my mom was able to see her parents.

The other side of it is, is that it's a reminder of just the memories and relationships that we could have had.

¿A ver, no quiere probar de sal a ver come está?

A ver, Luis.

No, no te vas a qe Te dije, no vas a quemar.

Está bueno, bueno.

Está caliente.

Sí, bueno.

Sí, sí.

- My mom had to spend a significant amount of time without her parents because of a division, an imaginary line and some arbitrary laws that won't allow us to see each other.

[Evelia laughing] It's no way to build a relationship.

We try as best as you can, but you know, there's a loss of time.

Cuando Luis empezó a ir a la ec el primer año, él me quería enseñar inglés.

Él quería enseñarme lo que él p po rque Luis sabía que yo no hal y lo que él aprendió en la esce viene lo enseñaba pretendiendo que él era el maestro y a mí me gustaba.

Luis iba a una escuela "gifted.

Solamente iban estudiantes quee recomendados por sus maestros.

- And this is the school actually that organized the trip to Europe.

[bell ringing] It was a class about European history.

We learned about the Magna Carta, about King Henry and all that [...].

It was dope.

I loved it.

And so we were going to go to Europe and like go check out what we had read.

That's how bomb the school was.

Luis vino bien entusiasmado co un a caja bien grande de chocolt Y le dije que vas a hacer con s Me dijo voy de chocolates porque voy a ir a Europa y a mí se me hizo divertido.

-Oh sí, no sé cuántos chocolates vendió pero sí sé que fue que más vendió en la clase.

- [Luis] And one night they're like, “yeah, you can't go 'cause you weren't born here.” ¿Por qué no?

dijo.

Si yo vendí los chocolates?

Es que Luis, tú no tienes docue ¿Cómo que no tengo documentos?

No, tú no tienes documentos.

Tú no eres ciudadano.

- [Luis] I was just super bummed out.

I remember I was crying.

I got made fun of crying.

En ese momento fue cuando él s que era indocumentado.

Y me dijo ¿Por qué no te venise para que yo naciera aquí?

[gentle music] ¿Por qué te esperaste?

Cuando nos movimos Estados Unid desde México, yo no terminé mi carrera.

Pero mi esposo había estudió ua ca rrera de ingeniero mecánico que él terminó allá.

Pero aunque él trabajaba en un restaurante de comida rái también trabajaba en la constrc Para él tener tiempo para Luisy el se iba a las cuatro de la mañana y terminar temprano y poder disfrutar el día con el ¡Mira!

- We would go fishing.

Aquí Luis ya empezaba a tomar clases de natación.

y tu papá no sabía nadar, y esto salva vida.

Sí.

Tu papá y Luis Mucho, mucho cercas.

- Yeah, he was hands on?

Oh, sí.

Todo el tiempo.

[jazzy upbeat music] - Luis was really someone I looked up to and really helped me out.

And I guess coming of age things.

- I would always go to him 'cause he was the oldest.

I thought of him as like an adult most of my life.

He would like be protective and like keeping me from doing stupid mistakes.

[light jazzy music] - It makes no sense to expel talented young people who for all intents and purposes are Americans.

They've been raised as Americans.

- Getting DACA, that was a game changer.

And I got my driver's license.

I don't know if people ever been on dates and like you carded for a drink and then you have to like hold, go through this whole explanation of why you don't have a [...] ID is the worst.

It really kills the date by the way.

Like I'll just tell you that it's like not romantic.

[light music] DACA is not a pathway to a green card.

It's not a green card.

It's technically not even a legal status.

All it is, it's a temporary measure where we give the Department of Homeland Security all of our information.

They vet us and if they deem us to be a non-priority and a non threat to the community, they'll give us permission to stay in the United States for two years at a time.

It was the first time that I felt safe, at least temporarily.

I became much more open about my status because now I felt that there wasn't going to be that direct repercussion that someone could just call ICE because they disagreed with me.

It took this weight off of me that I didn't realize how heavy it was until it was off of me.

I remember thinking like, okay, well you know, I can't waste this.

- Hi, I am super excited to introduce our speaker, Luis Cortes Romero.

Luis was the first attorney I had ever met who was a DACA recipient, just like myself.

And looking forward to your presentation.

- Alright, well thank you so much everybody.

I am very excited to be here.

Today, we'll be talking a little bit about, you know, how, what is DACA, how we got it.

'Cause I think, you know, I think that's important to think about the origin stories, the grassroots.

I think DACA by its nature creates this narrative of the good immigrant versus the bad immigrant.

In terms of DACA recipients, they were people who were brought here as children who graduated from high school or are in the armed forces or in school.

But it leaves out a lot of the working class population who may have not had the opportunity to finish high schoo but who are hard workers or started their own businesses instead.

And I think really the way we got to start of how this like phenomenon of Dreamers and DACA recipients really came into play is we got to start where we start usually, which is in the beginning.

[light drum music] 2001 is where The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors, the DREAM Act took place.

You know, the DREAM Act was a way for folks who were brought to United States as children can have a pathway to a green card and eventually U.S. citizenship.

The DREAM Act never made out of Congress.

It's been proposed and time again, it was one of the things that was created by the activists for the activists and it was a hard fought, hard sacrificed battle.

I think that's important that DACA wasn't a gift from Obama.

It was a political concession from the heavy pressure by activists and from young people.

The DREAM Act although unsuccessful in legislature, it did provide a foundation and a name for a generation that will ultimately change the world.

[light drum music] [mom whistling] - Come on.

It's time to come out.

Aquí en el área donde estamos en los tiempos atrás, había muchas redadas.

Ibas a la tienda a comprar.

y había una redada ahí.

Ese es uno de los temores porque no estás listo para irt, especialmente si tienes hijos e qué va a pasar con ellos?

- My dad had to go before an immigration judge, and the immigration judge told him, you know, despite you don't have criminal history, despite you have U.S. citizen kids here.

Despite that you've paid your taxes the whole time.

And despite all of that, judge said he had to go.

[faint solemn music] Mi esposo lo deportaron.

Fue muy difícil para toda la fm Um, el cambio brusco que tuvims porque no lo esperábamos.

- Once I found out, you know, the deportation, I kind of just tossed in the towel.

Math seemed to not matter as much when you have a family member who's going to be exiled.

I'm like what?

What sense does that make?

[Beep] takes a toll.

And it was these benches right here where I remember just like sitting down, I didn't even go to my next period.

I just kind of sat here.

I didn't understand how there was a system that worked that way.

- And I don't think my parents ever really explained it to me fully what had happened.

All I knew is just that all of a sudden my mom was like a single mom who didn't really want to be.

She had her teenage sons, she had a toddler.

Sorry.

Luis and Erick were kind of going through their... - Rough patch.

- Their rough patch.

A little bit of a definitely rebellious phase.

My mom couldn't handle us all.

The family unit that we once had was just like, it just wasn't there anymore.

Yeah, - My brother and I were only about a year and a few months apart.

But there was some significant differences between him and I.

The kind of glaring one was the fact that he was born here and I was not.

That was definitely a source that I think put a wedge in how we saw the world.

And so he was much less risk adverse because he knew that he couldn't get deported 'cause he was born here.

- The problem with immigration status isn't just like the fear of deportation, it's the exploitation of immigrants often leads people to be stuck in low socioeconomic statuses.

That pushes you into what zip codes you can live in and ultimately the zip codes you live in dictate a lot of what your life is going to look like, what you're exposed to.

We had a lot of traumas that we had gone through.

Living in poverty brings a ton of dramas, lots of violence, alcohol abuse and things like that.

Some of these traumas I think ultimately led him to use controlled substances.

He was trying to find a, I think a chemical solution to an emotional problem and he ended up dying from it.

[rock music] It was around this time, too, that my outside appearance started to really match my, what I was feeling inside.

I went through this like weird identity crisis 'cause I really felt like the U.S. was my home, right?

And I identified so much with it.

So I wanted to get away from a Mexican identity because that's the identity that gets people deported.

So I started like piercing my ears, I pierced my nose, too.

I started, you know, hanging out with other people who looked like that.

It's a very, like that punk rock style was a very American thing and I like ran to that.

It was like really aggressive music and it all kind of just sounds like noise but it's the only type of music that definitely sounded how I was feeling.

[light rock music] - At that point always felt very dichotomous that you can only be one or the other.

There's a Mexican culture and then there's an American culture.

In a lot of ways I found it very difficult to reconcile both and in some ways it was contradictory and it felt like I wasn't enough of one or the other and neither of them.

[light rock music] Imposible.

Más que nada que vengo de una cultura muy tradicional.

Soy muy conservadora.

Eso no entraba para mi.

¿Se rasuró las orillas de la cb y se levantó un perro bien grande - una "mohawk".

se la pintó de colores Eh?

Y oye esa música horrible.

Yo dije Dios mío, qué me pasó?

Dónde está mi hijo?

Si alguna persona me hubiera dc no te preocupes, un día Luis va a ser un abogado y él va a estar bien.

Yo lo hubiera dicho.

¿No?

[upbeat music fading] - I started law school before DACA and undocumented students can't get financial aid.

And that was a big issue, because law school is expensive.

And then I realized that it was cheaper to pay out-of-state tuition than to pay in-state tuition in California.

I ended up going to the University of Idaho.

And I had resigned myself in the first year that I was not going to be able to practice law, and because I knew I didn't have the authority to work and I didn't have a social security number so I just figured I was going to go back and do what my parents did, which is work blue-collar jobs.

Respectable blue-collar jobs.

But not practice law.

So I called my mom and I said, “I'm packing up my stuff “and I'm leaving because I'm not going to get to practice law.” “So why do this at all?” Le dijero, "No."

Ya empezo, ahora termina.

Si no puede practicar, no impot Pero empezó algo.

Termínelo dem - She hella yelled at me and she said that I wasn't allowed to come back.

That even if I didn't get to practice law later, whatever I learned in law school they couldn't unteach me and that we don't get to these spaces often.

And I remember crying in my car in the snow like being like, “okay, I guess I'll just stick aroun”" [light palpitating music] And so then when I was going into my last year and DACA was announced and I told her, one of the first things she said was, you know, “this is going to allow you to practice law.” And I said, “yeah, I think so”" You know the next thing she said was like, “I told you so”" Hi, can you see me?

- Okay, cool.

So the reason that I'm calling is because we finally heard back from the Ninth Circuit today and they have granted you the deferral and now we're just going to be working on you getting released.

The case is all over.

- You'll be getting out.

Im serious The case is done.

The times that I'm feeling very much undocumented, it's not when we lose, it's when we win.

One of us is walking out with legal status and it's not the lawyer.

You're going to go home.

The case is over.

- And I'm like, I'm so happy for you that you've like got your green card, but like I'm also like a tiny bit salty.

I'm envious and I want to, and I want to have, I want to celebrate that, too.

- They don't have socials, like it makes no sense.

- It is hard, you know, I don't think I feel it every da Like it's after a little while that it starts compounding and then I start feeling the real weight of it.

And I think part of that, too, is that, you know, when you're there and you're with your clients, you're there to be their North Star and there's not a whole lot of room for your feelings.

And so I've gotten pretty good about putting those away.

[light music] - I will immediately terminate President Obama's illegal executive order on immigration.

Immediately.

[light music] - We knew that President Trump was using DACA as a stocking horse for immigration policies.

He was attempting to use DACA recipients as pawns, as sacrificial lambs to get those policies through.

- There are some DACA recipients who already have a deportation order, and DACA is the only thing stopping ICE from deporting them.

They're going to lose their homes, they're going to lose their ability to feed their kids.

[gentle solemn music] - [News Reporter] Even though Ramirez had DACA documentation, an ICE agent told him, “it doesn't matter” “because you weren't born in this country.” - Free Daniel.

Free Daniel.

- [News Reporter] The lawyers are now suing Homeland Security.

- Daniel's case was particularly important because it was the first, and if the government got away with that prosecution, it would open the door to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.

- I figured that this was going to be the end of DACA by a thousand cuts, where it slowly but surely they will start detaining DACA individuals and then not care about their DACA status.

Me dijeron que yo era de un bandillo que por esta too Les dije que no era bandillo.

o Y ellas me dijeron no, Sí eres, vamos para allá.

Y así.

- [Daniel's brother] They did not have a warrant for my brother.

They're not supposed to take him He is from here.

Eso es lo que es muy fuerte Eso No sé porque hacen eso.

Si yo estoy en México no lo voy a poder ver.

Yo pienso que no lo voy a ver [gentle music] Mi hijo Daniel Junior ya va en primer grado.

Él sabe que yo ha blo con el abogado y todo, pero si no le explico bien cóm Pero pues él es que no le quier qu e que nos pueden separar.

Pues yo pienso que no le está h Pues, para que sepa eso, Yo nomás quiero que esto se reu - I got a phone call from Daniel's brother who's very panicked on a Friday afternoon saying, “they took my brother, he has DACA.” I immediately knew that something was wrong.

That if he had DACA and he hadn't done nothing wrong, they should not be detaining him.

And I have DACA and I was imagining how I would feel if they all of a sudden said, “that doesn't matter, you're coming with me.” Later that night I put it out on a few listservs, some like immigration law Facebook groups about like, is this the new normal?

- A colleague of mine called me and said, “do you know that the government” “is prosecuting DACA recipients?

And I was astonished.

- And what happened was the government said, because you have a tattoo and because you're Mexican, you must be a gang member.

Very early on they knew that was not true but they kept saying it anyway.

They said it over and over again and... - Daniel would make the worst gang member.

He, yes, he's the sweetest person.

Yeah, I would hate to have him in my gang.

[audience laughing] So this matters a lot to me because they're saying that it's a tattoo problem.

We know about the criminalizing of brown identities.

He has DACA and I'm brown, I have DACA and I have tattoos.

This could have very well been me.

And I remember lifting up my arm and and showing Ethan.

And Ethan saw kind of the seriousness of it and he says, “yeah, we have to do something.” This is Sunday night, we have to file first thing tomorrow morning like at eight o'clock in the morning.

I legit laughed 'cause I thought they were kidding.

- ICE acting with the authorization of the executive branch was determined to turn DACA into a non-entity.

It was clear that we were going to need more firepower.

I called an acquaintance of mine, worked with the Gibson Dunn law firm.

They assembled some of their very best lawyers.

I called law professors who had the scholarship, the research and the clout.

And we also talked to a top immigration lawyer in the Pacific Northwest.

So we had the team that we felt could put together a case, prosecute that case and hold the government accountable.

- And so we were brainstorming, we figured out a plan and next thing you know, we're working through the night to save Daniel.

It just goes to show you that one case can really change your career.

- [News reporter] Guys, if you're listening back there he is coming out, he's coming out, he's coming out.

- [News Reporter] How does it feel?

Give us a few words of what you're feeling?

- Obviously, it's a very emotional day, a very, very, very long road.

So we're going to take some time to decompress, talk next steps and we promise we will make a more fuller statement really, really soon with Daniel.

I'll have Daniel just say a few words.

Pues estoy bien y estoy bien agradecido con todos.

este con todos la gente que me y a todos los Dreamers también.

Muchas gracias.

- Thank you, guys.

[gentle music] - I closely identify with Daniel.

I can relate to some of his background and how he was profiled.

- Go right there.

- Right after we started digging Daniel's case, it came out that I was also a DACA recipient.

I received a number of racist comments, threats.

One day I came to work and I found this note and it said something along the lines of, “you better watch out, spik” And I remember they used the word ‘spic because they spelled it wrong.

I was worried that the person was going to come back, maybe with a gun.

So we did think about closing the office.

But we made the decision to continue doing the work that we were doing and not be intimidated by this note.

[gentle music] I also get nervous sometimes about what can happen with some of the work that we're doing because ICE has a history of targeting activists.

[slow upbeat music] My identity was really shaped by what I saw happening in my community and what I started to internalize was that this was a problem in our community because of who we are.

Growing up undocumented, there was always a sense of like, well maybe today's the day that I get picked up by ICE, wrong place, wrong time.

You wouldn't tell anybody about your status.

You tell the wrong person, you're giving them a lot of information that they can then use to retaliate.

So you kept it quiet.

When I first started getting ink done, I started with like some of the Day of the Dead themes.

I have like a big sugar skull that is embraced by the Chicano culture.

You know, typically indigenous communities are perceived to be easy to take advantage of, but when you give a strong community that's rooted in their beliefs and you give them modern day weaponry, they're unstoppable.

And I got these closer when I was going to law school, 'cause to me books were a modern day weaponry.

Once I started working as a lawyer, you know, there's always these like concepts of like, well, you know, you have to find middle ground.

There's a civility that needs to happen.

What kind of [beep] is that?

Like ICE is only really terrorizing communities and separating from the families.

And so I was like, no, no, no, no, no, [beep] ICE.

[slow upbeat music] - The program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded.

This unilateral executive amnesty contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.

- When the announcement was made that DACA was over, I was really pissed.

I was pissed and it was frustrating to hear because it was objectively not true.

Very quickly, the same team that was working on Daniel's case got together and we started looking for DACA recipients who were going to be our plaintiffs.

I remember talking to different ones and saying, "Hey, this is the situation.” “We're going to try to save DACA “And like, I don't mean to pressure you,” “but you got until like tonight to call me."

Dulce Garcia, who was one of the first persons I thought about.

She's the type of person who we needed to lead us in this fight.

[light upbeat music] Our plaintiffs include two teachers, a medical student at Harvard, an immigration lawyer, and a law student getting ready to graduate.

We're not only looking at plaintiffs who showed a tremendous amount of resilience, but also the serious detriment that will come to the community, not just them, if their DACA is rescinded and they're ultimately deported.

- This was a struggle that went beyond just those who were in DACA.

This was a struggle in which every sector of the population had a stake.

[palpitating music] And so when 143 corporations said, “you cannot do this to our society,” they were saying economically that if DACA were to go away tomorrow, that it would cost the country billions and billions of dollars, all the way into the future.

[light music] - I asked, “do you want to be part of this case?” And they said, “let me make sure” “that I'm understanding what you're asking of me.” “You're asking me to sue the most powerful government” “in the world, the U.S. government, put myself out there “and my life out there in order to advance American's rights?” I'm like, “yeah, that's basically what I'm asking.” No big deal.

- Luis insisted that this case be presented in a moral way that would not permit the society, the American public to divide DACA as the worthy immigrants and others as the unworthy immigrants.

[uplifting music] - One of the things that I remember, the conversations that we had in the very beginning were like “We don't know if we're going to win.

We might lose and we might lose big, so I can't guarantee a win.

But what I was going to guarantee is that they were going to hear our stories.

[light music] We weren't the only ones that tried to act quickly.

There were other cases that were filed in the state of California and across the country that also filed lawsuit on behalf of employees and of students.

But our case was unique because we were the only ones that were made up of all DACA plaintiffs.

Eventually a judge in San Francisco consolidated all the cases that were brought in his court into one case called the UC Regents Case.

[light music] - Judge has blocked the Trump administration from rolling back DACA.

The decision comes, outrageous is the word the White House used today to describe the injunction... - [Luis] I was stoked.

A San Francisco federal judge found that the Trump administration acted unlawfully.

And not just in our case, other judges across the country who found that the Trump administration couldn't just end the program that hundreds of thousands of people had relied upon without actually giving a concrete reason why.

But Trump was not taking no for an answer.

So he appealed right away.

And our next battle was at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

[light solemn music] - The DACA program began with a promise that if we choose to recognize that you get DACA status, you will be able to renew that status so long as you play by the rules.

The government never said that at the end of two years, we can take that welcome mat that we put out from you and use it as the rug that we're going to pull out from under you.

The government never called... - And so the Ninth Circuit ultimately ruled in our favor and Judge Wardlow started the decision by saying, "It is no hyperbole to say that Dulce Garcia embodies the American dream."

I remember seeing the first line of the opinion, and it's hard not to get choked up on the first line.

[light guitar music] It was a short-lived victory.

The Trump administration presumed that they had the votes and wanted to bypass normal protocols and get this case up at the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.

What was even more unusual was that the Supreme Court went along with it and they fast tracked the case before the other appeal courts made their decision.

This was a court that already expressed skepticism over the DACA program, so we were worried.

[light guitar music] One of the things that DACA did is that it really made this conversation part of the larger discourse and I think it introduced people to the concept in many places that maybe weren't so immigrant-friendly and it got 'em to move a little bit.

So much so that we have one of the most conservative lawyers, Ted Olson, come and join our fight.

- Ted has represented presidents, he's represented some of the most powerful corporations in the world.

This will be his 65th argument in the Supreme Court.

- I was very moved when I was asked whether I'd represent the DACA recipients in the Supreme Court.

Every single one of them has a very touching, moving story and I thought it was insane for this country not to give them an opportunity to work and support themselves, and I wanted to help.

This is where I do the work.

Preparing for this kind of a case was necessary to speak to them, to listen to them, to earn their trust.

They have to believe in you.

If they don't want you to be the person to do it, then you shouldn't be doing it.

- [Luis] There was pushback from the immigrants rights community.

They thought someone who was conservative couldn't tell our stories correc or that there was a ulterior motive.

I don't know, I thought it was going to be helpful and, you know, I think, you know, the name of the game is to win and we knew the composition of the court.

We knew that there was more conservative justices than not, and I think sometimes what's just as important as the message is the messenger.

- Ronald Reagan once said, “You can go to Japan” “but you can never become Japanese.” “Or you can go to Norway and never become Norwegian,” “but you can come to America and become an American."

We've all come to this country in various different ways and various from various different places.

[crowd chanting] - I'll be honest, there are moments where sometimes that weight feels a bit heavier than other days, but I'm reminded of what brought about some of the most serious change in America, it's the direct action by people, not Congress, by people.

I do feel inspired that even if the decision goes the other way, that we're in a moment where we're shifting America to the promise that it's supposed to be.

Yo no podía creerlo cuando me i Mamá, voy a ir a la Corte Suprm para lo de DACA.

Sí, dijo así de que a ti que te ¡Ponte orar desde ahorita!

- Tomorrow, Supreme Court will hear arguments at 10:00 AM.

I've heard the tough arguments on this case and the points where this case can fall apart.

I'm very nervous.

[light palpitating music] [crowd chanting] - [Crowd] We are the people too.

[indistinct] We want justice for our people.

- There's a myth in this country that you only win in the Supreme Court based on brilliant Supreme Court advocacy by lawyers.

That's not true.

The greatest civil rights victories were won not by lawyers, but by the individuals whose stories those lawyers were privileged to tell.

By the time this case got to court everyone knew the story of DACA, and Luis was the one who really choreographed that.

He was that story too.

[light palpitating music] - [Chief Justice] You'll hear argument first this morning in case 18,587.

Mr. Olson?

- Thank you Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court.

The decision... Luis is the first DACA recipient ever to be a member of the Supreme Court bar.

To have him sitting next to me in that court was a statement to me and it was a statement to the justices and it was a statement to everyone else that was watching or listening to that argument that this is what this case is all about.

The government's termination of DACA triggered abrupt, tangible, adverse consequences and substantial disruptions in the lives of 700,000 individuals, their families, employers, communities, and armed forces.

- [Chief Justice] Do you agree that the executive has the legal authority to rescind DACA?

- [Mr. Olson] Yes.

- [Supreme Court Justice] The current president telling DACA-eligible people that they were safe under him and that he would find a way to keep them here, and instead he's done this and that I think has something to be considered before you rescind a policy.

Not just saying, I'll give you six months to do it to destroy your lives.

[crowd cheering] [crowd chanting] Say it loud, say it clear!

- The stakes couldn't be higher for not just the 700,000 DACA recipients, but the communities, we're talking about millions of people, billions of dollars of impact in the economy.

I'm hoping that Congress really hears the roars of the community.

We have thousands of people here and this is really what made DACA exist.

[crowd cheering] The activism leads and then the law follows.

- This court should understand that this is a nation of immigrants and that all of us should uphold the beliefs and the values of our country, and that is that immigrants are here to stay.

- If we are successful, and I believe we will be, the court will say that decision was not justifiable, it was not consistent with the rule of law.

You can't justify it that way and it can't be... - That was pretty clear that the court's four liberals are going to say that DACA is valid and should remain, and the court's four most conservative justices probably will disagree.

The question is, where is Chief Justice John Roberts?

Now, I wouldn't make a guess here.

I think it's going to be a very close case and I also think it's going to be a long time before we find out what the court does.

- I'm here with Jorge Ramos.

- It was a bit surreal, but it was also kind of like, of course, Luis did that, that's some Luis thing to do.

- My friend will text me and be like, "Dude, I saw your brother.” “I saw your brother on TV.” “I saw him the other day at your house."

- Yeah, like by association I know him.

- I know him.

Le mandé un mensaje.

Le dije yo quiero saber como se Le dije le felicito.

No entiendo cómo es que tú ests ah í, por qué te escogieron a t. Pero gracias a Dios que estás h [light music] - From Sunday to Monday, it is typically a very restless, sleepless night, worrying about not just what the decision's going to be, but how the decision's going to be written.

As soon as I know what the decision is, either condolences and we're going to make sense of what's going to happen next or congratulations and then have some time to just sit with the decision.

I wake up early and I'm just hitting refresh and refresh and refresh and refresh, and I know I'm in communication with others who are also waiting on the decision, like also hitting refresh and refresh.

And once 10 o'clock hits and we're hitting refresh on our web pages and it's not, you know, nothing's popping up.

We start thinking, okay, maybe not today.

And then once the decision date passes and we don't get a decision, you know, it's a bit of a sigh of relief.

But the later in the term it gets the more nervous I am about it being a negative decision.

All right.

How's everybody doing?

- Okay.

- Good.

Long day.

When COVID-19 happened, state courts, federal courts all shut down except in the immigration courts.

The immigration courts insisted in moving forward.

ICE is still holding people in detention centers where there's significant risk of people being exposed to and contaminated with COVID-19.

Yo, you ready to go?

We have to go down there and talk to our clients.

As of like a week and a half ago, DHS, they weren't given gloves, they weren't giving masks to the people who are detained there.

And so we're trying desperately to try to get as many people out as we can to try to stop the exposure and what experts are calling a tinderbox effect.

We're put at risks, the people we live with are put at risks.

You know, there's no sheltering in place for us really when we have to go down there and do this work.

We're here to visit some clients.

We have to do some trial prep over the glass partition on the phone.

We also have a client who has a Ninth Circuit argument tomorrow and he's been here for two years, no, close to three years, so we got to talk to him, too.

They're in a big room.

We're in a big room.

There's no privacy around, so it's hard to talk about the things that are confidential when there's other people in the room.

I thought when the body aches and the headaches were gone, I'm like, okay.

I went through the worst of it, but then when the oxygen started going down, I started to get dangerous and then I started coughing up.

It was phlegm, but it was bloody.

Can't think.

You could only really think of like the next thing in front of you.

- How you're feeling?

Are you better?

- I've been eating everything now that I have my taste back, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot that food is amazing.

So I'm now I'm gaining like the 20 pounds that I lost.

[Lourdes laughing] Ay.

Qué se oye mejor.

Ya no tienes cansado.

Ah, - Yeah, yeah.

That's the other part of it, too that I wasn't able to talk for a long time.

Tu voz está mejor también.

Ya no tienes los ojos caídos.

Estás, estabas pin blanco de t - Okay, I look horrible.

I get it.

Like, yes, I don't look as horrible.

Yes, I know, I know, I know.

I look really horrible.

[indisti all the ways that I look horribl Así es perfecto, Luis.

Que bueno que hace bien.

Me da gusto mijo.

Cuídate much.

Ahoracito, mas vitaminas, eh, h - I know, I know.

Y cuidate mucho.

Te quiero mucho.

- My sense and I think everybody else's sense was that there's a chance that this could not go well.

The Chief Justice was the justice that we think was going to persuade their ultimate vote, and he did not seem very enthusiastic about our arguments when we were presenting.

There's so much riding on this.

- The reports express some skepticism about whether we're going to be successful and that's discouraging.

On the other hand, I've been in many arguments in the Supreme Court that have come out differently than the pundits have predicted.

We know how hard we work, we know that we are right in this case, it doesn't mean you're going to win.

[light upbeat music] - I was so unprepared for the decision to come yesterday that I like, was not even remotely dressed.

So I didn't even have my pants on.

It's like 74 pages.

I'm so nervous and I have such anxiety that I'm not thinking clearly.

I'm not even really sure what I'm looking at.

So I'm scrolling through it and as I'm scrolling through it, I'm like in page now 25.

So I'm like trying to scroll back and I'm just can't, I can't like physically function I'm so nervous.

Eventually I get to where the decision part is, just the bottom line and it says, you know, the “decision to rescind DACA was arbitrary... capricious” “under the APA.” [beep] Yes!

I think we won.

But I am such in disbelief that I think that maybe I'm reading the dissent or you know, something must be wrong and so I... Ethan!

- [Ethan] I can't even believe it.

- Oh my god, I can't believe it.

I can't believe it.

I can't believe it.

- God man, I'm like crying.

Literally.

- Yeah.

- [Ethan] I was reading it, I was like, this has got to be a joke.

I can't believe we won and we won.

- Oh my god.

We won.

We won, we won, we won.

Oh my god!

I was expecting the [beep] worst.

Oh my God!

Oh, me, too, man.

Oh, my god.

- [Ethan] Awesome.

Wow!

- I promise not to keep you all for too long.

This is just for like us, right?

Just there's nobody else joining the call.

I just wanted to see how you guys were doing, now that we [beep] got the decision?

We're still reading through it super quick.

They said that the way that the president took off the program is illegal.

I'm glad you guys stuck through it.

I am so proud to be part of representing your stories and thank you for letting me do that.

[beep] okay.

I'm getting like a trillion calls.

It does leave the door open for other programs like this to exist in the future.

A DACA 2.0 that protects more people and so it's a huge legal win for the immigrants rights community because it will give us some leverage with Congress, too, to do something more permanent.

[Inaudible] estara con nosotros es pero que les haya dado tiempo de disfrutar o celebrar por lo menos unas horas.

Gracias.

Jorge Ramos.

Wow.

Con mi hijo.

[crowd cheering] [light upbeat music] [gentle uplifting music] - [News Reporter] In apparent defiance of a recent U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump Administration moved to shut down any new applications to DACA.

- I don't think any of us saw this happen before.

We didn't know what to do when the executive branch doesn't listen to the Supreme Court.

[light palpitating music] - Texas and eight other states are suing, arguing the DACA program drains state educational and healthcare resources.

[light music] - In a major ruling tonight, a federal judge in Texas dealt a blow to young immigrants known as Dreamers saying the DACA program is unlawful.

- When we're dealing with all of the oppressive obstacles that weigh on you.

You know, you think about it, like, maybe I should leave, but I do consider the U.S. my home.

It's the place where I grew up.

- I will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

- It's the place where I've had my first loves, my first kiss, my first dance, the first time got into trouble, you know when I did dumb things with my friends.

[jazzy music] This is the place where I've had some of the most memorable moments of my life and that's what I think really goes into where home is, and home is always worth fighting for.

¿Este lleva accento, no?

- Yes.

- We'll double check it.

Just in case I don't remember it.

You know how many friends I know that they were born in Mexico, but because they were bought over here at a young age and they got deported and the live in Tijuana now and they don't speak Spanish, bro.

- It happens.

I've seen it a lot, man.

[upbeat music] Thank you so much.

- Think it's good.

- That's good.

Appreciate it.

♪ Ay, Ay un fuerzo sigo siendou - Okay, here we go.

Everybody's looking right here.

One, two and three [camera clicking] Please join me in welcoming Luis Cortes Romero First, don't quit.

Even when the road ahead seems uncertain and unattainable Two, do not waver.

Even if odds seem against you Three, moms are usually always right Graduates of 2022, the world is waiting for you.

Good luck and congratulations!

[audience cheering] [jazzy music] ♪ Livin in two places at the same time ♪ ♪ And I got two cultures in my mind ♪ ♪ My duality is the part of me ♪ Weaponizing knowledge so that you can see ♪ ♪ I know it's a hard pill to swallow ♪ ♪ Activism leads and the law follows ♪ ♪ Flyin out my cage like I was to swallow ♪ ♪ I'm my dreamer until the end ♪ And you can watch my culture blend ♪ [jazzy music fading] [light music]