Immigrant Legal Services Center's Ray interviewed about DACA, new threat to immigrants

As a Texas judge heard arguments last week from 10 states that want to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Sacramento’s ABC10 checked in with Rachel Ray, a managing attorney at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, about how students who are part of DACA are handling legal limbo.

“Students are trying to focus on their classes, they are trying to do well in school, so it is hugely distracting to not be able to think that they’ll be able to have a job when they graduate,” Ray told ABC10.

Another local station, CBS13, also sought Ray’s insights last week, this time about a proposed new federal plan that would punish legal immigrants for accepting government assistance.

Last month, the White House Office of Management and Budget published a notice that it was considering a new rule that would allow federal officials to revoke legal-resident status from people who accepted food stamps, public housing and other benefits to which they are now legally entitled.

CBS13 reporter Shirin Rajaee, voicing concerns she has heard from local immigrants about the new proposal, asked Ray: “Could this be a way to limit legal immigrants in the U.S.?”

“It may make it a lot harder for our clients to actually reach their goals of staying with their families in the United States,” Ray told Rajaee. “And so, sure, this could be one such strategy.”

Rachel Ray ’11 is a managing attorney for UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, which operates out of UC Davis School of Law to provide immigration-related legal services for students and their family members at every UC campus but Berkeley, which has its own program. Launched in November 2014, the center is a pilot program.