WASHINGTON – The chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus delivered a hula hoop and a handwritten note to Speaker Paul Ryan's office.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for Governor of New Mexico, asked him for a meeting to discuss a solution for undocumented migrants, who arrived unwillingly to the United States as children and don't have a criminal record.
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Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program "recipients have shown that they are willing to jump through any hoop to stay in the only country they know," Lujan Grisham wrote. "Let's show them that we are willing to do the same."
The lawmaker's request came just as the Senate blocked a three-year extension to DACA Tuesday despite it being tied to $7.6 billion for border security, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer wrote on an editorial published on CNN addressing Trump.
"The ball is in your court. You broke it, you fix it," Schumer wrote. "We Democrats have repeatedly offered compromise proposals that both sides should be proud of, but you have stood firmly in the way of progress. Until you change course, the fate of DACA recipients is in your hands."
President Donald Trump paved the way for the end of DACA when he signed an executive order Jan. 25, 2017 ordering agencies to execute immigration laws and not exempt "classes or categories."
The Department of Homeland Security stopped accepting new DACA requests or application renewals Oct. 5, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions advised them Sept. 4 that DACA was "an unconstitutional exercise of authority" by President Barack Obama in 2012.
Aside from not having a criminal record, DACA beneficiaries also needed to have arrived before their 16th birthday and be younger than 31 in 2012. They had to be a high school graduate or have military service and pay a $465 fee.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco decided in January that DACA beneficiaries could apply for renewals. A nationwide injunction forced the administration to resume accepting renewal requests within a week. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in New York issued a similar ruling in February.
Despite the rulings, the undocumented migrants are subjected to deportation. Trump said it was up to Congress to come with a solution and lawmakers missed his March 5 deadline to pass legislation. His effort to rescind DACA could still end up in the Supreme Court in the next term, which starts in October.