United We Dream (UWD) is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization, and the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, comprising more than 500,000 members and consisting of five branches with more than 100 affiliate organizations across 28 states. UWD’s primary purpose is to advocate for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and their families, regardless of their immigration status. In 2017 and 2018, DWT filed multiple amicus briefs on behalf of UWD in federal district and appellate courts throughout the country.
The cases all involved the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose beneficiaries include many of UWD’s members. Established during the Obama Administration, the program allows people who entered the United Stated as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit if they registered with the government. DACA beneficiaries have come to be known as “Dreamers.”
In 2017, President Trump moved to rescind the program. Attorneys general from 19 states filed lawsuits challenging that decision. After the federal government received an unfavorable discovery ruling in the Northern District of California, the defendants filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the 9th Circuit. DWT’s Geoffrey Brounell and Peter Karanjia (now with DLA Piper) submitted a brief in opposition to that petition on behalf of UWD and nine other organizations. The district court subsequently issued an injunction that blocked President Trump’s efforts to end DACA. That decision is now on appeal before the 9th Circuit, and DWT has filed an amicus brief on behalf of UWD defending the district court’s injunction.