‘Dreamer’ faces new threat

National symbol in immigration debate to fight deportation

WASHINGTON, June 7: She was once the face of the heated debate on immigration, the child of Mexicans who entered the United States illegally yet went on to became a promising student before a minor run-in with the police.

With immigration once again at the center of US politics, 28-year-old Jessica Colotyl is now facing deportation to a country she knew only as a small child.

But she is determined to fight to the last.

Colotyl had spent most of her life in the United States when she was arrested seven years ago for the minor offense of driving without a license and put behind bars for 37 days. Her incarceration prompted protests on college campuses.

Eventually able to return to school in the southern state of Georgia, she graduated and began work as an assistant in a law firm.

She also became the country’s most prominent “Dreamer,” the informal name for undocumented migrants brought into the country as young children and protected by a program set up under former president Barack Obama.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, allowed immigrants’ children to obtain residence and work permits — covering some 750,000 people.

But with Donald Trump newly installed in the White House, Colotyl learned in early May that her DACA status had been revoked.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster between frustration, anguish, anxiety, fear and confusion because President Trump said the Dreamers could breathe easy,” she told AFP.

A court hearing for her case is scheduled for Thursday. “I only have one choice,” she said, “to fight to the very end.”

Originally from Mexico’s southern Puebla region, Colotyl remembers her native country as “a very Catholic country, everything was centered on the Church.”

She crossed the border at age 11 unable to speak English.

“When I started school, it was really difficult because of the language barrier,” she said. “It was a culture shock. Little by little, I found my feet, though.”

Pursuing her dream of higher education, she eventually enrolled at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta.

But she was arrested for driving without a license in March 2010 a few months before her exams and sent to a detention center for foreigners, where the only way to communicate with loved ones was through a video screen.

“That was devastating because I had lost all hope of staying here and I had to give up on my dream of a university degree,” Colotyl said. “The conditions in the detention center were very bad. A lot of people were getting sick with no medical treatment.”

But her classmates mobilized by staging protests that spread thanks to action by sororities and fraternities.

Colotyl quickly became a national symbol in the immigration debate.

While some critics objected to the fact that she had received a tuition discount for local residents, Colotyl’s supporters believe she is anything but a candidate for deportation.

Released from detention, Colotyl tried to prove the nay-sayers wrong. She resumed her studies and paid the full tuition fee, graduated and joined a law firm in the Atlanta area.

Although still recognized on the street, she didn’t feel threatened — until May, when the authorities suddenly revoked her DACA status and began the process of deporting her, citing her past offense.

Trump has boosted spending on deportations of undocumented migrants.

“No one is safe,” Colotyl said. “Today, it’s happening to me, but tomorrow it could be lot of other people.”

In her latest fight, Colotyl has received the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union advocacy group and a team of lawyers.