With DACA in question, recipients eager to renew
Agencies provide free help to ensure immigrants meet Oct. 5 deadline
The Norteño songs of Mexican artist Ramon Ayala filled the solitary car in the parking lot of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Bellaire. Teresa Naba, 21, rocked her head to the music, her eyes scanning the work permit and Social Security card in her hands.
Two hours later, she would be one of the first young adults to enter the building Saturday morning to renew her paperwork for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.
“I wanted to get here early,” Naba said. “I need this to be able to work. I didn’t want to take any chances and get here late.”
Under DACA, Naba and hundreds of thousands of young adults who immigrated to the U.S. as children gained a reprieve from deportation, the ability to get a driver’s license and — pivotal to all — a renewable two-year work permit. Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the program will end in March, prohibiting the processing of new DACA applications and setting an Oct. 5 deadline for those eligible for renewal.
Volunteer attorneys and paralegals from various groups including Boat People SOS, Justice for Our Neighbors and the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, or HILSC, reviewed DACA filings and processed renewals free Saturday.
Through sponsorships,
HILSC has been able to secure funding to cover the $495 DACA processing fee for several individuals, said Andrea Guttin, the collaborative’s legal director. Several more free renewal sessions will be held this week.
The money order check prepared by HILSC that Naba signed was a godsend.
What money she had been saving up for her DACA renewal a few months ago all went to making ends meet immediately after Hurricane Harvey dumped 51 inches of rain onto the region.
Guttin noted that several young adults wanting to apply for DACA for the first time got shut out of the system as Harvey recovery efforts delayed their filing date until after the Sept. 5 deadline.
‘Was a necessity’
News of the decision to end DACA has left families such as the Villalpandos rushing to get renewals in on time. While Genesis Villalpando, 24, and her three daughters are all U.S.-born citizens, her husband, Erik, is a DACA recipient. Fearing any delays in processing Erik’s application for legal residency, and knowing he was eligible for DACA renewal, the family of five paid a visit to HILSC’s event.
Having few community resources in the town of Tyler, Luis Garcia, 25, drove about 200 miles with his mother Luz and uncle Daniel to get to an HILSC attorney to review his paperwork.
While her son hasn’t had much luck securing a job, Luz Garcia feels blessed to know he is eligible for one through DACA. She crossed the border from Mexico 17 years ago with then 8-year-old Luis and has made a living cleaning a furniture outlet store.
“Even though our jobs here aren’t the best paid, it still affords us a better life than back in Mexico,” Garcia said.
Joy Green, attorney for the nonprofit Justice for Our Neighbors, noted that critics of DACA often blame recipients’ parents for not giving their children a choice in emigrating to the U.S. Yet the parents themselves are left with few, if any, alternatives.
“It wasn’t for fun and games,” Green said. “They came over for economic and humanitarian reasons. It was a necessity.”
Making sacrifices
Currently working at a fast-food restaurant, Naba hopes to soon apply for college to become a nurse practitioner — a job she hopes can speak to her love of helping others while also allowing her to better support her 1-yearold son, boyfriend, mother and younger sister.
Naba immigrated at age 2. Knowing that her mother never got to finish high school, and knowing how hard it was for her to start over from scratch, Naba said she feels grateful rather than ashamed at her mother’s decision to leave Mexico behind.
“The same sacrifices she was willing to make for me, I am willing to make 10 times over for my son,” Naba said, struggling to hold back tears.