Las Vegans split on ending DACA
Supporters frustrated; conservatives applaud
Immigrants participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in Southern Nevada reacted to the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the program with anger, tears and resolve.
About 30 advocates for the DACA program gathered Tuesday at the East Las Vegas Community Center to vent and vow to fight to save it. Nevada has about 13,000 young immigrants in the program.
“We, as 13,000 DACA recipients, we need to come out,” said Astrid Silva, a vocal participant in the program who directs the PRO-DACA community organization DREAM Big Vegas.
Alicia Contreras, state director for Mi Familia Vota, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the Latino community, heatedly challenged
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-nev., to attend an informational event Tuesday evening for DACA participants and advocates.
“You know the address,” she said, speaking to TV cameras since Heller was not present. “We want to see you tonight.”
Advocates handed out fliers labeled “Know Your Rights” as others pulled extra chairs from behind a curtain in the East Las Vegas Community Center ballroom Tuesday night. There, hundreds listened while immigration activists, elected officials and lawyers educated DACA participants on their rights.
You’re not required to share your status with your employer, and you can’t be fired for having DACA before the work permit expires, they said.
Your Social Security number is for life.
And in Nevada, you’re allowed to drive with authorization.
‘You had this lifeline’
Erika Castro, who works for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, had tears in her eyes as she spoke of her DACA work permit, which is due to expire in October 2018.
“The hard part is feeling like you had this lifeline,” she said, adding that she’ll continue to work and save for a UNLV education next fall without knowing if she’ll be able to attend.
On the other side of the divide over illegal immigration, there was jubilation that President Donald Trump was finally fulfilling his campaign promise to end DACA.
“I think it’s an excellent move,” said Chuck Muth, a conservative activist and president of Citizen Outreach. “The executive order by Barack Obama was dead wrong. Congress should have overridden that a long time ago. They didn’t.”
Trump’s decision to rescind DACA was announced early Tuesday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump later tweeted that Congress has six months to pass DACA legislation or the president “will revisit this issue.”
The program, enacted through an executive order by former President Barack Obama more than five years ago, gave undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children a work permit, a Social Security number and protection from deportation. Approximately 800,000 young immigrants have become eligible to work legally in the United States.
Program deemed unconstitutional
But their futures were thrown into question by Sessions’ announcement that the Department of Justice had determined Obama’s order was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers and that the Department of Homeland Security would conduct an “orderly winddown” of DACA.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said no new applications would be accepted after Tuesday. She also said that no participants would be affected before March 5.
Las Vegas immigration advocates and lawyers have been flooded with phone calls for weeks from local DACA participants asking about their options.
“The organizations we work with are inundated,” said Martha Menendez, an immigration attorney in Las Vegas working for City University of New York’s Citizenship Now project. Menendez, who assists immigrants in applying for citizenship, said she had no answers for them, since there was never a path to naturalization under the program.
“The difficulty is being in that limbo again,” she said. “People are scared.”
The event Tuesday evening was the first informational session after Sessions’ announcement, offering participants an opportunity to discuss their futures with community leaders and lawyers.
For now, government officials have promised not to share DACA