Young Dreamers hold on to HOPE
As Trump team moves to end DACA, those protected by program face uncertain futures
Who is a Dreamer?
“Someone who has not given up,” said 18-yearold German Garcia, speaking of the Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children who are enrolled in DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
That Obama-era federal immigration policy, which protects eligible immigrant youth from deportation, is in danger. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it is ending the program and giving Congress six months to come up with a solution.
“Even with the recent events, I’m still’ more comfortable saying it,” Garcia said of the word “Dreamers.” “’Cause I’m proud of it.”
Garcia, who is from El Salvador, is now a senior at Santa Fe High School. He has been enrolled in DACA since his freshman year. He is one of some 800,000 Dreamers living in the United States under the program.
Though the Trump administration recently announced it would work with Democratic leaders to forestall the deportation of current DACA participants, the Santa Fe Dreamers Project — a local organization that provides free legal representation for immigrant youth and their families — is organizing legal clinics around the state, especially in rural areas, to help eligible immigrants renew their DACA status before the Oct. 5 deadline.
Other immigrant advocates have already rallied to oppose the Trump plan. The same day the president announced the plan to end DACA, Santa Fe Community College student Citlaly Fernandez helped lead a Santa Fe protest at the college in response to these recent events.
“What I hope is that people get more informed,” she said. “I’m hoping through this message people understand what these people are going through and try to support the immigrant community more.”
Critics of the Trump action say there are unintentional consequences that the country will pay for dropping DACA.
“Eight hundred thousand people at risk for deportation is a huge loss,” said Emma O’Sullivan, a staff attorney at the Santa Fe Dreamers Project. “We’ll see U.S. citizen kids left without parents and families destroyed. Our local economies will suffer when 800,000 people leave the authorized workforce.”
She said people enrolled in DACA need to know that their cards are still valid until they expire. She said they should not travel outside of the country at this time without a valid advance-parole document. “And even then, talk to an attorney before you travel.”
While DACA’s future remains unclear, Democratic leaders U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently said they’d reached an agreement with Trump to transfer protections that DACA gives Dreamers into law quickly.
Garcia hopes that this agreement will result in a pathway to citizenship for him and other Dreamers.
“From what I’ve heard, [Trump’s] trying to get a more permanent plan, so I’m hoping to see he does that, and that he actually sees how much we can contribute to the American society,” said 16-year-old Betzaida Rodriguez, a Santa Fe High School student and a Dreamer. Originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, she said DACA helps because “it’s like I can actually achieve something, regardless of whether I was born here or not.”
DACA gives Dreamers hope of building a better life for themselves in America, advocates say. According to a 2017 Center for American Progress National Immigration Law Center study, of those in the DACA program, 69 percent of people earned a job with better pay, 90 percent got a driver’s license or state identification card for the first time, 65 percent purchased their first car and 16 percent purchased their first home.
“For many of us, this is the country we know,” Garcia said. “I’ve lived most of my entire life here. I’ve basically grown up here. I mean I speak the language, I get along with everybody … so I don’t know why I can’t be considered an American.”
“Not a lot of people know how hard it is to live in a country where you know you’re not welcome or [where] you could just be taken away any time,” Fernandez said. “I’m not a DACA student, but my sister is. She’s a single mother, and through DACA she’s able to support her babies because she gets a working permit.”
Rodriguez is feeling the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen with the DACA program. “Right now, I don’t know where I’m standing on my education, like whether I should keep applying to colleges and scholarships and that, or if I should just pursue like a smaller degree while I can,” she said. O’Sullivan said her clients have similar fears. “People are afraid about losing their jobs when their work authorization expires, and not being able to provide for their families or pay their bills,” she said. “Students who are currently working toward getting professional licenses … are worried that they won’t be able to work in their chosen fields anymore. People are worried about getting deported and separated from family members. They’re worried that their personal information that they shared with the government when they applied for DACA will get used against them and their families now.”
The teen Dreamers feel proud of their status and their role in the current debate.
“I feel, like, not a weight, but like a responsibility to stand up and do something with that title, and kind of be a role model … for other people to show that you can do it,” Rodriguez said.
“I do hope [the movement to defend DACA] grows,” Fernandez said, “because I do believe that we made a change, and a lot of people around the community realize what’s going on. So if people keep doing this, I believe a lot of other people are going to start supporting it, and hopefully it could [result in] more peace between each other.”
Garcia hopes that in America’s future society, people will be more open and accepting toward immigrants “because everyone has some sort of good in them, and all of the immigrants that are coming in here now, they all have a purpose to be here.”
Madeline Grantham-Philips and Wyatte Grantham-Philips are both seniors at Santa Fe High School. Contact Madeline at madeline.granthamphilips@gmail.com and Wyatte at wyatte. granthamphilips@gmail.com.