WHAT DREAMERS ARE MADE OF
Despite success stories, act protecting young immigrants under fire in many states
Felipe Salazar was 10 years old when he immigrated to the United States from Colombia in 2001 with his parents. The family overstayed their tourist visas, choosing to remain in the country illegally.
Salazar, now 27, of San Francisco, knew that without documentation there was little he could do with his Master’s degree in engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Then came DACA.
For Salazar and many others in similar circumstances, DACA — which went into effect five years ago Tuesday — was a lifeline. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, now threatened under the Trump administration, gave young, undocumented immigrants or “Dreamers” like Salazar temporary deportation relief and work permits.
“The immigration actions that ultimately became DACA were possibly the greatest thing that happened to me and my family,” said Salazar, now an engineer at the San Francisco-based tech startup, Doppler Labs. “I’m very proud of what DACA has enabled us to accomplish.”
Dreamers marked the milestone anniversary Tuesday with rallies, social media campaigns and news conferences across the country, calling on the Trump administration to keep a program that has granted deportation relief to nearly 800,000 Dreamers, but one that has come under renewed threat in recent weeks.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and several Republican-led states
"Undocumented folks contribute greatly to this country. So to that I would say, don’t erase us from this country." — Mitzia Martinez, DACA recipient and UC Berkeley senior
have demanded that President Donald Trump end the program by Sept. 5. In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Paxton said that if the program is rescinded by that deadline, the Republican-led states — which include Arkansas, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia — will drop threats of a lawsuit against the federal government.
The result could be profound in California, home to an estimated 220,000 DACA recipients, the most of any state.
If the administration were to get rid of the program, DACA recipients would lose their work permits and any deportation protections.
“We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program,” said the June 29 letter, in which Paxton ordered the executive branch to no longer “renew or issue any new DACA or expanded DACA permits in the future.”
The term “Dreamers” — which became commonplace after Congress considered a federal Dream Act several years ago — generally describes young people who were brought to this country illegally as children, and who wish to pursue a college education and professional careers.
Critics say Dreamers do not have a right to stay in the country illegally, and argue they drain state and federal resources and don't fully pay taxes.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C., said many people understand the plight of children who were brought to the country illegally.
But the federal government needs to address many “unfulfilled promises to the American people” — among them tighter border security, more jobs for Americans and curbing illegal immigration — before considering a program that rewards Dreamers, Mehlman said.
DACA recipient Mitzia Martinez, of San Jose, said people who want DACA gone, “only see us as criminals.”
Martinez, an incoming senior at UC Berkeley who plans to become a lawyer, is a New Americans Fellow for Santa Clara County, where she studies emergency preparedness resources and determines how they can become more inclusive and accessible to immigrant and low-income communities.
“Undocumented folks contribute greatly to this country. So to that I would say, don't erase us from this country,” she said.
Martinez and local advocates joined Santa Clara County officials Tuesday for a news conference marking the anniversary.
The Board of Supervisors later unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming its support for the program.
“I believe most of us understand that one of our highest obligations as adults in this community is to take care of children, and to act as if every child in our community is part of our own family,” said Supervisor Cindy Chavez.
“I can't think of a group of children or young people who are more in need of our support and our guardianship than DACA recipients. These Dreamers are the best America has to offer.”
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra called DACA a “lawful and very American idea.”
“Today, nearly 800,000 applicants and grantees later, we see people who are stories of success,” said Becerra during a press call Tuesday.
“They've earned a chance to grow, contribute and build our economy and enrich our communities.”
Becerra and a coalition of nine other states in June filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security, seeking information about federal immigration enforcement practices under the Trump administration, including enforcement against Dreamers and DACA recipients.
The Trump administration on June 16 — in an apparent change of heart — had announced it would keep the program, marking a significant victory for “Dreamers” nationwide.
But it's unclear what exactly that would entail. In the announcement, the Department of Homeland Security did not say how long the current DACA program will stand.
Trump had pledged in his campaign to “immediately” cancel that program, though he softened that stance in recent months, at one point saying, “the Dreamers should rest easy.”