The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Many decry Trump DACA decision
Advocates vow to continue helping young undocumented immigrants
Joseline Tlacomulco, one of more than 800,000 students protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, wonders what she will do with her college degree, as protection from deportation may not be there once she hits the job market.
The 19-year-old New Haven resident, a junior at the University of Connecticut, said she was angry when she heard the news Tuesday that President Donald Trump had begun to dismantle DACA, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions declaring that the Obama-era program “an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”
Tlacomulco, who was brought here from Mexico at eight months of age, said she had to leave class when the story broke.
“It was hard for me to concentrate. There is too much uncertainty,” said Tlacomulco, who is studying political science and human rights and had hoped to go to graduate school before working in a public policy job.
The administration said it
won’t accept any new applications for DACA, which provides work permits and protection from immediate deportation in two-year renewable permits for undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children.
It will be officially terminated in six months, which gives Congress that much time to take it up and replace with legislation the 5-year-old executive order by President Barack Obama.
Trump said he did not favor punishing children for the actions of their parents. At the same time, though, “we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of law” and “young Americans have dreams, too.”
The administration described its action as an “orderly wind down” of DACA and called the program an “amnesty-first approach.”
“Well, I have a great heart for the folks we’re talking about — a great love for them. And people think in terms of children, but they’re really young adults. I have a love for these people, and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly,” Trump said before a meeting on tax reform when he was questioned about treating the young undocumented immigrants “with heart,” according to a White House release.
For those whose permits are up between now and March 5, they have until Oct. 5 to renew them or they will miss this window of opportunity. Those without permits cannot get them unless they applied before Tuesday. DACA recipients whose permits expire on March 6 or later will lose its protections as soon as the permits expire.
Trump called the DACA program an “amnesty-first approach,” although he personally had struggled with what to do about DACA, promising after the election, at one point, that its recipients had nothing to worry about.
“I think the Dreamers are terrific,” the president said last week.
Tump’s decision to take a harder line on young immigrants unless Congress intervenes threatens to emphasize deep divisions among Republicans who have long struggled with the issue.
The president’s action drew swift criticism from many immigration advocates and people affected by the changes.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, at a press conference in New Haven, called the president “a coward,” since he didn’t make the announcement himself, but had his attorney general do it.
“He didn’t want to admit to folks how damaging this could be to our economy. DACA was working, he simply doesn’t understand what good DACA has done for people,” Malloy said.
The governor said the state would do everything it could to keep the estimated 10,000 DACA recipients here safe, but the best solution is for Congress to address the situation.
Malloy said the country has invested “hundreds of thousands” to educate these students.
“He’s picking on people who were brought here as infants,” Malloy said.
The Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at the Yale Law School filed a challenge Tuesday to the changes.
It sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis in the Eastern District of New York, asking for permission to amend an earlier suit.
The clinic said rescinding DACA violates the Administrative Procedure Act as the government failed to provide a reasonable explanation for the reversal. The clinic also claims it is unconstitutional because it is motivated by anti-Mexican and anti-Latino animus.
“President Trump’s consistent anti-Mexican statements from the start of his campaign through the rally last month in Phoenix, demonstrates his intention to discriminate against Mexican and Latino individuals who will bear the overwhelming burden of the DACA termination,” it wrote.
Jose Diaz, who was brought to the United States as a 10-year-old, will have finished his degree in business management and marketing from Central Connecticut State University in December, has an internship with a Fortune 500 company and also works part time for a nonprofit in the state.
The Mexican native, who lives in New Britain, hopes he can get a job with the current work permit he holds and the law gets fixed before it expires in two years.
“I still have hope that Congress will pass something,” he said. As an advocate, he said he will put his energy into pushing for that to happen.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said her office will protect city residents from the “discriminatory” federal action, adding she will work with the state’s congressional delegation to implement a new law.
Junta for Progressive Action Executive Director Sandra Trevino also weighed in.
“Without a doubt, today’s actions by Trump is heartless, vindictive and cruel, and once again proves his lack of compassion for others,” Trevino said.
Sister Mary Ellen Burns of Apostle Immigrant Services, which helped young adults apply for DACA, also commented.
“I think it is a great disgrace that the president took this action. I think it is reflective of the worst of the American character, rather than the best,” Burns said. As an advocacy group, however, she said “we are not done,” as they plan to continue to work with their allies for change.
Kica Matos, a New Haven immigrant advocate and spokesperson for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, said the decision by the president “is nothing less than deplorable and it confirms our worst fears. By shattering the lives and dreams of nearly a million young people, Donald Trump has chosen to side with the white supremacists roaming the halls of the White House.”
She called the action “spineless and cruel. It reflects the poor judgment of a president buoyed by racists and lacking a moral compass.”
Matos said the young undocumented immigrants have “earned the love and respect of millions of Americans, many of whom know them as their neighbors, friends, fellow students or co-workers.”
Like Burns, she promised to keep fighting “until our families are safe and until the country reflects the beloved community we desire.”
Attorney Yazmin Rodriguez, who represents immigrants in her law practice in Norwalk, said she was most worried about the DACA recipients who have already received orders of removal.
DACA recipient Sergio Olmedo-Ramirez came to the United States from Mexico when he was 9. He attended New Haven Public Schools but later transferred to Hopkins School before attending and graduating from Santa Clara University in California. He works as community youth organizer at Junta for Progressive Action.
Now 22, Olmedo-Ramirez said Tuesday’s announcement was “heartbreaking.” He said he wants to tell Congress and the executive branch immigrants are “hard-working individuals who are grateful to live in America.”
“Let our voices be heard,” Olmedo-Ramirez said. “Let our dreams come true. Let us live. Pass a clean DREAM Act bill in 2017. Our communities should not live in fear. This is America, give us that freedom.”
Carolina Bortolleto, 29, communications director for CT Students 4 a Dream, graduated with a degree in biology from Western Connecticut State University and worked for a social service agency after college, and volunteered for changes in immigration law.
She said like other recipients, “I didn’t allow myself to dream” before DACA. Now that uncertainty has returned.
She said others without protection “don’t have the privilege to plan.”
Bortolleto said they have known since Trump was elected in November that the end of DACA was a possibility.
What it will mean going forward, she said, “we were emotionally prepared for, but not pragmatically.”
Attorney Erin O’Neil Baker, who has a large immigration practice, said in order to remove someone from the U.S., that person is entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. In Connecticut, the average hearing on the merits takes 18 to 24 months.
This will require more removal cases, more judges and more court staff, adding to the backlog, the attorney said.
“In the meantime, trust in the government and the overall system erodes, because these DACA applicants trusted the process and exposed themselves and now the government has turned on them,” O’Neil Baker said.
The ACLU of Connecticut said the decision by Trump “broke America’s promise and injected chaos, uncertainty, and fear into the lives of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers and their families. Given that the United States government has repeatedly and successfully defended the legal validity of DACA, today’s news also amounts to a complete reversal of the United States’ own consistent legal positions.”