Immigrants applaud Biden on plans for Dreamers, others
January could have marked a sad, forced return to El Salvador for Angela Hernandez’s family after living in the United States for 23 years. Instead, she said President Joe Biden’s action on immigration on the same day of his inauguration has turned Jan. 20 into one of the most hopeful that she can remember.
Only a few months ago, on a day in mid-September, the Salvadoran immigrant said she woke up to yet more news about the Trump administration’s quest to expel around 400,000 immigrants like her who have been legally residing and working in the country with Temporary Protected Status or TPS.
“I remember that day I was starting to make egg sandwiches for breakfast for the kids,” said Hernandez, a mother of five, who for decades has worked as a textile machinery operator in Houston.
She said she started quietly crying when she heard the news coming from the TV. A federal appeals court panel had opened the door for the government to cancel the humanitarian program, and she would have until January to either go back to violence-infected El Salvador or face a life under the shadows as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S.
“But what a difference now from what I thought it was going to be,” said Hernandez, watching Biden’s inauguration at her home in North Houston. “I am happy. It’s a very special day for me because it fills me with hope. I trust that Biden will help us get a permanent residency.”
Hernandez is among over 100,000 immigrants celebrating the change from a Trump to a Biden administration as they could be positively impacted by an executive action Biden made on his first day in office. The immigration initiative would provide a path to residency and citizenship to many immigrants in the country.
That number includes about 43,000 TPS holders residing in the Houston area from designated countries, most from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, as well as Nicaragua, Syria, Nepal, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. It also includes 33,000 people with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative. DACA is a program created under the Obama administration that provides work permits and temporary protection from deportation to young people who came to the country illegally when they were minors.
Refugee resettlements
When counting the children of TPS holders, most of whom have resided in the country for two decades and have American-born kids, “the chorus cheering Biden’s proposal gets quite large, over 100,000 that could be directly impacted by Biden’s proposal,” said Teodoro Aguiluz, director executive of the Centro de Recursos Centroamericanos in Houston.
Under Biden’s legislative plan, TPS holders and DACA participants — also known as Dreamers — and certain qualifying undocumented people would be eligible to initiate a path with an option to citizenship, after five years with a designated temporary status followed by at least three more with residency.
His proposal also includes extending refugee resettlements. Additionally,
the new president signed executive orders Wednesday overturning some signed by his predecessor. Among them, halting construction of border walls and reinstating protections for DACA recipients.
“A great majority of those individuals (with TPS and DACA) are law-abiding members of society, pay taxes, some are health care workers and other essential workers,” said professor Geoffrey Hoffman, director of the University of Houston Immigration Clinic. “It is important to remember that immigrants and immigration more broadly has been shown to be a boon to our economy, our city, our state and the nation as a whole.”
Many families in Houston and the country are composed of people with mixed immigration statuses, including children and spouses born in the U.S. or holding green cards.
“Not only Dreamers like me are excited but also our parents,” said Josue Ventura, a 26-year-old DACA participant who came to the country when he was 6. “My mother is over the moon, happy. But I have seen my mother crying many times these last years. We have felt a lot of uncertainty with the government trying to cancel” DACA.
With a widowed mother who is suffering health issues and a 5-year old sister, Ventura is the head of his household. He provides for his small family from his work at an Apple store and as an independent translator for school districts and Child Protective Services. “I have no memories of Mexico, and I love this country and the doors it has opened to me and my mother,” he said.
Caution and action
Local advocacy organizations such as FIEL Houston welcomed what they saw as a courageous action from the new president.
“We are hopeful because President Biden had the courage to include such a big issue as immigration in his agenda on his first day,” said Cesar Espinoza, director of FIEL Houston. “After the past years of family separation and failed immigration
policies, we welcome this new atmosphere brought by Biden. We welcome the change.”
However, Espinoza emphasized that “we should be cautiously optimistic and remember that this is only the beginning of a process that would require several steps in Congress.”
Hoffman, the UH professor, warned that new policies and regulations coming from the new administration will require time to be implemented. “There will be some period of transition, and there is a lot of work to be done on the administrative level, even if comprehensive immigration reform becomes a reality.”
Aguiluz of Centro de Recursos Centroamericanos cautioned that both Democrats and Republicans have attempted to promote changes on immigration that never materialized.
“Biden’s plan has naturally provoked great joy among immigrant communities, although we need to distinguish the difference between reality and mirage,” Aguiluz said.
Aguiluz noted that Biden was vice president during the Obama administration, which lost a unique opportunity to pass comprehensive immigration reform while Democrats controlled Congress. Republican President George W. Bush also attempted and failed to deliver such reform.
“The point is that we don’t want people to be hopeful and sit around waiting for things to happen,” Aguiluz said. “This is a time for action to turn promises into realities. We have to push our representatives in Congress.”
Some leaders believe that immigrant communities are more prepared now than ever to push for immigration changes.
“If we have gained something from the extreme policies of the Trump administration, it’s that we have organized ourselves better than ever before,” said Elmer Romero, board member of Alianza America, a national coalition of more than 70 immigrant organizations pushing for reforms. He attributes Biden’s win in part to efforts from immigrants with temporary status and undocumented in mobilizing families and friends nationwide to defeat Trump in the 2020 elections.
Alain Cisneros, an activist with FIEL Houston, agrees that immigrants now have an unprecedented capacity to mobilize and said the organization is planning to jump-start a 100-day plan to push for changes in Congress.
“We have it in 100 days, or we lose it in 100 days,” Cisneros said, referring to a plan to make politicians accountable to produce longstanding promises to reform immigration.
“We will monitor senators and congresspeople. We will visit offices, we will call and send emails, we will mobilize,” Cisneros said. “There is a great opportunity now. It’s now or never.”