DACA’s demise inspires Dreamers to action
When Valeria Ruiz signed up for DACA, the Obama-era policy aimed at blocking deportations of young people brought to the United States illegally as children, she knew there was a risk.
It meant outing herself, and her parents, as undocumented immigrants. But it was her parents who urged her to do it.
They were skeptical, she said. But they believed that if anything happened to them — if they were deported back to Mexico — Valeria would be safe and would be able to take care of her 10-year-old sister.
Like many of the so-called Dreamers who sought protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Ruiz, of Racine, had braced herself for the Trump Administration’s
announcement Tuesday that it would begin dismantling the program, while inviting Congress to preserve it through legislation within six months. Still, she said, she felt a sense of betrayal.
“It was a slap in the face,” said Ruiz, 21, who crossed the border between Mexico and California when she was 3. “I feel like all my hard work in school, my clean background ... I’ve been a good person, and they’re saying I’m a threat to this country.”
Ruiz is a youth organizer with the immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, which is calling on U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville to support an immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship for all undocumented persons.
She helped plan a series of events over the last week aimed at drawing attention to the DACA issue, including a hunger strike and a march that was expected to draw hundreds of supporters from around the state to Racine on Tuesday.
She and other Dreamers said the DACA announcement would only motivate them to work harder for a legislative solution.
“Yeah, it’s very disappointing ... but we can’t just sit around and accept it. We’ve got to do something about it,” said Elizabeth Perez, 22, a recent graduate of Mount Mary College who works for a Milwaukee law firm.
“I wouldn’t say the word is excited — there’s a lot of work to do — but when a door closes, a window opens. And I have faith in God that we can get something done if we put the work into it,” she said.
Ryan on Tuesday called DACA “a clear abuse of executive authority” but said he hoped a permanent solution could be found for young undocumented immigrants who now face an uncertain future.
“At the heart of this issue are young people who
came to this country through no fault of their own, and for many of them it’s the only country they know,” he said.
“It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president’s leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country,” Ryan said.
Laura Minero, 26, is a PhD student in counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has found strength in organizing and supporting other undocumented students. Her parents came to California from Mexico in 1995; her father works at a dairy and her mother at a meat-processing facility.
Even before Trump was elected, she and three other students founded a Dreamers organization at UW-Madison to raise scholarship money for undocumented students, who cannot apply for federal financial aid, and to provide emotional support for students because of the divisive campaign rhetoric.
They’re now encouraging fellow students and others to lobby congressional representatives for “a bipartisan, humane and inclusive path toward citizenship.”
“I’ve been worried and anxious for a long time. I’ve cried with my colleagues and supervisors because I feared not being able to finish my program,” she said. “But people are starting to shed fear and anxiety, and are taking action. We are starting classes and we need to not let things fall by the wayside.”
Authorities have estimated there are at least 7,600 DACA recipients in Wisconsin.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee estimates it has 200 to 300 undergraduates who will be affected, but universities generally don’t ask immigration status.
“There’s no way to quantify, and honestly, I’m OK with that, given the repercussions that it could potentially have,” said Alberto Maldonado, interim director of UWM’s Roberto Hernandez Center.
“UWM continues to be a welcoming place. We want to continue to support them academically and emotionally.”
Tuesday’s decision, announced by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, drew an outpouring of criticism and concern from politicians, faith and community leaders and others, including many in Wisconsin.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the former archbishop of Milwaukee, said via Twitter the Catholic Church “will fight to protect your rights and your dignity.”
Rabbi Bonnie Margulis of the Madison-based Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice called Trump’s decision “a travesty” and “mean-spirited” and called on Congress to pass the Dream Act to protect undocumented young people, with no restrictions.
Some school districts
sent notes home to parents affirming their commitment to protecting undocumented students. Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver, whose board declared its schools as safe havens for immigrant students in March, reiterated her support for that policy.
“We are staying committed to our children and our families,” she said at a back-to-school event at Walt Whitman Elementary School.
Ruiz, the Racine organizer, remembers the day she was reunited with her mother in Milwaukee after she and her father made the trek, separately, from Mexico. She was just 3. But she remembers walking up a stairway and seeing a woman she did not know. The woman was crying and reaching for her, but she was frightened and hid behind her father’s legs.
“She said, ‘Don’t you recognize me? I’m your mom,” Ruiz said, emotional at the memory.
“I think about it still,” Ruiz said. “That’s the price my mom and dad paid to bring me to this country.”