Activists welcome Biden policies on immigration
As a college senior in November 2016 and participant in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Mirka Dominguez-Salinas was afraid that under the Trump administration she wouldn’t be able to work or use her degree.
“When Trump got elected, it was horrible,” she said. “I thought my life was over.”
However, President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders overturning some of Trump’s immigration policies and his proposal for sweeping immigration reform brought relief for Connecticut’s immigrant communities. Yet many point out there is a lot of work ahead to reform the immigration system.
“The community is very hopeful and the community feels that with this new administration here is hope,” said Danbury resident Angelica Idrovo, co-director of CT Students for a Dream, an organization that works with undocumented youth to help them access educational opportunities.
There is “a lot of excitement and gratitude and relief” in the immigrant rights community in Connecticut, said Kica Matos, an immigrant rights activist based in
New Haven.
Over the last four years, “immigrants lived in tremendous fear that at any time their lives would be disrupted,” she said.
The toll extended to state residents who had papers, such as the children of undocumented parents, according to Matos.
“There was so much trauma and so much fear that really affected people’s lives on a daily basis,” she said.
DACA protects undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children from deportation. It also allows them to obtain work authorization. Trump sought to have Congress put the concept behind DACA, an executive order from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, into reformed immigration law.
“DACA reflects a judgment that these immigrants should not be a priority for removal based on humanitarian concerns and other considerations, and that work authorization will enable them to support themselves and their families, and to contribute to our economy, while they remain,” the Jan. 20 Biden memorandum says.
Seeking further reform
DACA does not provide a path to citizenship.
Many people, even those who arrived in the United States when they were young, are not eligible for the program.
That’s the case for Idrovo.
Idrovo said she arrived in the United States in 2008 when she was 12 years old.
To be eligible for DACA, one must have arrived in the country before 2007.
And then there are the many immigrants who come to the United States as adults. Idrovo pushes against the narrative that places blame on parents who brought their children to the U.S.
But adults should have a path to citizenship, too, she said.
Idrovo said the undocumented community will be organizing so their voices can be heard as immigration reform legislation goes through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Another priority is pushing for elimination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol, according to Idrovo.
There are “real changes,” Idrovo said. “But our community looks forward to a permanent solution.”
In addition to ordering the Secretary of Homeland Security to safeguard DACA, Biden has taken other actions that benefit immigrant communities.
“The decision to increase the number of refugees coming to this country, the changes around DACA … this is all terrific,” said Chris George, director of Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, a nonprofit that serves displaced people and helps refugees assimilate into Connecticut communities.
But noting that executive orders are not an ideal way to effect change, George said he hopes “we’ll move to a time when Congress will pass laws to protect the rights of immigrants.”
Dominguez-Salinas, who provides social services to immigrants as a caseworker for IRIS, shared a similar view, saying that while DACA changed her life, it is by no means a comprehensive solution.
Dominguez-Salinas, who felt the impact of Trump’s policies personally, as she worried she might lose her work permit, said “It is pretty terrible, to always be anxious because you don’t know when your life would change.”
And though Biden’s moves bring some optimism, for many of Dominguez-Salinas’s clients, there is little time to pay attention due to their immediate needs, such as putting food on the table.
“It is also really hard … for my clients to pay attention to what’s going on with immigration because they’re struggling so much because of the pandemic,” she said, encouraging people to support IRIS’ work.
As for DACA, even those who meet the requirements can have difficulty applying to the program.
For example, DACA recipients must provide records showing they have continuously lived in the United States.
That’s not always easy, especially as undocumented individuals often avoid seeking services that might create records for fear of deportation, Dominguez-Salinas said.
Dominguez-Salinas said she grew up in Wallingford, having moved to the U.S. from Mexico at age six.
“Formidable”
A bill proposed by the Biden administration would give legal status and a path to citizenship to people who arrived in the United States before Jan. 1, giving hope to some 11 million immigrants.
Matos, the New Havenbased immigrants rights activists, was happy to see Biden make immigration a priority.
“There was a lot of cynicism and skepticism that Biden and Harris would actually come through on their promises,” she said. “Seeing him move so decisively on a number of fronts to move an immigration agenda forward is very affirming.”
Some of Biden’s immediate actions, such as a 100day moratorium on deportations, “have in short time made life very different for immigrant communities,” according to Matos.
The legislative proposals represent the “long-term solution” to a “broken immigration system,” Matos said.
She knows the fight will be “formidable,” she said. “But the immigrant rights community is very organized and willing to fight with everything we have to bring legislation to pass.”