‘We are tired.’ Fresno Dreamers say lives are in ‘limbo’ on 10th anniversary of DACA
About 40 Central Valley residents and advocates gathered in downtown Fresno on Wednesday and expressed a mix of appreciation, frustration, and hope as they acknowledged the 10th anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
“DACA was never meant to be a permanent solution,” Matias Bernal, executive director of the Education and Leadership Foundation in Fresno, said on Wednesday. “It was meant to be a step in the right direction.”
Former President Barack Obama introduced the decade-old policy on June 15, 2012. DACA allows young adults, brought to the country by their parents as children, to remain in the country without fear of deportation due to their immigration status. DACA recipients, sometimes known as “Dreamers,” are also eligible for work authorization.
There were 611,470 DACA recipients in the U.S. as of Dec. 31, 2021, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Over 800,000 people have been enrolled since its inception, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
At Wednesday’s rally outside the Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse, some of those who have received DACA expressed appreciation for the relief, saying that it’s given them the chance to study, travel and earn a steady income. But they also said it didn’t go far enough. DACA grants deportation protection to recipients, but not citizenship. It also requires a $495 filing fee, which advocates say keeps some individuals from applying.
“We are tired,” said Elizabeth Meza Torres, a recent UC Merced graduate and DACA recipient. “We have spent the past 10 years of our lives in limbo.”
And while the policy was meant to provide immigrant youth with some stability, it has faced a slew of legal challenges in recent years and risks being overturned.
Former President Donald Trump tried to repeal DACA in 2017, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the program in 2020. Then, in July 2021, a federal judge in Texas ruled against the program after the state of Texas and a group of six other states — Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia — filed a lawsuit challenging DACA. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments in the case on July 6.
“Whatever the outcome of the case that will be argued on July 6,” said Olga Grosh, partner at Pasifika Immigration Law Group, who spoke at Wednesday’s event, “we will see this case in the Supreme Court again.”
Advocates say they fear the Supreme Court will overturn the program due to the conservative makeup of the court.
Speakers at Wednesday’s event called for comprehensive immigration reform for DACA recipients and the estimated 11 million undocumented individuals living in the U.S.
“DACA is like Ibuprofen for a fractured ankle,” said Sheyla Castillo, a DACA recipient and immigrant rights program associate with the nonprofit group Services, Immigration Rights and Education Network, or SIREN. “Ibuprofen is only a temporary solution to something more serious.”
DACA residents: ‘I am still undocumented’
Meza Torres graduated from UC Merced last month with a double major in political science and Spanish. She is studying for the LSAT so that she can go to law school. She said she dreams of opening her own immigration practice in the Central Valley, since the region lacks many legal resources.
The 22-year-old daughter of Mexican farmworkers from Delano is one of an estimated 174,680 active DACA recipients living in California as of Dec. 31, 2021, according to a report from the USCIS. The number has decreased over the years; in 2018, California was home to an estimated 223,000 DACA recipients — or about one-fourth of the national total.
Dreamers have to meet certain eligibility requirements in order to qualify for DACA. They had to have been in the country since 2007, arrived before turning 16, and be under age 31 as of 2012. They must also meet certain educational and criminal history requirements. Recipients must renew their status every two years.
Meza Torres said she’s worked hard to pursue her studies, thanks in part to DACA, but that she still faces hurdles since she’s not a citizen.
”Despite graduating with high honors, working two jobs, and being constantly involved at UC Merced, I’m still afraid that I won’t have the financial means to get myself through law school,” she said. Meza Torres said she doesn’t qualify for many scholarships and that many loans require a citizen co-signer, and she doesn’t have any immediate family members that are U.S. citizens.
“I excelled in everything except the one qualification that I had no control over — my status,” she said. Despite being a DACA recipient for the past seven years, she said, “I am still undocumented.”
Gustavo Gasca Gomez, an immigration outreach specialist with Education and Leadership Foundation, also expressed a mix of appreciation and frustration with DACA at Wednesday’s event.
Gasca Gomez and other DACA recipients said the uncertainty of their status has taken a toll on their mental health. “Having to deal with this for all my childhood, it really impacted me,” he said.
Gasca Gomez said he only recently became public about his DACA status after seeing “support within our community” for people like him. He said he hopes more community members, especially citizens and voters, will become allies to help champion the needs of their cause.
Wednesday’s speakers said they hope the public understands the contributions that DACA recipients make to this country, many of whom have served as frontline essential workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a 2018 report by the American Action Forum, a center-right Washington D.C.-based think tank, “DACA recipients contribute $3.4 billion annually to the U.S. Treasury and $42 billion to the annual GDP.”
“It’s not a handout,” said Grosh of Pasifika Immigration Law Group.
Immigration rights advocates don’t want “another 10-year anniversary”
Wednesday’s speakers said they fear for the future of DACA and called for a number of proposals, such as a pathway toward citizenship for DACA recipients, as well as for the estimated 11 million undocumented individuals living in the U.S.
“The Central Valley is their home. California is their home. The U.S. is their home,” said Maricela Gutiérrez, executive director of SIREN. “We call on the Biden administration and Department of Homeland Security for an immediate end to the threat of deportation and the uncertainty of these temporary solutions.”
Meza Torres, the UC Merced graduate and DACA recipient, echoed those calls.
“How many more tears need to be documented before our senators, our representatives, and the Biden administration hear us?” asked Meza Torres.
They also called for legislation to end the filibuster, which some California lawmakers say is used by Republican Senators as a tool to hinder progress on immigration reform.
“We don’t want to celebrate another 10-year anniversary,” said Gutiérrez. “Deseamos cambios ahora.” We want change now.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 5:15 PM with the headline "‘We are tired.’ Fresno Dreamers say lives are in ‘limbo’ on 10th anniversary of DACA."
