Consider This from NPR - DACA Recipients On Ten Years Of Precarious Protection

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

It's been ten years since the Obama administration announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The policy provided protection from deportation for hundreds of thousands of undocumented ...immigrants brought to the US as children.President Obama called it a "temporary stopgap measure," at the time, but Congress hasn't passed any legislation in the intervening years to create permanent protection for the people covered by DACA.Last year, a federal judge in Texas ruled the program is illegal, and the program is essentially frozen in place while the Biden administration appeals. Current DACA recipients can reapply, but the administration can't grant any new applications. NPR's Joel Rose reports that that has left roughly 80,000 DACA applications indefinitely on hold.Two early DACA recipients and advocates for undocumented immigrants, Diana Pliego and Esder Chong, discuss how they view the program, on its tenth anniversary. Help NPR improve podcasts by completing a short, anonymous survey at npr.org/podcastsurvey. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, before we start the show, a quick favor to ask. NPR is doing an annual survey to get a better sense of how listeners like you spend time with podcasts. So if you have a few minutes and you want to help us do that, you can complete a short, we promise, anonymous survey at npr.org slash podcast survey. That's all one word. We could really use your input. And if you have already done the survey, thank you. It is a big help. Again, that's npr.org slash podcast survey. That link is in our episode notes. And thanks. Ten years ago this week, with a three-page memo, the Secretary of Homeland Security fundamentally changed life for hundreds of thousands of people in this country. This morning, Secretary Napolitano announced new
Starting point is 00:00:50 actions my administration will take to mend our nation's immigration policy, to make it more fair, more efficient, and more just, specifically for certain young people, sometimes called dreamers. From the White House Rose Garden, then-President Obama announced the launch of a program for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one, on paper. The policy was called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, as it's come to be known. It protected those immigrants from deportation and allowed them to work in the U.S. legally. The difference is night and day from being undocumented to then
Starting point is 00:01:38 essentially being able to start one's life. That's Tom Wong, a political science professor at UC San Diego, who has studied the impact of DACA. He says the program has transformed lives, allowed recipients to get college degrees, start careers, buy cars and homes. But as an unintended consequence, DACA may have actually taken some of the steam out of a legislative fix that would have provided permanent legal status for undocumented young people. When Obama announced DACA back in 2012, he was explicit that it was intended to be a temporary stopgap measure. Let's be clear. This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It's not a permanent fix. Obama called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship
Starting point is 00:02:34 for the immigrants covered by DACA and for comprehensive immigration reform. Precisely because this is temporary, Congress needs to act. But in the decade since, no major immigration legislation has made it through Congress. And so DACA and the people protected by the program have been caught in the tug of war of the immigration debate. Obama tried to expand the program in 2014 and to launch a similar program for the undocumented parents of legal U.S. residents. Both those efforts were blocked in court. Then, the Trump administration tried to kill DACA altogether,
Starting point is 00:03:11 but the Supreme Court stepped in to revive it in 2020. Today, DACA is in the middle of another challenge. A federal judge ruled last year that the program is illegal in a case brought by the state of Texas. Here's the state's Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton speaking on the Fox Business Channel after that ruling. President Obama created DACA out of thin air, and this judge is correct to say that this made-up law that Obama overruled federal law with was completely unconstitutional. The Biden administration has appealed, but for now, the program is basically frozen.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Consider this. Ten years after the announcement of DACA, Congress still hasn't agreed on permanent protections for DREAMers. For hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, that means living in perpetual limbo. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Wednesday, June 15th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally
Starting point is 00:04:17 and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Here's where DACA stands now. As the Biden administration appeals the federal ruling in Texas, recipients already in the program can renew their status, but the administration cannot grant any new applications. I knew that DACA was very fragile. That has made life a lot
Starting point is 00:04:46 harder for Curlish Orozco. I knew that it's something that could be taken away at any moment, but I guess I also had other worries like being able to obtain this and get a scholarship and drive and get a job. Orozco is 19 years old, born in Nicaragua. She moved to Miami with her parents when she was two. She applied for DACA in October of 2020 as she was getting ready for college. She waited months for a reply and before she got one, that federal court decision froze the program. So I was one of those kids that were stuck in limbo. I wasn't able to go to the schools that I worked so hard to be able to attend. And it was something that was extremely devastating to know that you put in all the effort and you can't reap any of the rewards. There are roughly 80,000 immigrants like Orozco whose DACA applications are on hold indefinitely. And hundreds of thousands more who will never get a chance to apply because they don't meet the narrow eligibility requirements laid out when the policy was created a decade ago.
Starting point is 00:05:50 You can only apply if you've been in the U.S. continuously since 2007. So the vast majority of dreamers who are graduating from high school today, they don't qualify. It's a very bittersweet moment because while on one hand it's incredible that DACA survived for 10 years, it's also angering to know that we're in the situation 10 years later when DACA was supposed to be, you know, bigger than just a band-aid. Without DACA, Orozco still managed to find a way to attend Florida International University while living at home with her parents, and she plans to become an immigration attorney. Karlo Shorosco spoke to NPR's Joel Rose. You can find a link to more of his reporting on
Starting point is 00:06:32 immigration in our show notes. Even people who have managed to get DACA still live with an undercurrent of uncertainty. That's because they only have temporary protected status in the country where they have lived most of their lives. I spoke with two early DACA recipients, Diana Pliago and Esther Chong, to get their point of view on this moment. Diana, I'm going to start with you, and it's a pretty simple question, which is just 10 years. I mean, it's a big anniversary, And I wonder how it feels to you. Are you celebrating? Yeah, I think it's definitely a bit of a loaded question. Because in a lot of ways, yeah, it's a celebration. The fact that we still have DACA after the years under the Trump
Starting point is 00:07:21 administration, where there are folks who did everything in their power to eliminate it and we're still here. So it is actually in a way a big celebration of the movement that got us DACA and this really big victory that changed our lives for the better in so many ways. But at the same time, I think it's conflicted feelings, at least for me, because as you mentioned, it was never meant to be a permanent solution. It was temporary and it continues to be temporary. The past 10 years, I've kind of had to live my life in two-year increments, not knowing if one day someone is going to take this away from me. The two-year increments, you have to renew and re-up every two years. Yeah, the protections from deportation, the work permit, won't be granted for longer than two years, exactly. Yeah, so you're in very much temporary status in limbo.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Esther, I want to put the same question to you, and people listening may be able to hear some noise behind you. I think I can share your plans for this anniversary day, which is you're traveling so that you can attend a rally for the anniversary. Tell me how you're feeling on this anniversary day. I definitely echo what Diana was saying, especially on living in two-year agreements. Very realistic. But I think this word celebration doesn't resonate with me. I'm more conflicted and frustrated, if anything, and to me, DACA's 10th anniversary is not one that should call for celebration. And I think about how it's already been 10 years with no federal legislative action to address the 10.5 million undocumented
Starting point is 00:09:00 immigrants in the country, and the fact that it was never intended to be a permanent fix to address our undocumented population. And so, and not to mention that the past five years has been under threat, right? And so it's not really a celebratory mood on my end. Hmm. Would you take me back to the moment 10 years ago when you found out about this program, where you were, what went through your mind? Yeah, I think I was a sophomore in high school. Our parents, I think, broke the news to us, but they were very skeptical at first, as many undocumented parents were, I think, at the time. But I think it was an answer to our prayers because our older sister was going to college soon. And so we went ahead and applied for DACA. And I think the implications of DACA on our family was very evident over the past 10 years,
Starting point is 00:10:01 especially in terms of our academic and professional opportunities that were presented to us. Because you could continue your education in a way that you might not have been able to do? Yeah, my bachelor's, my two master's, but beyond that too, right? Like internships, fellowships, jobs. Yeah. Diana, how about you? What was the most significant change that DACA brought to your life? Yeah, I mean, I think for me it was also education and job opportunity, right? For me in particular, I was 17 turning on 18 the summer before college. And in South Carolina where I was going to college, undocumented students are explicitly barred from attending institutions of higher education.
Starting point is 00:10:44 And so I had worked really hard to find a school that was private and got a full tuition scholarship. But for me, that was still not enough because my family of six was still barely making ends meet. And so just to pay room and board was going to be a challenge. And so it allowed me and my siblings to work, even while they were in high school, it allowed us to support the household and also pay for my room and board. Without it, I wouldn't have even made it to my second year of college, much less graduate. I'm struck both of you, I know, have organized, have fought for a better system. You've organized young immigrants on your campuses as undergrads.
Starting point is 00:11:28 Do you hold out hope for a permanent path, for a permanent solution? Diana? I do have hope because at the end of the day, when I look back, DACA was born out of hope that turned into action and that created the reality that we have now and even though we know that daca isn't enough we wouldn't have daca if there were people out there who had the hope that we could get something and so even though it's an uphill battle i do believe that um if we continue to organize as a people, if we continue to be as
Starting point is 00:12:07 resilient as we've been and organize and speak up, that eventually we will get, and hopefully sooner rather than later, right, the permanent solution that we have been calling for and that I think our entire community deserves and has deserved for a long time. And Esther, I'll give you last word. Yeah, I, again, conflicted with this question because hope for whom and a pathway to permanent residency citizenship for whom? And I think I'm not trying to deny the impact DACA had on thousands of undocumented Americans. And it was successful as a program,
Starting point is 00:12:44 and hence it endeared for this long with a strong legacy. But the program had a transformative effect on a select number of immigrants, right? Two, I would argue, the most marketable in our undocumented community at large. And so I think when we talk about a permanent pathway to security and safety and belonging, I really want to turn our attention to those who are not in the conversation this week, which is like 90-something percent of the undocumented population without DACA. And Congress has no plan. Immigrant rights organizations, I think, are divided on messaging and advocacy methods. And so when we talk about pathways, permanent solution to belonging, we need to include the 10.5 million. That is Esther Chong, who came to the U.S. with her family from South Korea,
Starting point is 00:13:37 and Diana Pliago, who works with the National Immigration Law Center, and who came to the States with her family from Mexico, both DACA recipients and both advocates for undocumented immigrants. It's Consider This. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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