The American Nightmare

Twenty-year-old Rosa S. Rodriguez recounts the emotional event that took place on September 5, 2017. She was sitting in class and started receiving messages from friends asking if she was okay. As she ran out of the classroom, she saw the headlines pop up on her phone. “You get the news and you don’t want to accept it, so you go to bed hoping it was all just a bad dream.” From that moment, Rodriguez realized the devastating course that her life would take, as everything she has been able to do up until then would slip between her fingers.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), is an executive action taken by President Barack Obama which went into effect in 2012. DACA allowed undocumented immigrant minors, who came to the U.S. under the age of 16 to apply for protection from deportation. Since going into effect, around 800,000 recipients were protected by the program. However, this all changed in the fall of 2017.

On September 5, Donald Trump canceledDACA throwing the lives of a whole generation of immigrants into turmoil. DACA recipients are often referred to as Dreamers, which came from a legislation in 2002 called the Dream Act. This bill would have granted legal status to certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. However, the chance for a path leading to an American citizenship was torn away as the Dream Act was never passed. Though never passed, it gained popularity among the American Electorate, Congress and American people through political activism that kept pushing up the debate. Once Obama implemented DACA, the Dreamers had faith in the American dream and ideology of the founding fathers: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Sergio Barron, 22, discusses how his life changed since he received DACA. “It was my first hope for a future,” he says. For Barron, he was finally able to legally work, and get in-state tuition. Most importantly, he no longer feared being deported every day. “I always lived in fear that at any moment my mother and I could be deported,” he says. Barron came to the U.S. from Colombia when he was six years old with his mother and sister under a tourist visa. Ever since he immigrated, he has lived in New Jersey. Barron is a passionate and hardworking student majoring in mechanical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Along with his studies, Barron also has a full-time job at Kate Spade. Thanks to DACA, he was finally able to enjoy the normalcy of life.

Twenty-year-old Alejandra Marfa discusses how DACA not only gave her normalcy, but also opened doors for her future. Under DACA, she was able to get her driver’s license like every other 16-year-old in her school. “A job and a vehicle means everything in this country,” she says. Marfa was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. at the age of two under a tourist visa. Being in the U.S. under an undocumented status, she saw her life as a series of shut doors to which she did not have keys.

As a recipient of DACA, she was able to get a job and start making money so she could put herself through dance school. She explains this is her true passion. “People don’t realize that so many things in this country require a social security [number],” she says. Rodriguez remembers the day she first held the permit in her hands, and says, that for once she felt accepted. “You feel like you don’t have to hide anymore,” she says. Under DACA, she was able to get an I.D., open a bank account and travel. She remembers growing up and never being able to go to summer camp or go to sport games because they were out of state. “All the steps that I missed out on growing up, I was finally able to do,” she smiles. As Dreamers have benefited from the opportunities made available under DACA, they are now in danger of being stripped of the lives they have worked hard to create for themselves.

“I feel helpless, and instability has created my future.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly announced his plans to end DACA immediately, but during the first half of his first year in office, he left it untouched. As Trump pushed the matter aside,nine attorney generals led the campaign to end DACA. These conservative state attorneys threatened to sue Trump, arguing that theprogram overreached presidential power. Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that DACA was an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch. Sessions argues that ending DACA correlates with the freedom, safety and prosperity of the American people.

In January, Judge Williams Alsup, a federal judge from California issued a temporary block on the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA. The block requires the Trump administration to maintain the DACA program until legal challenges are met in court. On Thursday, March 29th, Judge Nicholas Garaufis issued a ruling to allow lawsuits aimed at Trump’s racially biased policy to move forward. These two judicial challenges have required the Trump administration to restructure its response. Trump has demanded that any plans to replace DACA must include plans to build an $18 billion wall on the U.S. and Mexico border. Democrats argue that they will not support a funding bill that doesn’t ensure the protection to DACA recipients from being deported. And so, the matter remains in limbo. The future of Dreamers continues to hang in the political balance: how are the Dreamers able to live in the present and plan for their uncertain future?

The political limbo that the Dreamers have been pulled into, leaves them not knowing what the next day will bring. Many of them

explained that they have been living in uncertainty for a long time. Trump’s election in November 2016 left many Dreamers feeling hopeless. Barron said that the election felt unreal. “Instant fear entered my heart as I knew almost certainly my future in this country was in jeopardy,” he says. Rodriguez recounts the day of the election, “I didn’t sleep that night,” she says. She explains, “from that moment on, I knew something was going to happen.” Trump’s administration’s approach to immigration makes Barron feel constantly threatened: “I feel helpless, and instability has created my future.” Rodriguez discusses, “it’s scary to know that someone with those thoughts has so much power.”

If Congress fails to reach a deal on DACA, thousands of Dreamers will lose documentation, and therefore, protection from deportation. For many Dreamers, this means being sent back to a place that is completely foreign to them. Marfa spoke about the fear of “being deported to a country [she] doesn’t remember or knows anything about.” Barron also discussed the consequences this could have on his life. He would instantly lose his job, healthcare, and ability to work legally. As he is the head of the household, he would no longer be able to support himself and his family. “My life would be devastated,” he says. Rodriguez questions if she would even finish college if DACA ended. She is currently waiting on responses from UC schools in California— it was always her dream to study at UC Irvine. She worries that if she went to college, she would be in student debt for a degree that she couldn’t even use. “A low-skill, low-pay job doesn’t require a college education,” she says. She worries most about her family. She is the oldest out of

her siblings, and since her parents are illegal immigrants, she is her parents’ only option to take care of her brothers and sisters if anything were to happen to them. “This is the scariest part,” she says.

While waiting for the fate of DACA, Dreamers continue to live a life defined by instability and suffer from the emotional impact. “Day by day I begin to start stressing more and more,” Barron says.

Rodriguez reveals that the only thing that kept her from depression was getting involved with the California Dream Network, where she is a steering representative. This statewide net-

work exists among college campuses to take a stand and actively address the current issues affecting undocumented students. Most importantly, it creates a space where undocumented individuals can get educated, find support and fight for social change. Rodriguez explains that doing something for herself and others helped her stay positive. The network, run entirely by youths, is aperfect example of the power created when individuals come together. From organizing protests, conducting workshops, and community outreach, their goal is to educate and inform the public about DACA. Rodriguez discusses the extent to which the network participants will drop everything to be proactive to advocate change. “We miss class, we miss work, and find a way to mobilize,” she says. She believes power begins with a movement that fights for people and that’s where the start of change can be seen.

Rodriguez discusses the day she met Darrell Issa, the Republican U.S Representative for California’s 49th congressional district. She went to Washington D.C with a group from the California Dream Network to speak to Issa, looking for his opinion on the current situation and bills proposed for DACA. She remembers, “He immediately refused to talk to us. He said, ‘I don’t want to hear it, I have already talked to a lot of Dreamers.”’ She was shocked. “I just want him to see us as people,” she says. Tears flooded her eyes and her voice trembled. After he refused to speak to her, she recounts how he told them that all 800,000 Dreamers could be deported and that he could care less, going on to saying that if they considered themselves victims, their parents were the ones who committed the crime and should be punished for it. Holding back her tears, Rodriguez said, “I can’t believe he represents us.” As Dreamers ask for support, they are left facing the backs of Congress.

Dreamers around America continue to support each other. Marfa encourages other Dreamers to be educated, be aware and keep on working hard. “I

“I know it’s scary to not know what we will be facing in a year, but we have to continue fighting for us, just as our parents did, we are the future too.”

know it will all pay off someday,” she says. “We have worked as hard, if not harder than our peers,” says Barron. Rodriguez discusses that it’s time for Dreamers to be recognized. “We are America’s children,” she says. “I know that what we have been through is really hard, and I know it’s scary to not know what we will be facing in a year, but we have to continue fighting for us, just as our parents did, we are the future too.”

As the U.S. continues to address the immigration issue, the future of many people hangs in the balance. Currently, there are more than 10 millionundocumented immigrants in the U.S. and this is growing by 700,000 every year. Congress can no longer ignore this challenge to the nation’s infrastructure. Although the argument is that undocumented immigrants are taxing the U.S. economy, statistics show otherwise. According to the Council of Economic Advisors in the U.S., “A comprehensive accounting of the benefits and costs of immigration shows the benefits of immigration exceeds the costs.”

The real challenge for Congress lies in a security issue. 700,000 immigrants are bypassing the law each year to gain entry into the U.S. This breach in security allows easy access to criminal activity, such as drug trafficking and terrorism. However, the majority of immigrants are not criminals, they are simply looking for a better life. As immigration presents a security warning for the U.S., shouldn’t the U.S. have compassion for the security of immigrant families trying to find better lives? The U.S. was built on the ideals of immigrants looking for a better life. The challenge presented by immigration is going to require the best of American ideals—compassion, openness and ingenuity—and the courage to resist the seduction of the security through isolationism. Immigrants are turning to the same country that was founded on principles of freedom, equality and opportunity—the land of dreams.

BY SAGE THEISS SAKATA