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Photo Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Photo Source: The Guardian
Cautious Optimism: DACA Recipients as Medical Workers During the Age of COVID-19 by Rolando Rubalcava (English) Living as a DACA recipient requires a kind of versatility that is only asked of our most vulnerable. Your citizenship is at the whims of congressional debate, your employment status is constantly at risk, and some days, just leaving the house puts you at risk of getting spotted by law enforcement. Now imagine that risk of leaving home multiplied as a plague ravages this country, and your job is to treat those infected. According to Center for American Progress, there are roughly 29,000 DACA medical workers. As they await a decision at the federal level, they are also saving the lives of those hospitalized during a pandemic. DACA recipients fill almost every position in the medical field, including nurses, administrators, paramedics, and doctors. Uncertainty for DACA medical workers is on multiple fronts, 24
waiting for courts at the federal level to make a decision that helps reach their citizenship, while treating people and trying to minimize your exposure to this novel virus, in hopes that your employment isn’t terminated, since they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. In a video for the Washington Post, Jose Aguiluz and Jesus Contreras describe their experiences as both DACA Recipients and medical workers combating COVID-19. Contreras states, “We’re just kinda holding our breath- not only for COVID, but actually holding our breath for the program itself”. It’s a really difficult position for them, yet the pandemic still goes on, and they are still showing up for work. They mask up, scrub down, and brace for the next shift. As they wait to hear about court decisions at the federal level, DACA medical workers
