DACA & Dreamers

Federal law rules the land when it comes to border enforcement, but local governments can help.

"Rivermouth is a polemic arguing for porous borders, a decriminalization of immigration, a more open sense of what we owe one another, and a willingness to extend radical empathy"--;In this powerful and deeply felt memoir of translation, storytelling, and borders, Alejandra Oliva, a Mexican-American translator and immigrant justice activist, offers a powerful chronical of her experience interpreting at the US-Mexico border. Having worked with asylum seekers since 2016, she knows all too well the gravity of taking someone's trauma and delivering it to the warped demands of the U.S. immigration system. As Oliva's stunning prose recounts the stories of the people she's met through her work, she also traces her family's long and fluid relationship to the border--each generation born on opposite sides of the Rio Grande.

When President Barack Obama introduced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012, it was a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country illegally as children, so-called “Dreamers.”But for many of the years since, it has been in legal limbo — challenged in the courts, thrown out by the Trump administration — but so far, it’s survived.Now, the future of the program known as DACA lies in the hands of an appeals court panel of judges in New Orleans.

United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country. We fight for justice and dignity for all immigrants.

Learn about UTSA Dreamers' Resource Center and their library collection

The Santa Fe Dreamers Project is trying to find stable housing for trans asylum-seekers like Susana Coreas, who have been stuck in Mexico for over a year.

The Supreme Court ruled to allow the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to continue.

CFR's Edward Alden joins the panel to discuss President Donald J. Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

In the Global Idaho Podcast, students interview DACA recipients, and other community members to study DREAMers in Southeast Idaho, in order to 1) understand DACA and its political, social, and economic significance and 2) increase awareness about immigration and immigration reform in our community. Contact: histdept@isu.edu

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of DACA recipients, COVID-19 cases surge in Imperial County, and how the Black Lives Matter movement is playing out on social media.

It has been nearly a month since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood…

Listen to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist, Jose Antonio Vargas talk about the prospects of DACA, immigration policy in general, and what colleges and universities can do to help.

Chef Zaid Consuegra isn’t just worried about reopening and running a restaurant after shutting his doors because of COVID-19. As a DACA recipient, he is waiting to hear what the Supreme Court will decide about the program that allows him and thousands of others in the Kansas City area to work and avoid deportation.

The Supreme Court's decision to block President Trump's attempt to end the DACA program was a win for Dreamers, but many say the country has a long way to go on immigration and racial inequity.

Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who live in Arizona spoke out after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the program.

What is it like to grow up as an undocumented youth in America? In "Undocumented Americans," three undocumented youth who arrived as young children - Jong-Min, Pedro and Silvia - share their stories of how they are fighting hard to achieve their piece of the American dream. Their experiences are emblematic of the struggles of millions of undocumented children and youth in America who deal daily with isolation from peers, the struggle to pursue an education, fears of detention and deportation and the trauma of separation from family and loved ones. This video calls for valuing the contributions of and caring for all members of our society, even those without documentation. To learn more about this topic, visit http://www.apa.org/topics/immigration.

Protection from deportation and the chance to work have been life-changing for DACA recipients. Will Trump get rid of it? Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO The most consequential decision President Donald Trump made on immigration in his first year in office wasn’t about the wall, or who’s going to pay for it, or anything else he talked about incessantly on the campaign trail. It was his decision to announce, on September 5, that his administration would be winding down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — a program he didn’t mention outright, that many people didn’t know about and even fewer understood. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has protected nearly 800,000 young adult unauthorized immigrants from deportation and allowed them to work legally since 2012. The immigrants protected through DACA grew up in the US; people might not assume they are unauthorized immigrants, and they might not have even known it themselves until they were teenagers. The program was supposed to give them a chance to build a life here. Now, DACA is on the chopping block. Trump, under pressure to make a decision about its future before September 5 (the day a group of Republican state officials were set to sue over its constitutionality), has decided that no one new will be protected under the program — and that those currently covered will start to lose their protection and work permits on March 6, 2018. The prospect of DACA’s demise is throwing the program into sharp relief: calling attention to the “DREAMers” who’ve been able to benefit from it, and the ways in which their lives have been changed over the past five years. Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o

The future of young immigrant "Dreamers" will be up to the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over the legality of President Trump's termination of the Obama-era DACA program. CBS News immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez explains how undocumented immigrants could be affected.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was started by the Obama administration for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

The status DACA is currently in limbo in the Supreme Court. It is imperative that people know what is going on, and why it is important to continue to fight, regardless of the decision of the Supreme Court. Join RAICES, Make The Road NY, Center For Community Change/FIRM Action, and NAKASEC for this discussion.

In April, President Trump had a message for the 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who were given permission to live in the U.S. under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program: “The dreamers,” he said, “should rest easy.” We now know that was a lie. In September, Trump announced he was ending the DACA program in six months, plunging nearly a million young immigrants’ lives into chaos. But Trump’s assault on DACA recipients began much earlier than previously known. During his administration, federal immigration authorities have illegally stripped DACA protections from DACA recipients who have only been accused of a crime or found guilty of a minor misdemeanor that doesn’t affect their DACA status. Their protections have been taken away without any notice, any explanation, or any opportunity to respond. They now face deportation back to their parents’ home countries, even though America is the only true home they’ve ever known. To stop the government’s abuses, we filed a class action lawsuit today on behalf of DACA recipients and the Inland Empire – Immigrant Youth Collective, a grassroots organization led by immigrant youth in Southern California. Our lawsuit seeks to hold the administration to the promises it made and ensure that DACA provides protection from deportation for however long the program exists. The story of one of our lead plaintiffs, Jesús Alonso Arreola Robles , shows what’s at stake. In February, Jesús was wrongly arrested by a Customs and Border Protection agent for smuggling immigrants into the country and had his car and cellphone confiscated as well. After spending three weeks in immigration detention, Jesús finally went before an immigration judge who found that he wasn’t involved in smuggling and released him on bond. Jesús thought his nightmare was over, but it was only beginning. A few days later, the government issued a notice that his DACA had been terminated without any explanation. Without a work permit, Jesús couldn’t make a living, and CBP has refused to return his car and phone. Now he faces the possibility of deportation to Mexico — a country he left when he was one year old. What happened to Jesús , and many other DACA recipients like him, is unlawful. Under the DACA program, the government must give prior notice to young immigrants of their termination from the program and allow them to contest it. Instead, the government is revoking DACA status without due process, based on unsubstantiated suspicions of criminal activity or minor run-ins with the law, such as traffic offenses, even though these people have not violated the terms of the program and continue to be eligible for it. No one should lose their ability to live and work in the United States after being merely accused of wrongdoing. Nor should they be stripped of a benefit as important as DACA without basic due process protections. People like Jesús — who met all the requirements for DACA, came forward courageously and provided their information to the government, paid a fee, and planned their lives in reliance on the program — deserve DACA’s protections for as long as they continue. But the reality is that DACA has never been enough. The Trump administration’s arbitrary decision to end the program makes it clear that we cannot leave these young people’s fate to whoever happens to be sitting in the White House. Congress must act immediately to pass a clean Dream Act that would put people like Jesús on a path to citizenship and demand that the president sign it into law. Only the Dream Act will ensure that DACA recipients become full and permanent members of the country they know as their home. Only the Dream Act can protect these Americans from a president who tells them everything will be okay and then callously throws their lives into disarray. For more information, click here: https://www.aclu.org/blog/were-suing-trump-administration-taking-daca-away-people-whove-followed-rules

ABC’s Devin Dwyer reports on the Supreme Court’s decision to block the Trump administration’s effort to overturn the deferred action program for young immigrants. ABC News Live Prime, Weekdays at 7EST & 9EST WATCH the ABC News Live Stream Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ma8oQLmSM SUBSCRIBE to ABC NEWS: https://bit.ly/2vZb6yP Watch More on http://abcnews.go.com/ LIKE ABC News on FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/abcnews FOLLOW ABC News on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/abc #ABCNLPrime #DACA #SupremeCourt

Immigration agents are facing accusations of targeting protesters who are recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Police in Phoenix, Arizona, arrested community activist Máxima Guerrero as she was leaving a protest on May 30 with a group of legal observers. She was one of three DACA recipients arrested over that weekend in Phoenix. We get an update from Sandra Castro Solis with the Phoenix-based grassroots immigrant justice group Puente Human Rights Movement, who says that despite the risks, “we’re in a moment where people want to be out in the streets building that solidarity.” #DemocracyNow Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: https://democracynow.org/donate FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: YouTube: http://youtube.com/democracynow Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynow Instagram: http://instagram.com/democracynow SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/democracynow iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/democracy-now!-audio/id73802554 Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

The Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks today on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals also known as DACA. Dreamers are people who were illegally brought to the United States as children who under the program were granted visas. President Trump and Jeff Sessions plan to end this program during this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------- Want more from The New York Times? Watch more videos at: http://nytimes.com/video Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nytvideo Twitter: https://twitter.com/nytvideo Instagram: http://instagram.com/nytvideo Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch. On YouTube. [Video Title] http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes

We all have at one point or another felt trapped by identities or stereotypes that are not fitting of our brilliance. Finding our personal liberation comes from learning our story and becoming aware that we can be as free as we dare to be. This is how an undocumented immigrant and a woman truck driver found their path towards liberation. Ernesto Rocha is an organizer, storyteller, transformational coach, and advocate for social, racial, and economic justice. He currently serves as the community organizer for the Clean and Safe Ports Project, a comprehensive campaign of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE). Ernesto was born in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico and immigrated to the United States in 1996 at the age of eight. Ernesto was the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college where he graduated from UCLA with a dual bachelor degree in Political Science and Chicana/o Studies. While at UCLA, Ernesto advocated for the undocumented immigrant-student population by implementing strategic education and media campaigns to build support for both the California and Federal DREAM Acts. Ernesto’s eleven years of organizing experience include working and advocating for immigrant rights and low-wage workers in various industries, including nursing homes and port trucking. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

As a DACA recipient, Giancarlo Tejeda actively seeks to challenge the stigma around being undocumented, a word that hides the dreams and successes of many who aim to make America, the place they call home, a better place. Afforded the opportunity to go to the University of Florida, Giancarlo found the courage to speak out on behalf of his community as a student and activist. Together, he says, we can redefine “undocumented” to encompass dreamers, doers, and change-makers for a world that is better for everyone. Giancarlo Tejeda is a third-year biomedical engineering major at the University of Florida, and a DACA recipient. His family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old, leading him to receive the right to study in the U.S. through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA). Giancarlo now serves as an advocate for the undocumented community. As the CHISPAS Vice President of External Affairs, he works to provide on-campus resources for undocumented students at the University of Florida, and to educate the general student body about DACA and its impacts. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

"WE ARE NOT DREAMERS is a collection of ten auto-ethnographic essays by undocumented, DACAmented, and formerly undocumented scholars in California who relay their experiences of illegality, as well as insights into their broader research on migration. Co-editors Leisy Abrego and Genevieve Negron-Gonzales intentionally center these voices to intervene within a field that theorizes the experiences of undocumented people without truly giving the undocumented people a space to be knowledge-producers themselves. These scholars face particular challenges--personally, politically, and in their research--and are uniquely positioned to provide nuanced insights on illegality, citizenship, education, and belonging that have the potential to grow the field of undocumented studies, shift understandings, and remake the bodies of literature which speak to their experiences. Moreover, their scholarship resists the harmful "Dreamer" narrative perpetuated by non-profits, DC lobbying groups, journalists, researchers, and the government, ultimately challenging notions of the American Dream and the "good immigrant" narrative to push for more inclusive practices within the academy and more comprehensive immigration policies on the national stage. The first half of the book explores the connection between identity, illegality, and resistance as a way to critically analyze how undocumented migrants have been 'made' through these processes. In chapter 2, Grecia Mondragon highlights the pressures and expectations that students are forced to navigate within higher education while carrying the weight of the Dreamer narrative. In chapter 5, Gabriela Garcia Cruz focuses on the political engagement of older undocumented women activists and how this activism reshapes lived experiences of citizenship and dignity. The second half of the book centers quotidian life to imagine what an intersectional analysis of undocumented status looks like by grappling with the structures of relationships, family, and identity. Audrey Silvestre, in chapter 8, centers the everyday experiences of undocumented trans women and the ways in which they have reclaimed spaces of joy amidst violent hate crimes. Chapter 9 by Lucy Leon emphasizes the insidious effects of immigration policy that determine how people must represent their love to one another and to the state. The book significantly contributes to how we understand the ways undocumented actors move through the spaces of daily life and in doing so, remake those spaces. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in Latinx and Chicanx studies, sociology, anthropology, studies of social movements, and studies of the experiences of undocumented people in the United States"--Provided by publisher.

Meet nine courageous young adults who have lived in the United States with a secret for much of their lives: they are not U.S. citizens. They came from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Independent Samoa, and Korea. They came seeking education, fleeing violence, and escaping poverty. All have heartbreaking and hopeful stories about leaving their homelands and starting a new life in America. And all are weary of living in the shadows.