Life in limbo: More than 30,000 DFW Dreamers await their fate amid challenges to DACA
.JPG "More than 30,000 DACA recipients live in Dallas-Fort Worth. People are shown in this file photo rallying in support of DACA on Capitol Hill in Washington in October.")
For Diana Rodriguez, uncertainty about the future of her status in the United States under the DACA program is an uncomfortably familiar feeling.
Last month, a federal appeals court agreed with a July 2021 ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Houston, who said implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals plan in 2012 was illegal. But the appeals court’s ruling didn’t end the program. A lower court will analyze the Biden administration’s move to codify DACA into regulatory law.
For DACA recipients like Rodriguez, who have been protected from deportation and are allowed to work through renewals every two years, the ruling represents only the latest concern about the future of the program. From near-immediate court challenges, to the Trump administration’s attempts to repeal the measure, to the latest court cases, DACA recipients have lived lives of uncertainty.
“I honestly could not imagine my life without it,” said Rodriguez, who lives in Fort Worth.
As federal courts again weigh the legality of the DACA program, the futures of more than 30,000 North Texas residents hang in the balance. Many don’t know an adult life without DACA’s protections and don’t know anywhere but the U.S. as their home.
DACA began under President Barack Obama
The DACA program was announced in June 2012 by President Barack Obama after failed attempts to pass the DREAM Act through Congress. The bill would have granted legal status and a pathway to citizenship for qualifying undocumented immigrants who came to the country as minors, often called “Dreamers.”
As it now stands, DACA grants qualifying Dreamers a renewable two-year period of protection from deportation and eligibility for a work permit but does not include a pathway to citizenship. Applicants must prove that they don’t have a serious criminal record and have completed a high school education.
The program also allows recipients to get a Social Security number and a driver’s license.
On the day the program was announced, Obama said he intended it to be a temporary measure until a bill could be passed. A decade later, no such bill has passed.
For Rodriguez, the program’s continued existence is a source of conflicting feelings.
When she applied for DACA at 16 years old, she believed that by the time she was 25, the need for the program would be over and there would be a path to citizenship or permanent residency.
Rodriguez said since she’s qualified for DACA for the majority of her adult life, she’ll sometimes forget that her livelihood depends on a renewal every two years with a $495 fee.
“To still be here, like in the same spot, just constantly renewing, it makes me sad a little bit,” she said. “But the fact that we still have it, I’m very grateful for that.”
DFW has third most DACA recipients
There are more than 600,000 people in the country who are active DACA recipients, with more than 100,000 of them living in Texas, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Dallas-Fort Worth has more than 30,000 DACA recipients, the third largest amount compared to other major metropolitan areas in the country. Only New York and Los Angeles have more.
By comparison, the number of DACA recipients in DFW is about equal to the population of Weatherford.
DACA recipients come from around the world, but more than 90% were born in Latin America. Mexico is by far the top country of origin for DACA recipients, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The legality of the program, and the manner in which it was implemented, have been challenged as early as 2014, and attempts to repeal DACA by President Donald Trump have made recipients wary of the program’s fragility.
Trump seeks repeal
During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he would repeal the program, and his administration announced it planned to do so in September 2017. The administration deferred implementation of the repeal for six months to give Congress time to pass the DREAM Act.
A White House memo said that DACA recipients should “prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States.”
Congress failed to pass any legislation, but three U.S. district courts ordered an injunction preventing the phase-out of DACA by the Trump administration.
Rodriguez said that period of time was difficult, especially as she tried to better herself and work on her education.
“It’s very disheartening to hear people talk down on it,” she said. “Because I believe that us as DACA recipients, we do contribute to this country so much.”
Rodriguez said there were times when she had to seriously what would happen if she got deported, having to go back to Mexico and essentially start her life over.
“All I know is my life here in the United States,” she said.
Dallas resident Sandra Avalo said she was shocked when Trump won the presidency in 2016.
“This nation that I thought was, to some extent, welcoming, has elected someone that from day one let it be known that he was against the undocumented community,” she said.
During the Trump administration, Avalos was involved in a number of activist groups and immigration organizations fighting to protect DACA.
She got connected with North Texas Dream Team, a nonprofit focused on immigrant issues. She learned more about the undocumented community and what it is to come out of the shadows to advocate for yourself.
She attended rallies in 2017 and 2018 alongside other people who were DACA recipients or were fully undocumented.
“I had never been around people that were unapologetically who they were,” she said.
Through her advocacy, she learned about the impact she could have and subsequently worked “harder than ever” to help people apply for DACA and be informed about their rights.
Texas, other states file challenges
The most recent legal challenges to DACA began in 2018, when seven states, led by Texas, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the program. In August of that year, Hanen, the U.S. District judge, ruled DACA is likely unconstitutional, but let the program remain in place as proceedings continued.
Last year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order reinstating DACA after Trump’s attempts to repeal it, but Hanen ruled that the program was illegally implemented.
He barred the government from accepting new applications to the program but allowed immigrants currently protected by the program to keep their status and to allow DACA renewals while the case goes through the appeals process.
In October, the federal appeals court agreed that DACA was implemented illegally. But the Biden administration codified DACA, taking the case back to a lower court.
There was no timetable set for the hearing in the lower court or when a decision will be made, which could then lead to a Supreme Court review.
Livelihood for families
The impact DACA has had on Rodriguez’s life is nearly immeasurable.
Having applied for DACA when she was 16, she’s spent her entire adult life under protection and with a work permit.
DACA allowed her to start work, drive a car and attend Tarrant County College. She plans to attend UT Arlington, as she’s studying to be a nurse.
The impact of DACA is clear when she is reminded that she wouldn’t be able to work, drive or feel safe about not being deported without it.
Avalos has seen that impact within her entire family, as her siblings are also under the DACA program.
Avalos works at a resources center for low-income Latino students in Dallas.
She said without DACA, she would likely be working odd jobs and be in “survival mode,” as opposed to being able to further her career in nonprofits.
With DACA she has a house and a car, can pay her bills, and can start thinking about her child going to college.
“It would be kind of tricky for me to be in the same spot where I am now,” she said.
She said DACA has improved her family’s livelihood. She believes social mobility that could have otherwise taken generations is happening now.
And DACA is also beneficial to society, she noted, with some of her siblings being front-line workers during the pandemic.
For DACA recipients like Rodriguez and Avalos, the next step is a pathway to citizenship or at least more permanent protection.
Rodriguez said, for now, her best hope is to wait for her sisters, who are citizens, to turn 21 and be eligible to sponsor her for legal status, but she’s hoping DACA turns into a path to at least permanent residency.
“We are contributing so much to society and the economy,” she said. “It kind of blows my mind as to why they wouldn’t want that, you know?”
For Avalos, without DACA, her best hope is to wait eight years for her daughter, who was born in the U.S., to turn 21 in order to sponsor her.
But she doesn’t want to give up renewing and utilizing DACA until a final decision is made against it.
She said people who qualify for DACA should be considered for the unique individuals they are.
“Our humanity is not defined by a Social Security number,” she said. “Our humanity’s not defined by our status in the country. Our humanity is defined by who we are.”
