Local advocacy groups relieved by DACA ruling
After nearly three years of uncertainty, about 700,000 young immigrants will continue to remain protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals with a ruling Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Hampton Roads, some students and advocacy groups say they can breathe easy. But they know their work isn’t done as President Donald Trump has vowed to continue his fight to rescind the policy.
For Jennifer Duarte, president of the Latino Student Alliance at Old Dominion University, the DACA ruling means hope.
“A lot of people are coming here for opportunities because this country is a great country. DACA is an amazing thing for them,” Duarte said.
Duarte, who served four years in the U.S. Navy, came to the U.S. when she was 8. She said the Supreme Court decision is a big win for the Latino and immigrant community.
One DACA recipient, Jorge Zamudio, came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 4. Now, he is a senior at ODU majoring in mechanical engineering. He is the first person in his family to go to college.
“Hope is the main thing. That other people within the government believe in people like me,” Zamudio said. “It was a little bit of a sigh of relief for now, but the fight never stops.”
Despite the ruling, Zamudio is worried about the future of DACA, especially after Trump tweeted that he would submit “enhanced” papers to “fulfill the Supreme Court’s ruling.”
The justices ruled that Trump’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he tried to rescind DACA in 2017.
“As a dreamer, you are constantly worried,” Zamudio said. “It’s constant stress and it weighs you down a lot because you don’t know what your state is really going to be. Once that expiration date comes up, you can be sent home at any time to a home you don’t really know.”
Zamudio is a founder of the group Monarchs Here To Stay at ODU, which advocates for the well-being for DACA recipients and international students.
At the College of William & Mary, the student organization UndocuTribe said in a statement that the group was comforted by the Supreme Court decision.
“It is a huge sigh of relief as the 2017 DACA repeal announcement was what motivated William and Mary students to create our advocacy group …,” UndocuTribe said. “At the same time, we know there is much more work to be done from the national level to right here in Williamsburg.”
UndocuTribe focuses on addressing inequities and obstacles faced by the immigrant, migrant and undocumented communityat-large through education, empowerment and action, according to its web page.
For other advocacy groups in Virginia, such as the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations and Legal Aid Justice Center, the decision provides “temporary relief.”
Edgar Aranda-Yanoc, executive director of the coalition, cautioned that Trump could use an executive order to halt DACA.
“If Trump wants to end (DACA), he can do it,” ArandaYanoc said. “He has the power to end it. Of course there is going to be another litigation if he passed that, but it’s going to give us more time for the next cycle.”
Despite knowing the relief is temporary, Aranda-Yanoc said he teared up when he heard the news.
“It was very emotional. It was a lot of tears and a lot of hope,”
Aranda-Yanoc said.
Aranda-Yanoc said his coalition will continue to organize in the Latino community and push for immigration reform.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the legal director for the immigrant advocacy program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, also said he shed tears when he heard the news.
“I just thought of so many individuals who I’ve helped over the years who were waiting on this decision to see if their lives would be ruined or not,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “It’s a real community celebration.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg said those who are eligible should renew their DACA application as quickly as possible.
“Just because the president tweets and says that he’s going to cancel it all over again doesn’t mean he will, it also doesn’t mean that he won’t,” SandovalMoshenberg said. “If the president does essentially take a do over and cancel it all over again and he does it correctly this time, it’s important that people have as much time left on their cards as possible.”
A DACA application is subject to renewal every two years. Sandoval-Moshenberg also said people should renew DACA in case the fee increases. Currently, the cost to renew the application is $495, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The DACA application can be found here: https://www.uscis.gov/i-821d/.
“We’re part of the reason why the country runs. We’re part of that backbone,” Zamudio said. “We’re people that are trying to live a better life. People that are just chasing that same American dream.”