Back to the Shadows: DACA Uncertainty Disrupts Dreams

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    It’s the American way. We always hear that phrase. Just pursue the American Dream. Get good grades, work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and become whatever you want. That’s the American way. The American Dream.

    Lately, however, that Dream has seemed restricted to just some of us. Clearly defined statements of Our Flag, Our Country, Americans and walls have made the act of pursuing the American Dream get very person-specific.

    But there is one DACA recipient and former Madison College student who embodies the pursuit of the American Dream more than the folks who say it is for Us or that the dream is Ours.

    For obvious reasons, the privacy of his identity needed to be protected. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was eight years old and it was not an easy adjustment.

    “When I got here it was pretty hard for me,” he said. “To come to a new state where I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Luckily, there was someone in my class at school to help me and guide me along. Here, if people see someone not understanding the language, they help you. It took me probably like two years to learn English well enough to understand.”

    By the time he was in eighth grade he was fluently speaking English and becoming a very good student. For several years he just went about his life like every other teenager. Eventually he hooked up with Centro Hispano in Madison.

    Centro Hispano is a place of refuge and resource for Latino families. Centro helps people with upward mobility, family help, employment skills, school resources and aspires to assist people with achieving their dreams.

    “To be honest I didn’t really go to Centro that much at first,” the Student says. “But once I started to go for classes I saw they helped a lot of people. They had programs going on for notary, to learn English, dancing classes. They are basically there to help out their community.”

    He entered a program to help him learn how to manage money, how to use computer programs like excel and customer service skills. After his program he applied for positions at banks and credit unions, eventually landing in a position as a teller. He said all the programs he took about money management and customer service paid huge dividends.

    “I got a job at a credit union and did the training,” he said. “I understood their system well which was good. And I understood the system because of computer classes I took at Centro and I felt comfortable with the customers because I took the cash handling class at Centro. As time went on they saw I was doing a pretty good job and they offered me a full-time position. So that’s where I am right now.  Then one day I woke up and they told me that DACA was cancelled.”

    With the end of DACA, everything he’d worked for as a 19 year-old who had been in the United States most of his meaningful life was now up in the air. No one really knew what would happen. Would he have to leave all of his friends, community and employment to go to a place he’d barely ever been?

    “Luckily I was close with my attorney and she was able to help me renew my card,” he said. “I have to renew DACA every two years in order to be here legally to work or legally to do anything here. To renew it I had to pay immigration and my attorney. So that’s a total of like $600 and some of the attorneys charge more. My attorney told me if I hadn’t been able to renew, there would have been nothing we could do.”

    But renewing his DACA wasn’t the end of the stress about the issue. For the next several months Congress will be exploring ways to revive the DACA program or come up with another model that is better.

    President Trump emphatically stated that no one who received DACA will be targeted by ICE for deportation during this six month period. But the student says that while he even believes those words, rumors and fears abound around the community.

    “I mean for now I’m pretty sure everybody is scared,” he said. “We’re all waiting on the answer from congress if they’re gonna cancel it or give us a different option. Basically, you go out in the streets and you hear just rumors. Some people think it’s not going to be renewed and we’re gonna get deported. Since they have our information from receiving DACA, ICE could just go to our houses. Other people say Congress is going to work on a different system. That they’re gonna give people a new system and citizenship because we’re dreamers.”

    He says his parents are pretty scared about all the uncertainty. He said they mostly tell him to save as much money as he can because no one knows what will happen.

    In the meantime he continues to perform excellently in his banking career. He is beginning to consider going back to school at some point as well.

    “My plan is to keep working hard as I always do,” he says. “If I can give back to my community I’ll do it. I’m a hard worker. That’s basically what I do. I work. If there’s a chance to go back to school I’ll probably do that but what’s most important right now is to save money. I’m only 19 so I think I’ll have time to go back to school for something in life. Life has opened so many doors for me.”

    Now it’s just on Our Country to make sure those doors stay open for him. Since, well, that’s what Our Country is all about.

    Opening doors for the dreams of The Student. It’s the American Way.