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<\/b>San Francisco\u2019s Immigrant Rights Commission met with undocumented residents and immigrant rights groups on Sept. 11 to discuss their struggles as well as how best to protect DACA recipients now that the Trump administration has announced the end the program with a six-month deferral.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on a ticking timeline right now,\u201d said Sally Kinoshita, deputy director of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Kinoshita told commissioners that due to the president\u2019s decision, her and other immigration organizations must immediately attempt to re-register all eligible DACA recipients.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo one of the things we\u2019re having DACA recipients do in the meantime is to screen for other immigration options that may already be available to them,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re encouraging them to understand that their constitutional rights do not change and they should know what those rights are as well as practice exercising those rights if they encounter ICE after they no longer have protection from deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to DACA, current recipients of the program had struggled, like other undocumented immigrants, with fear of deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix years ago, undocumented youth … stood up and said, \u2018We want some reprieve and we want some breathing room,\u2019 from an increasingly expanding deportation machine,\u201d said Hong Mei Pang, immigration program manager for Chinese for Affirmative Action. \u201cAlmost 3 million people were deported under the Obama Administration, a record number of people, and we have really wanted to [be] reunited and stay with our families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kinoshita said that there is a lot of confusion, both from undocumented individuals \u201cand from service providers on whether or not people should move [and] whether or not they should be traveling outside the country or returning to the country right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Ana Herrera, the managing immigration attorney of Dolores Street Community Services (an organization that provides services to both low-income people and immigrants), the group is trying to find \u201canyone who is eligible for [DACA] renewal by Oct. 5 and have them apply with one of our agencies and help them with the fees if they are unable provide them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayra Jaimes, the program coordinator for the fellowship program DreamSF, introduced herself as \u201cone of the [800,000] DACA beneficiaries, however, I am not one of the 154,000 eligible to renew within the one-month window which ends Oct. 5, which means by March 19, my work permit will expire. And these are really big numbers, but they pale in comparison to the 10 million undocumented immigrants who never qualified for DACA. My parents and my extended family are part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Deserving\u2019 and <\/b>\u2018Undeserving\u2019 immigrants<\/b><\/p>\n
Jaimes addressed the divide that has arisen between DACA recipients and other undocumented people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI began to reflect on the unspoken political division in my family. A narrative between them and myself, of \u2018deserving\u2019 and \u2018undeserving,\u2019\u201d said Jaimes, who comes from a mixed-status family\u2014her three younger siblings being U.S. citizens. \u201cI understood that DACA was a \u2018privilege,\u2019 but I also knew that it wasn\u2019t enough because my parents were not afforded the same privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Trump administration ended the program, she received calls from undocumented family members reassuring her that DACA will be fixed and that she will receive help.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I thought to myself, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you including yourself in these wishes and thoughts?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBecause, there is a clear division, an unspoken political division within all of our families, all DACA recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sept. 18 during a televised morning press conference, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for the immediate passing of the DREAM Act, but she was interrupted by demonstrators, who chanted \u201cAll of us or none of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met with President Trump and supposedly agreed to legislation that would protect DREAMers after the DACA program ends. The agreement, however, also included unspecified plans that would bolster security along the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n
For Jaimes and others like her this is sort of deal is a nonstarter. Jaimes has asked the SF Immigrant Affairs body to stop using the word DREAMer altogether, arguing that \u201cit pits us against our own family members and it infantilizes us and it disempowers us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of the image of a DREAMer, a youthful undocumented individual, Jaimes prefers one solid, uniting image of her as \u201cone of 11 million people who deserve to live, work, and thrive in the U.S. just like everyone else, regardless of immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[su_carousel source=”media: 35630,35631,35632″ limit=”65″ link=”lightbox” target=”blank” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″] San Francisco\u2019s Immigrant Rights Commission met with undocumented residents and immigrant rights groups on Sept. 11 to discuss their struggles as well as how best to protect DACA recipients now that the Trump administration has announced the end the program with a six-month deferral. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":35631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[14716,14722,3843,3907,14720,14714,14712,14718,9885,11935],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-35629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-ana-herrera","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-daca-en","tag-dolores-street-community-services-en","tag-dreamsf","tag-hong-mei-pang","tag-immigrant-rights-commission","tag-mayra-jaimes","tag-nancy-pelosi-en","tag-sally-kinoshita-en","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n