Until last Tuesday, life was normal for Faviola.
Then the text messages started to pour in.
“They said stuff like, ‘Are you OK?’” Faviola, who lives in north Sonoma County and prefers to keep her last name anonymous, said. “I told my friends I didn’t know what they were talking about and they told me to check the news.”
When Faviola did, she couldn’t believe what she saw: the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, colloquially known as DACA, was being rescinded and would end in six months.
“There’s a lot about this administration I didn’t think would happen,” Faviola said. “I didn’t even think he would get elected. I didn’t think this would happen.”
For people like Faviola, who were brought into the country as children, the end of the DACA program means that her permit to study and work in the United States will expire. Under DACA, children who are brought into the United States as undocumented immigrants can apply for a permit that allows them to stay in the country as long as they attend a college or find a job. The permits last just two years, but those who have them, commonly called “dreamers,” can renew their permits before expiration.
In Sonoma County, roughly 3,000 individuals are dreamers and about a quarter of the nation’s 800,000 DACA-eleigible dreamers live in California.
When Faviola’s permit expires in November 2018, she will be an illegal citizen in the United States. She will likely lose her job and could lose her housing. She could be deported back to Mexico, where she came with her family when she was 14 years old.
When she thinks about it all, it is overwhelming. “I am in disbelief,” Faviola said. “All of my hopes and dreams are gone.”
She tries not to think about it. Instead, Faviola works hard to be optimistic for her clients at Catholic Charities. As the program manager for CalFresh, a nutrition assistance program formerly known as food stamps, she serves dreamers like herself, as well as undocumented immigrants.
“They’re scared,” she said. “We’re all scared. We don’t know what to do.”
DACA provided Faviola an opportunity she didn’t think she could ever have. She entered the program in 2012 while working at a restaurant with a sous chef, she said, who was harassing her.
“I couldn’t tell anyone because he said he would have me deported,” she said. “He knew my situation.”
DACA was her only way out of the harassment.
With her permit, Faviola began studying sociology at Santa Rosa Junior College. She got a job at Catholic Charities, where she once was a client.
“I help a lot of people,” Faviola said. “I work to stay positive, but it’s hard. A mother came to me last week and said she needed help. She wanted to get her son who turns 15 next month a [DACA] permit, but there was nothing we could do.”
Throughout the state, roughly 240,000 children have applied for DACA, according to the Education Trust-West. With DACA rescinded, the future of those children lays in the arms of Congress, which has been charged by the president to “legalize DACA,” according to a Sept. 6 tweet.
“All I can do is hope that Congress will do the right thing,” Faviola said.
Congressman Jared Huffman, who represents much of Northern California, including Sonoma County, slammed the president’s decision last week.
“President Trump’s decision to terminate the DACA program is a cruel, broken promise that will harm hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought here as children and have lived as Americans their entire lives,” Huffman said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Sept. 6, Huffman urged the House to pass the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act of 2017. He asked for unanimous consent to bring up the act, but was told “unanimous requests cannot be entertained.”
The DREAM Act originated 16 years ago and has floundered through revisions since 2001. It nearly passed in 2010, but the Senate was five votes short. Its failure to pass then led President Barack Obama to create the DACA policy as a temporary solution in June 2012.
While Congress stalls, California has legislation underway to help protect undocumented immigrants in the state. According to State Senator Mike McGuire, California has dedicated $30 million in assistance to dreamers in California. The funds are available for immigration remedies, financial assistance at college, assisting with naturalization processes and legal services.
“These young people who have been targeted by President Trump have done nothing wrong. In many cases, America is the only home they have ever known and it is the country that they love,” McGuire said.
