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Hundreds of high school students rallied outside San Jose City Hall on Monday, demanding Congress act to protect young undocumented immigrants — and their families — from deportation.
As the deadline for Congress to pass “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” legislation came and went Monday, the students held signs saying “Youth Power” and “Immigrant Power.”
“What are we going to tell Congress?” chanted community organizer Katiuska Pimental.
“No more deportations!’ the crowd called back.
The rally came six months after President Trump ended the DACA program and told Congress to present him a bill by Monday to resolve the contentious issue. Without it, so-called “Dreamers” remain in limbo.
“One day I’ll hear they are fixing DACA and the next day it’s on hold,” said Jimena Vazquez, a 16-year-old Lincoln High School student who was born here but whose sister is a DACA recipient and student at UC Santa Barbara. “I don’t really believe the news anymore because I don’t want to get my hopes up. Today was supposed to be the deadline. For me being here today yelling loud, I feel helps a little. I’m willing to do whatever I can.”
The fact that President Trump is sending mixed messages — calling Mexican immigrants rapists on one hand and saying he wants a “bill of love” on the other — is frustrating, she said. And the delays in Congress are painful — especially because the fate or her undocumented parents and her sister remain uncertain.
“I’m afraid I’ll stay here and they’ll be deported. I’m scared every day that I won’t have them with me,” said Jimena, who spoke to this news organization with permission from her parents. Her father works for a landscaping business and her mother is a house cleaner. “My parents have been here since 2000, for me and my sister to have a better life — and we have a better life. My sister is going to be a lawyer.”
Many students in the crowd at City Hall who walked from local high schools, including San Jose High, Lincoln, Downtown College Prep and Cristo Rey are either undocumented themselves — having crossed the border illegally with their parents as children — or have older brothers and sisters who did.
“It gets me scared that I could get my chance to learn taken away,” said Manuel Flores, 15, a Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School student who spoke to this news organization with permission from his father, who brought Manuel to the U.S. when his son was 2. “I want to go to college and get a good job and everything.”
He worries every day, he says, that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will separate his family.
“I feel I’m going to be at school one day and they’re going to raid my house and my family will be taken away,” he said.
An ongoing court case is keeping DACA alive for at least the next several months, and the March 5 deadline originally set to end the program on Monday became a rallying call for Dreamers across the country pressuring Congress to act.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra called Monday “a good day for the rule of the law” because Dreamers can report to school and work and, “We’re not talking about young peoples’ deportation and having their dreams crushed by the Trump Administration.”
In a significant victory for Dreamers, a San Francisco judge in January blocked the Trump administration’s rescinding of DACA, ordering the administration to resume accepting DACA applications as the underlying case continues in federal court.
Then last week, the Supreme Court denied an expedited hearing of the DACA case filed from the Trump administration and recommended that it go through the appeals court. That essentially muted the March 5 deadline that Trump had set for the program, and Dreamers whose DACA permits expire can still submit applications to renew their protected status.
Meanwhile, the case goes back to the 9th Circuit court of appeals, which is slated to make a decision in the summer. That means the earliest the Supreme Court could potentially hear the case is in October, which would push any ruling into 2019, adding more uncertainty to the lives of Dreamers.
“President Trump attempted to end DACA – an Obama-era executive order that will likely be ruled unlawful in the long run – and that should have been the end of the story,” said David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors increased immigration enforcement. “Unfortunately, activist judges have intervened and prevented the end of DACA.”
Dreamers are pushing Congress for a “Clean Dream Act” bill that wouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip to advance other policies, such as funding a border wall and increasing border security.
DACA doesn’t just affect students, however.
In a phone interview, Karina Macias, a project coordinator for a biotechnology company in East Palo Alto, says the DACA program has given her numerous opportunities. She is among nearly 800,000 DACA beneficiaries awarded temporary deportation relief and work permits under the program until the Trump Administration ended DACA last fall.
“It’s definitely an emotional roller coaster,” said Macias, 23. “We’re at the deadline and nothing has happened. It doesn’t seem like there’s any other opportunity or window for something to happen. It’s the same feeling as when they announced they were removing the program — this feeling of ‘what do we do now?'”
Though she tries to be positive, Macias said she’s had conversations with loved ones about the possibility of having to return to Mexico, a place she hasn’t seen since she was 3.
“It’s a reality,” she said. “My parents definitely encourage me to see the bright side of it, to be grateful for the time I’ve been here.
“I’ve got my education. That’s something they can’t take away from me.”
The San Jose rally comes two weeks after the shooting at a Parkland, Florida, High School, where high school students are actively trying to frame the gun debate. In front of City Hall on Monday, Mayor Sam Liccardo recognized how the voices of so many young people were pressing for a DACA resolution.
“Youth are leading the world right now,” he said.
