A little over 50 years after the East L.A. walkouts, students from across Los Angeles County came together in Downtown L.A. on Tuesday to protest the Trump administration’s attempt to rollback the DACA program.
DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an Obama-era scheme that enabled some immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to qualify for work permits. These individuals are also called “Dreamers”, and DACA prevented them from being deported as they were accessible on a two-year renewable basis that deferred action.
Amongst the numerous requirements to make the cut for DACA, one includes being below the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012. The applicant must have also come to the U.S. while under the age of 16. They should currently be in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or armed forces.
DACA is mainly streamlined for the children of undocumented immigrants. It is this element of not being documented that President Donald Trump is fighting against in courts. While courts at the lower level have continuously rejected the blocks against DACA, the Supreme Court will discuss the verdict on Tuesday, a decision that will shape the fates of the 700,000 people whom DACA covers.
Twelve high schools across the county, in partnership with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), gathered by the Molecule Man structure in Downtown L.A. to walk to MacArthur Park in protest.
According to Teresa Chavarin, the Senior Office Assistant at John Marshall High School, “school officials are not allowed to endorse this, but it’s the students’ First Amendment right to protest and voice their opinions. We’re supportive of that.”
CHIRLA sent out representatives to each high school to coordinate students for the mass gathering. Young beneficiaries of DACA and their allies alike were present.
28-year-old Jazmin Ramirez moved to the United States when she was three years old. As a DACA beneficiary, she is privy to the process of renewing it as many times as required.
Ramirez said, through the program, she had many benefits which she would not have in the first place.
“I can renew my permit anytime, but these young people are not being given the opportunity to apply when I was 16 years old. With DACA I was able to purchase a home, get an education, and now pursuing my Masters in Social Work at Cal State L.A.. We’re just like everyone else in this country, but without the privilege of being born here,” said Ramirez.
In October, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved a bill expanding the rights of Dreamers with respect to scholarships for higher education in state schools. President Trump, in the lead up to the Supreme Court decision, has labelled the Dreamers to be “far from ‘angels’” in a tweet.
Valentin Hernandez, a junior from Torres East LA Performing Arts Magnate, is the first person in his family to not be under the DACA program. His parents migrated to the U.S. from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Hernandez wants the movement to eradicate the stigma towards those on DACA.
“I want the Supreme Court to know that we mean no harm, and that we are here to provide for ourselves,” he said. “DACA is a means of survival to a lot of us, it’s the reason why we are able to call ourselves free citizens.”
Accompanying the students were some of their family members as well. In Hernandez’s case, his mother, Dora Lopez, had come with him. Her 21-year-old daughter Maria Rodriguez is a DACA recipient who has received a scholarship through the program to pursue a degree in General Education at Rio Hondo College.
However, every time Rodriguez’s permit expires, she faces difficulty.
“She has been on DACA for 6 years already, and we’re scared. Every time her permit expired, she would be laid off work. She’s getting help now, but it’s becoming a bigger problem everyday,” Lopez said in an interview.
The throng of young protesters were also flecked with community figures like immigration lawyers. One such attorney was Vanessa Frank who has been practicing immigration law for 17 years. “Hopefully, we can open DACA for everyone again. Currently, we have kids who are 15 to 17 years old, and they’re too young to get DACA. This is the only country they’ve known, and they can’t get work here even if they’ve continued their education in America,” Frank said.
She hopes the Supreme Court decision will allow for more immigrants to be protected. Frank goes on to mention the generation DACA has created.
“We’ve got the DACA generation--those 20 year old people got DACA but now face the possibility of losing it. These are people who are starting families and buying houses, pursuing law, medical, nursing and even trucking careers,” Frank said. "The younger kids are now caught in the limbo.”
“There is a generation – folks between the ages of 17 and 37 (a 20-year span) – who secured DACA and are able to renew it, but who are nonetheless unable to secure permanent lawful status in this country. And, depending on the Court’s decision in the consolidated cases before it (Trump v. NAACP), that 20 year span of folks who are pursuing careers and families will be exposed, once again, to threat of deportation and the loss of work authorization," she said.
According to Frank, the legality of DACA is the reason for its unstable position in the current political climate.
“The problem with DACA--and Obama knew it-- was that it is an executive order, not a law passed by Congress. This is why Trump can potentially revoke it with a subsequent executive order,” Frank stated. “It was not legal status and it was not definite since you had to renew it every two years."
Some religious figures had also come out in support of the Dreamers. Sister Anne McMullen of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet was part of the crowd at Downtown. She believes the religious community should support these immigrants.
“People in DACA have gone through our education system, and we as a religious community believe in working for the safety of the immigrants. They are being punished for what they didn’t do, this is their home,” she said.
Sister McMullen also served as a Justice Coordinator for St. Joseph’s. She hopes the Supreme Court will vote “based on human need, and not politically.”
The Supreme Court decision now rests on the shoulders of Associate Justices such as Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, both Trump-appointees. The walk-out at Los Angeles is part of a nation-wide reaction, with the rally to the Supreme Court in D.C. being the masthead.