336 Days
Today will be the first time I open up to a group about my legal status. I am one of those 800,000 people known as Dreamers. Who was brought to the United States illegally as a child. On September 5, 2017, Jeff Session announced to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals known as DACA. The Department of Homeland Security is providing a six-month window in which Congress will have a chance to pass a legislative solution. The program has different expirations for each person. I have 336 days left until my DACA expires, but others like me have already started to lose status. They have already begun to lose protection from deportation, their jobs, their ability to go to school. My education and my job are both at stake. After my DACA expires, I will be at a higher risk of deportation. I am overwhelmed with fear. My fear had decreased after DACA granted me legal protection and an opportunity to attend college. But before I speak about all the opportunities DACA has given me. I would like to take you to an overwhelming event with a mental breakdown that happened to me my senior year. Senior year seems to be the most fun year of high school or that is how people picture it to be, no more homework after that or summer assignments. For me, it was a moment of stress and anxiety. A feeling of not belonging to this country and not being able to speak up. I had to hide my identity and never speak about my legal status due to fear. I would cry at night and feel lost. There was a time when I would always wear a sweater and long sleeve shirts to hide the scar left by an immunization where I was born in Mexico. This scar that you are seeing identifies me and my nationality. A girl born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles. A girl with dreams but is limited. Limited to travel and work. I’ve always pictured myself traveling the world and becoming a doctor. DACA gave me that opportunity to receive my social security number and my work permit. I remember tears of joy and hugging my mother. I received my California ID and debit card. All these opportunities helped me get into college with the Dream Act. I am attending the University of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is five hours away from Los Angeles. I had my first experience going on a plane and seeing the world. But the best part was not having the fear of being deported. The clock is ticking and my opportunities will come to an end. I feel like a part of myself was snatched away. I am back to where I was. But this time, I don’t have my mother or my sister by my side. My fear has now increased again. I am worried about my future. I’ve worked so hard to be where I am at right now. I remember working ten times harder than the average student because I spoke Spanish as my first language. Staying up late at night reading because I knew that having an education would take my family out of poverty. My dream has always been for my mother to stop working every day. I want to be able to buy her a house and just get rest. But I am at a place where I don’t know what could happen to my family and me. Being away from my mother scares me because I may never know if I will see her again. And if that day does happen, where would my little sister go? I am afraid and tired. If I look done, its because I am. I’m done living in fear for my future and the future of the other 800,000 DACA dreamers in this country. All though we do not all share the same struggles. We do share some of the same sentiments. I know what it’s like to be rejected and to feel powerless. We all have struggles. Struggles we want to face on our own because we know that if people were to discover them we would be in our most vulnerable state and never looked at the same way. After so many years I had the courage to stand up and share a struggle I’ve dealt with each and every day. I decided to reveal my legal status because this might be a time to convey the truth to all of you that all undocumented immigrants are people too. We are people with dreams, aspirations, and hopes. People like me and you who want to succeed. Who want to live a better life. We are all dreamers because one day we want to be able to achieve all the goals we have for ourselves. Even better we want our parents to be proud. All I want to say is that we are not bad people or how people have stereotyped us. We came here without a choice. And our parents are not criminals. My mother sacrificed her dreams so I can achieve mine. My mother moved countries for my sister and me. Every sacrifice she has made has been for us and that’s why everything I do is for her. We might not have the official documentation but we are all trying to do it the right way. DACA was one of those programs but it takes a long process to apply. The process for me took a year and I will no longer have it the following year. It is overwhelming that DACA is no longer in use and that other applicants will not have the same opportunity I had later in the future. I asked for all of you to try and look beyond the way people portrays us. To please be understanding because after all, we are people just like you. We need Congress to find a solution because we need to protect our families and loved ones.