To Those Affected by DACA Rescinding

I’m sitting at Bluestone Lane, one of my favourite coffee shops, located just off the Avenue of Las Americas in New York City. To my left is sitting one of my best friends, Matty. Matty is American. Matty is undocumented. Matty is an undocumented American. She is not Mexican, and she is not stealing anyone’s job, yet she has had to live with the marginalising narrative her whole life. We’re reading The New York Times; the front page reads “The End of DACA: What We Know and Don’t Know.” I feel my body shuddering looking at the worried faces of the undocumented American youth. Wrapping her fingers around the cup of Earl Grey, Matty nervously shakes her leg as her tired eyes look my way, we exchange this we’re totally-screwed sort of glance and take a sip of our Australian beverages.

“I don’t feel like a criminal, at least not the type I’ve been taught” she tells me with tear stung eyes. I get it. We see images of criminals who murder and who steal from the poor, we see them receive life sentence in jail for horrendous crimes, and people like Matty are compared to these people. Matty is Venezuelan and I am Colombian and the presumption that we derive from Mexican heritage is a common occurrence. However, getting our ethnicity mistaken is nothing compared to the cruelty President Trump has inflicted on Matty. Now Matty, with just one year left, is considering dropping out of school because she fears exposure. She refuses to go out during nightlife with her friends because she’s afraid of getting pulled over or that documentation status will be outed. Being a brown skinned, undocumented lesbian, her family worries for Matty’s safety.

Matty isn’t alone. She belongs to the 800,00 undocumented youth of America protected under President Obama’s plan, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).Officially DACA is “[the right] that certain people who came to the United States as children . . . may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. They are also eligible for work authorisation.” It goes on to explain that DACA is a use of “prosecutorial discretion,” meaning that those eligible for it are protected against deportation. (https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consider ) DACA allows Matty to pursue and study her passion for literature in university while working at a not for profit art space in Fairfield, CT.

We tuck our newspapers inside our bags and wait for her girlfriend, Jen, to arrive. Jen and Matty met at a United We Dream rally two years ago in D.C., and it was a match made in (rally) heaven. Jen is also an Ochoa 2 Undocumented American with Filippine heritage. The discourse on undocumented Americans is usually centered around Latin Americans, but according to AAPI data, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are among the fastest growing racial groups in the United States. Jen grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut in a neighbourhood densely populated by Filipinos. Like Matty, she is an art aficionado. She’s 21 and hopes to go back to school someday. She dropped out after, in 2014, her great aunt was deported. “It was the worst pain my [my family] has suffered. I’m working hard so nobody can feel that,” she tells me.

In light of recent nationwide electoral events, we discuss the difficulty to avoid feeling the sharp contrast between those who are sympathetic and who are dismissive. To us, the divide this country is enduring between different political groups is bringing us apart. Some people from my town who are aware of my “liberal” rhetoric now won’t talk to me—not that I’m complaining—judging simply on the idea that me and them are two separate beings. Since I was a vocal Bernie Sanders supporter who hates guns and supports the Black Lives Matter movement, I became a force with whom to avoid at all costs. Yes, my political views do influence the ways in which I live in the world and my interactions, but I am so much more than what some may call a, “sleazy liberal.” It can be easy for those on the left and those on the right to suddenly dehumanise one another based on political views, I fell victim to this hatred myself; but, I am teaching myself each day that fighting hate with hate accomplishes nothing. This is exactly what is happening to the communities of undocumented youth in this country. They are not seen as Americans, or even humans; undocumented people in this country get labeled “alien” or “illegal” or the conservative media, creating their audience to further remove themselves from people like Matty and Jen.

It is important now, more than ever, to listen rather than argue and help move the cause forward. If you want to help, text “Resist” to 50409 to fax your senators to defend DACA, postings of rallies occurring around your county can be found via United We Dream’s Instagram and Facebook, as well as donating to one of the funds for people to be able to renew their DACA before the cutoff date.