Deportation Reprieve for Young Immigrants May Not Include Parents
Deportation Reprieve for Young Immigrants May Not Include Parents
By JULIA PRESTON NOV. 19, 2014
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Ray Jose, 24, a Filipino whose parents brought him to this country when he was 9, said his father had worked cleaning houses and mowing lawns so he could attend college. Mr. Jose joined a protest in the Capitol on Tuesday to demand a reprieve for his parents.CreditJabin Botsford/The New York Times
Every time Berzabeth Valdez heads out to work from her mobile home on the outskirts of Houston, it crosses her mind that she might not come back.
Ms. Valdez, 48, is a Mexican immigrant who has been living in Texas for 11 years without legal papers, and so without a driver’s license.
For her commute to her job as a restaurant manager, she keeps her taillights in working order and never speeds.
“We are terrified of the police,” Ms. Valdez said. “One traffic ticket could end in deportation. I could lose my whole life, everything I have gained for my family.”
One of Ms. Valdez’s daughters grew tired of living with those fears and joined an organization of young undocumented immigrants. The youths, who call themselves Dreamers, won protection from deportation from President Obama in 2012 and continued to press him to extend those measures to others here illegally.
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Now Mr. Obama is preparing to announce changes to the immigration enforcement system that could allow as many as five million immigrants to remain and work legally. But as the White House deliberates final details of the plan, the youths could be facing a bittersweet ending, as officials are considering leaving out their parents.
“It’s getting so hard to call my Mom,” said Marķa Fernanda Cabello, 23, Ms. Valdez’s activist daughter. “I’ve had to tell her, there is a victory coming and I don’t know if you’re part of it.”
Mr. Obama has decided to grant deportation reprieves to many undocumented parents whose children are American citizens and legal permanent residents, according to administration officials familiar with the plans. Officials say the president can exercise prosecutorial discretion to avoid breaking up families of children entitled to be here, and to steer enforcement agents toward deporting criminals and foreigners who pose national security threats.
But some officials have argued it would be more difficult both legally and politically to make the case for including parents of immigrants in the existing program for young people who came when they were children, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Since that program is based on executive action by Mr. Obama, the youths have deportation deferrals and work permits but no green cards or any other visa or formal immigration status, which only Congress can confer. Their parents’ claim for relief is weaker, the officials said.
The president is facing angry opposition from Republicans to his new initiatives. Calling Mr. Obama’s plans “executive amnesty,” Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an outspoken adversary, accused him of seizing sole power to decide who can live and work in the United States. “Surrendering to illegality is not an option,” Mr. Sessions said.
Republicans are considering different ways to stop funding for the president’s new measures and for the existing DACA program.
Even after receiving their own reprieves, the youths played a large role in bringing a reluctant president to take more sweeping action unilaterally. They mobilized law professors to build Mr. Obama’s legal case. Early this year, when the president was urging activists to pressure Republicans in the House to take up an immigration bill passed by the Senate, young immigrants decided there was little chance the House would act. Instead, they dogged Mr. Obama, interrupting his speeches and staging street sit-ins at his events.
The hints that their parents could be excluded by the White House have stunned many youths.
“It’s really hard to process when we’ve been pushing so hard for this,” said Ms. Cabello, an organizer in Texas for United We Dream, a national network of youth groups. “I cry every time I think about it.”
The White House may expand the current DACA program by eliminating the upper age limit, currently 31 years old, or adjusting other requirements, measures youth leaders said they would welcome.
According to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, about 3.3 million undocumented parents have children who are citizens or legal residents and have been living here for at least five years. Many families have some children born in other countries and some who are citizens born in the United States, and the number of eligible immigrants would increase only to 3.4 million if the parents of youths in the DACA program were included.
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Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard, Democrat of California, right, at a press conference that included Dreamers, their parents and others in Washington on Tuesday. Democratic lawmakers have tried to convince Mr. Obama to include the Dreamers’ parents.CreditJabin Botsford/The New York Times
But for young people in families with no American-born children, it is bitterly frustrating that they have to continue to worry whenever their parents go out the door.
In October, Ms. Valdez recalled, a motorist rammed her rear fender while she was stopped at a red light. An apologetic American driver explained she was wearing a new pair of high heels and had been unable to press the brake in time.
“Let’s just forget about it,” Ms. Valdez said, eyeing her crumpled fender, and she left to avoid calling the police.
Another activist born in Mexico, Carolina Canizales, 24, said she recalled her conflicting emotions when she first received her deferral documents two years ago, her first legal immigration papers.
“What wouldn’t I do for my mother?” said Ms. Canizales, also a leader of United We Dream. “I want her to experience the relief I felt when I held my work permit in my hand.”
Her mother, Maria Canizales, 61, came to the United States in 1998 fleeing an alcoholic husband and raised her two daughters in San Antonio. Working as a house cleaner, she helped put Carolina through four years at the University of Texas. With a work permit, she said, she would start a catering business specializing in Mexican food so her other daughter could finish college as well.
Democratic lawmakers have tried to convince Mr. Obama to include the Dreamers’ parents.
“You have these college students who were brought here as 2-year-olds and they are de facto Americans,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat of California. “Keeping together the family of that promising American-to-be is an American value.”
Some Republicans strongly objected to the youth program, saying Mr. Obama had already overstepped his legal authorities at that time. Last summer, the Republican majority in the House passed a bill to cancel the program.
In the last days before Mr. Obama acts, the Dreamers are stepping up their lobbying of White House officials. Ray Jose, 24, a Filipino whose parents brought him to this country when he was 9, said his father had worked cleaning houses and mowing lawns so he could attend college. Mr. Jose joined a protest in the Capitol on Tuesday to demand a reprieve for his parents.
“My Dad did so much for me, I have to do something for him,” Mr. Jose said.
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