Some Immigrants Hesitant About Deferred Action

Posted: Aug 22, 2012 6:12 PM Updated: Aug 22, 2012 6:54 PM

McALLEN - Some immigrants hoping to benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals are hesitant about applying for the program.

The main concern, some say, is that the government will know who they are once they apply.

"You're in the dark side and you're trying to go into the light ... and you still don't know if they're going to catch you," said Jorge Garcia before filing his deferred action paperwork.

He said it was a harder decision than he initially thought.

"It was a big hesitation," he said.

Garcia said his family moved to the Rio Grande Valley from Reynosa 17 years ago. He spent the past two months making sure his paperwork was ready.

"We checked like five times with every document we have," he said.

Garcia, a senior in high school, said he doesn't want to give the government any excuse to deny his application.

But perfect paperwork doesn't guarantee deferred action.

"it's not that simple," Blair Craddock said. She is an attorney with the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid in Weslaco.

"It comes with great risks," she said.

Craddock said families need to remember deferred action is not a law and it can change.

"It's temporary ... it does not provide a pathway to permanent residency," she said. "Nobody knows what will happen."

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