Thread: DREAMER OR DEPORTEE? UNK student in limbo, worried about bad news on immigration sta

Posted: Saturday, February 11, 2017 1:00 am | Updated: 12:12 pm, Sat Feb 11, 2017.


BY ANGELICA LEICHT
Hub Staff Writer


KEARNEY — On the surface, Marissa is every bit the typical college student, but she could go from being on the dean’s list to being deported.


She’s majoring in Spanish education with an endorsement in ELL at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and works part time at a local elementary school as a paraprofessional. She’s active in a sorority and the Hispanic Student Association on campus, too.


But unlike many of her peers, Marissa is technically not a citizen or a legal resident of this country. She’s a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, legally in the United States under a program put into place by President Obama in June 2012. Obama extended the program to certain undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to give them a renewable two-year period during which they’re protected from deportation and eligible for work permits. In other words, immigrants such as Marissa.


Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, Marissa’s parents carried her across the border when she was 10 months old. They crossed the border in Arizona, leaving behind the life they’d built in Mexico in a bid for the American dream. Her parents spent several years harvesting potatoes and working in feed lots in Arizona, California, and the Midwest before settling in a small Nebraska town. They own a restaurant now, but Marissa’s mom’s hands still hurt from picking potatoes way back then, she says.


As an undocumented immigrant, Marissa’s options after high school were limited until DACA. She couldn’t drive — applicants can’t get a license without the paperwork — and while there was no federal law prohibiting undocumented students from enrolling in college, a lack of transportation and resources made higher education seem out of reach.


“Looking back to my sophomore year in high school, college didn’t even seem like an option for me,” she said. “I didn’t grow up dreaming of where I’d go to college because kids like me didn’t go. It was a far-fetched dream.”


But when Obama introduced DACA, that changed. Marissa applied for and was granted DACA approval in 2013 and again in 2015. Getting a license and a work permit meant going to college was finally an option, although federal grants and loans weren’t — DACA doesn’t allow for that.


She kept her status as a DACA recipient quiet at first, afraid of how her peers might react.


“At first I only told other DACA students. People outside of our community would tell me that I should have come here legally. I wish it were that easy,” she said. “Dealing with that discrimination was tough.”
Armed with a small scholarship from Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit organization that fights for justice and opportunity for all Nebraskans, Marissa enrolled at UNK. Her parents found a way to pay the rest of her tuition out of pocket. She has excelled in the years since.


“I’m on the dean’s list this semester,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t imagine going from the dean’s list to deported.”


She’s up for renewal again this year, and applying for the third time is a scary prospect. President Trump promised to repeal the DACA program during his campaign, and while he hasn’t taken aim at Dreamers just yet, the changes he has already made to immigration during his short time in office have immigrants and pro-immigrant groups spooked.


There’s the travel ban that temporarily blocks immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and a little-noticed provision in Trump’s Jan. 25 “border wall” executive order that allows state and local law enforcement to act as immigration officials to help remove undocumented immigrants from the country. It threatens to cut federal funding for cities that refuse to comply.


The border wall provision also calls for new immigrant detentions to be built quickly along the U.S.-Mexico border and directs the Department of Homeland Security to “allocate all legally available resources to immediately assign asylum officers to immigration detention facilities” in order to conduct “credible fear” interviews with asylum seekers.


Given Trump’s stance on immigration, pro-immigration groups are now warning DACA recipients to be very careful.


The National Immigration Law Center issued a memo to immigrants in late January that reads, in part, “President Donald Trump said during his campaign for president that he intends to rescind the Department of Homeland Security memo that authorizes the DACA program. He has not said exactly when this might occur, nor do we know what Trump administration officials might do with information DACA applicants submit on their applications.”


The National Immigrant Justice Center is warning immigrants that it does not recommend applying for DACA or DACA renewal at this time.


“What if they don’t let us renew?” Marissa asked. “It’s disheartening to see someone who has so much power use it to hurt so many people.”


Trump’s promise to repeal DACA is why during the election season Marissa spent countless hours registering first-time voters. DACA recipients aren’t allowed to vote, but she wanted others to have a say in the nation’s democracy, even if her voice was silent.


“People ask me why I’d volunteer to sign up voters if I’m unable to vote. Why advocate for it? Well, I don’t get to speak. So, I wanted to make sure there were others who could be my voice,” Marissa said.


Helping others have a voice in the election felt like a small victory for Marissa, the only DACA recipient in her family.


Her older sister married a U.S. citizen and is safe from deportation should DACA be repealed. Her younger siblings don’t have to worry about DACA at all; they were born in the U.S.
They do worry about Marissa, though.


“My little sister doesn’t have to worry about herself, but she does worry about what could happen to us. My parents are still technically undocumented, too, but we all just try to keep positive. What else can you do?” she said.


The number of DACA students who could be affected by a repeal in the Kearney area is unclear. Neither Kearney Public Schools nor UNK keep those statistics.


“The University of Nebraska doesn’t inquire into whether or not students are DACA or DACA-eligible,” said Kelly Bartling, assistant vice chancellor of communications at UNK.


KPS doesn’t keep a record of DACA students in the district, according to Tori Stofferson, communications director at KPS. It’s not a question it asks when students enroll.


Whatever the number, Marissa said, it’s “a lot.”


“I really don’t know what Trump is going to do,” she said, “but I hope he takes into consideration how many people would be affected.”


angelica.leicht@kearneyhub.com

http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local...3f3612d0d.html

Go to sleep at night knowing that you stole the seat of an American kid who didn't get the chance to go to college in their own country because you did. Tell your parents to "sleep well" because "they found a pay to pay your tuition out of pocket" because whatever they "found" already belonged to American parents of a student who wanted to go to college, but wasn't able to, because your parents stole their jobs or business. And you all did this illegally. That makes you all criminals harming our country and destroying the lives and future of our own kids and their parents.

You have "dreams"? Big deal. Americans have dreams, too. Why should any American care about your dreams when you didn't care about ours??!!!

You're a stupid girl and should be deported immediately with your parents.

“At first I only told other DACA students. People outside of our community would tell me that I should have come here legally. I wish it were that easy,” she said. “Dealing with that discrimination was tough.”
Armed with a small scholarship from Nebraska Appleseed,

Don't you love how she thinks she's being discriminated against and how she is "armed" with a scholarship? Poor me victim mentally alert!

I was intrigued with how her illegal alien parents were able to find the money to pay her expenses "out of pocket". They're drug runners.

Deport them all. Get them all out of here.

“I really don’t know what Trump is going to do,” she said, “but I hope he takes into consideration how many people would be affected.”

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He is taking into consideration how many people are affected!

Millions of Legal US Citizens are affected by your being here illegally and your parents Criminal Trespass affect our lives, our neighborhoods, our roads, our schools, our hospitals, our tax dollars, and our wallets every day!

American's First!

Take what you stole from the US and go apply it in Mexico. You want American Dream? Go build America on YOUR soil.

Mexico has schools and college...go there!

Deport the whole family.

There are at least 900,000 or more of these people, that's 900,000 jobs for young Americans, that's thousands and thousands of seats in college for young Americans, and for every DACA, there's at least 1 and probably 2 illegal alien parents in this country who brought or sent them here. That's between 2 million and 3 million people plus their kids, swooped out of here who don't belong here, when DACA is ended, either with an Executive Order or allowed to expire un-renewed in June.

Deport the whole family.

Absolutely and any legal immigrant who aided and abetted them. Send any Americans who aided and abetted them to court for prosecution. This madness has to end.

Originally Posted by Judy

I was intrigued with how her illegal alien parents were able to find the money to pay her expenses "out of pocket". They're drug runners.

Deport them all. Get them all out of here.

If they live in my town(Lexington, NE) it might be money laundering from the illegal horse races i.e. illegal gambling that goes on here!

Keep your promise President Trump, end DACA now!

Marissa is technically not a citizen or a legal resident of this country

No such thing as 'technically' not a citizen or legal resident!

You are either a legal citizen by birth or a legal resident by law.

Wandering how her older sister,should be out of deportation, if their parents bring them here illegally...marry to U.S citizen,mean her illegally entry, isn't a big deal?
Maybe I missing something...