Dreamers dread DACA phaseout

The first day of school is usually exciting – but not this year, said Cape Henlopen High School teacher Jerry Lindale.

“My students are crying and scared,” said Lindale, an English language learner teacher who has at least two dozen students in his classes who receive benefits from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, commonly known as DACA.

A few hours after the first bell rang Sept. 5, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration would rescind DACA, which provides work permits, driver's licenses and temporary protection from deportation for recipients, like the students in Lindale's classes.

“They are very scared and are afraid to come to school, even though they followed the DACA program process,” Lindale said. “They should have been excited and happy, but with what happened, they were so depressed, anxious, afraid, scared and so many other negative feelings.”

DACA recipients, often referred to as Dreamers based on the failed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, have at least six months until their benefits begin to expire.

But Lindale said his students are worried immigration officials will come any moment to take them back to a country they don't know.

“They can't focus on school right now,” Lindale said. “It hurt me when they asked me to please lock my door. They are so afraid of what is going to happen to them.”

Lindale said after school, text messages poured in from around the country and the world from previous students, some serving in the U.S. armed forces, some enrolled in college. Each message was full of worry: That they'd lose their scholarships and have to drop out of school, that they would lose their jobs back home and be unable to support their families after the military.

And each said they don't know anyone in their native countries.

“I am totally overwhelmed with the way they are feeling,” he said. “They are all amazing students and citizens of our country, but I am stunned and don't know how to respond to their worries.”

The Dreamers in Lindale's classes are not alone. More than 800,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide receive DACA benefits, and nearly 1,500 live and work in the First State.

Cindy Mitchell, an advocate for DACA and immigration, spent a year with 15 undocumented immigrants, studying what it was like to grow up undocumented in the United States for her doctorate in education dissertation.

“I cried so many times listening to their stories,” the Dagsboro resident said. “The fears they described back in 2012 with me are very representative of what others have described across the country.”

Losing the ability to drive and work dominated their fears then, she said.

“I foresee a lot of those fears coming back,” she said. “They trusted in the government. They came out of the shadows, as I say, and they filled out the paperwork. They gave them their addresses, their names, all that information that was a secret prior to DACA coming out. The government now has that information.”

The idea of mass deportation once DACA is fully rescinded is an overwhelming notion, Mitchell said.

“I think we're all bracing for what is going to happen next,” she said. “My only hope is that Congress sees the backlash – that they see the hurt, the pain, the uproar and the anger. They have the opportunity this time to sit down and create a pathway, at least for the Dreamers, to move this country forward.”

Instituted as an executive memorandum by the Obama administration in 2012, DACA aimed to protect young people who entered the country illegally as children. Those who qualified could apply for deportation deferment in 2-year, renewable increments. The program also made DACA recipients eligible for work authorization, but it did not grant permanent protection or citizenship.

Unfortunately for Delaware State University student Itzel Serrano, she has missed the window to reapply for another deportation deferment now that the program is being rescinded. Her DACA benefits will expire in September 2018.

Serrano, 18, echoed former President Barack Obama when she said she is an American in every way – except on paper.

“I've grown up here my entire life,” she said, adding that she was 3 months old when she left Mexico with her family. “This is all I know.”

The future of young, undocumented immigrants in the program is now in the hands of Congress, as the Trump administration gave elected officials six months to pass legislation, according to a White House press release.

“How they sort this thing out I guess remains to be seen,” said DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes. “As far as we're concerned, these Dreamers are Delaware State University students. They're Americans.”

At least one elected official from Sussex County applauded the move by the Trump administration.

“It is and has been deemed an overreach from the executive branch,” Sussex County Councilman Rob Arlett said of the DACA program. “Congress is charged with the immigration laws of this country, not the president. For too long, this country has not embraced the need for immigration change.”

Arlett, who also served as the Delaware chairman for Trump's presidential campaign, said the DACA program benefits are unfair to those who have gone through the laborious process to attain citizenship, like his wife, Lorna. He said illegal immigrants in Sussex County also strain local school district resources, especially at Indian River School District, and that laws should be upheld despite the emotions associated with immigration.

“I'm not against immigrants,” he said. “But I am for legal immigration. Our three elected officials here in Delaware must step up and work with their fellow Congress and our president to update and bring to the table new, lawful, legal immigration laws.”

But Delaware’s elected leaders are condemning the decision to rescind the program.

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester said the decision also could have a negative economic impact, not a positive one as argued by proponents of the decision.

“In Delaware alone, we could see an $88 million loss in our gross domestic product and a loss of almost $460 billion to the U.S. GDP,” she said in a statement. “Dreamers across the nation have made rich contributions to our economy and our communities.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons also denounced the decision to end the DACA program.

“Not only will ending DACA hurt the thousands of immigrant families whose loved ones may be force to leave the United States, but I believe our federal immigration enforcement resources are much better focused on those who are actively a threat to our community,” Coons said.

As Sessions made the announcement, Tom Carper pledged he'd return to Washington, D.C., to fight for Serrano and more than 80 other DACA recipients attending Delaware State University on full scholarships through TheDream.US.

“President Trump's decision to turn his back on Dreamers is a short-sighted, self-inflicted wound on our communities and our economy,” Carper said in a statement. “It's clear that many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle know that this is the wrong thing to do, and it's up to us in Congress to do right by these young people.”