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U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), hearing the pleas of undocumented immigrant youth who are worried that a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deal may involve further criminalization of their parents and families, called for a “clean” vote on the bipartisan DREAM Act, saying it "needs to be clean and I feel very strongly about that. No strings attached. We made a promise as the United States government to these young people and we need to keep our promise. That’s it. Period. Full stop”:
Harris also said she's walking a fine line as the deadline for renewing DACA status approaches this Thursday. One one hand, she appealed to DREAMers to make sure they submit their paperwork by Oct. 5, and to reach out to her office for advice.
But she also said she understands some of their trepidation about filing paperwork with the Trump administration.
"I cannot guarantee, because they won’t guarantee, that they won’t share the information with ICE," she said. "We get mixed signals. They say it’s not going to be a high priority for deportation. I’d like to believe that’s true, but they have not given us any guarantees. In that way I think it’s highly irresponsible of this administration. Highly irresponsible."
During a Senate hearing last week, Sen. Harris tore into acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke for refusing to outright promise that the personal information of DACA recipients would not be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “I will tell you from the perspective of California, these young people are terrified,” Harris said. “They are terrified.”
According to Mother Jones, while around 154,000 DACA recipients are eligible to reapply for a final renewal, tens of thousands have not due to the arbitrary October 5 deadline set up by the government, refiling costs, and the fears outlined by Sen. Harris. One California undocumented immigrant youth who may have just made the deadline is Amzi, who submitted her application at the end of September. Now she waits.
Like many other undocumented immigrant youth, Amzi, originally from Mexico and here since the age of six, wanted to pursue higher education but her undocumented status meant she would not be eligible for in-state tuition. So she enrolled in a local community college. Once DACA was introduced in 2012, Amzi was able to transfer to a university, and now she’s set to graduate in June with a degree in nursing. But unless Congress is unable to pass a clean DREAM Act, her life is now up in the air:
Her degree has given her the technical skills she’ll need to work as a nurse, at a time when the country is sorely in need of more of them: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be more than one million open nursing positions between 2012 and 2022. But since Trump’s inauguration, Amzi’s felt a “shift” in the way people view her and, she thinks it’s impacting her job applications. “The President has opened a window for people to voice their opinions in a negative way,” she says. “It limits the way [Dreamers] think about where we can work and what schools we can go to.” For instance, she was invited to apply for an administrative position at a private clinic. But after she submitted her paperwork, the hiring manager stopped returning her calls.
Amzi’s been told that it takes about three months for DACA renewals to be processed. Since filing her application on September 28, all she’s has been able to do is wait.
“The big possibility of me having to go back to Mexico City is not what I wanted or planned for my future,” she told Mother Jones. “I grew up here, I’m earning a degree here—and I’m hoping to use it here.” And Amzi should be able to use it here, because this is as much her country as it is mine and yours. While the arbitrary deadline for DACA renewals is just hours away, a DREAM Act that could help Amzi and many other undocumented youth is sitting in both the House and Senate right now. If it came to the floor, it could pass. There’s only one way to find out. Make a call today in support of Amzi and other Dreamers.