Campaign Action
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient Jose Munoz tells the website them. that the program has truly been life-changing. “I’ve been able to get a job, finish college, and get on planes to visit friends and family all over the U.S.,” he said. “This may sound standard to many people, but getting on a plane anywhere is almost impossible to do without proper identification.”
But Munoz may also lose the ability to do many of the things that help keep his daily life stable, due to the uncertain future of DACA. While courts have partially resurrected the program, the Trump administration has gone to an anti-immigrant judge in Texas to kill it once and for all—and their effort may be successful. “As of the writing of this piece,” Munoz said, “there are 206 days left until I find myself without a job and with an expired driver’s license.”
To deport young immigrants like Munoz, who have known no other country but this one as their home, would be a travesty. “I have an established life in the U.S. If I were to leave, I wouldn’t be able to return—not even to visit—for at least 10 years,” he said. “Not to mention, I only lived in Mexico for the first three months of my life. I’m not familiar with the country at all, and I’m not fluent in Spanish.”
But it’s also so much more personal than work permits and driver’s licenses. Munoz is one of the estimated 36,000 DACA recipients who identify as LGBTQ, and for many, deportation could quite literally mean death. Others could be forced to go underground at risk of their livelihoods, homes, and families. “LGBT people of color are more likely to live in poverty compared with their non-LGBT peers,” reported Sharita Gruberg of the Center for American Progress, “and “DACA helped LGBT young people improve their economic security and meet their education goals.”
While DACA still stands and eligible youth should apply, its future is unknown. “The experiences DACA has allowed me to have over the past few years have been beautiful,” he continued. “Now that I’m asked to give back that freedom—freedoms most Americans take for granted—going back to life without DACA seems exponentially harder.” Munoz and hundreds of thousands of other Americans-in-waiting shouldn’t have to live their lives like this. They deserve permanent protections now. If the current Congress won’t do that, it’s time for a new one that will.