Campaign Action
Flight attendant Selene Saavedra Roman “was uneasy” when she saw that she was scheduled to work on an international flight. While her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status allows her to work legally, she’s not permitted to travel outside the U.S. She raised this concern to her supervisor, who “insisted that as a registered U.S. flight attendant, she would be safe.” With just a month on the job at Mesa Airlines, she was afraid of causing trouble, so she agreed. Her gut was right.
Still in her uniform, Saavedra Roman was detained after returning to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston last month and placed into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. She would remain there for six weeks before being released last week, following a number of news hits, a massive push from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, and widespread attention on social media.
It was her husband, David Watkins, who got the good news first. “She was crying and she said, ‘Please come get me. They are going to release me.” She went home on Friday. "Being released is an incredible feeling,” she said. “I cried and hugged my husband and never wanted to let go. I am thankful and grateful for the amazing people that came to fight for me, and it fills my heart. Thank you everyone that has supported. I am just so happy to have my freedom back."
But while the 28-year-old is now free, her nightmare is nowhere close to being over. Saavedra Roman has been in the process of adjusting her legal status through Watkins, a U.S. citizen. But due to her arrest, she could still face deportation despite having lived in the U.S. since she was just 3 years old. Her court date is set for next month.
A number of leading legislators, including several Democratic presidential candidates, have called on the Trump administration to reinstate a provision that allowed DACA recipients to travel internationally in some circumstances, saying that “denying DACA recipients an opportunity to travel internationally for study and work is detrimental not only to their personal and professional wellbeing.”
“As one extraordinary example of the harm of USCIS’ policy,” they continue, “Harvard student Jin Park—the first DACA recipient to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship—is being forced to contemplate leaving the U.S. to pursue an advanced degree at the University of Oxford in the U.K. with knowledge he likely cannot return upon competition of his studies.”
DACA protections are life-changing, but as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and advocates point out, what undocumented immigrant youth ultimately need are permanent protections that can’t be dismantled by any president and will allow young immigrants to live their lives in peace. Saavedra Roman’s future is uncertain even as Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Airlines CEO, said that the company is “deeply sorry” for the “administrative error” and “misunderstanding” that resulted in her arrest.
"This event highlights the urgency of commonsense immigration reform and resolution for America's children who are part of DACA,” said the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which gathered thousands of signatures in support of Saavedra Roman. “Our country is strong through our diversity. We are stronger together and better together." The new Dream and Promise Act could protect young immigrants like her. Call your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and ask them where they stand on this legislation.