Among the people anxiously watching election results trickle in Tuesday night was Luz Chavez in Gaithersburg, Maryland. While we all have a stake in who becomes the next president, it’s even higher for the 23-year-old Trinity Washington University student: both of her parents are undocumented, and she’s one of two children in her family protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“Every single policy put in place by folks that people elect into office directly impact my family, my community, and directly impact me,” Chavez told BuzzFeed News. “There's so much at stake here.”
Chavez’s family first shared their story in a digital ad from pro-immigrant group United We Dream Action (UWDA) PAC last month. Her little brother, 18-year old U.S. citizen Teddy, was set to cast a vote in an election for the very first time. Chavez told BuzzFeed News that the family was so excited, they prominently displayed his voter registration document like a photograph.
“My parents were so proud about him registering to vote,” she continued in the report. “Once he got his voter registration card, my dad laminated it, he put in a little frame, and when he went to go vote a couple of days ago, he actually came back with four ‘future voter’ stickers for my family.”
The family has depended on Teddy to be their voice amid so much uncertainty. Like he said in the UWDA PAC video last month, both of their parents lost their jobs amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, leaving Chavez as the sole person in the family bringing in an income. “I became the sole provider of my family overnight,” she told BuzzFeed News—and all while also trying to finish school, too.
But despite these hurdles, Chavez has been determined to fight for her family through her work with UWDA PAC and voting out impeached president Donald Trump. “[W]e have a president that has been so brutally racist, has been very demeaning toward immigrants, that has been on the track to dismantle DACA,” she continued.
Even though the Supreme Court this past summer ruled the Trump administration unlawfully ended the program, he’s defied the ruling simply because he didn’t like it. So instead of fully reinstating DACA like he’s under order to (something that would open the program to thousands of new applicants), his administration under unlawfully appointed acting Department of Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf is further decimating what currently stands. Just this week, a number of states filed legal action challenging his changes.
BuzzFeed News reports Chavez is “still optimistic” the work paid off, saying she’s “hopeful that the community won.” Should former Vice President Joe Biden emerge victorious—and it’s looking hopeful for us, folks—there are steps he can immediately take to protect the Chavez family, including fully reinstating the DACA program and removing the threat of deportation from her parents and all families everywhere.
In the meantime, they join the millions all across the country who put their heart and soul into this race and now hope for the best in a vote counting process that could take several days.
“Being with my family tonight, it's my healing,” Chavez told BuzzFeed News during election night. “It's my coping mechanism, being able to be with loved ones during times of hardship. Whatever outcome happens, we're still going to be here together, and we're gonna keep on fighting. My family won't stop until we're all protected.”