DACA a success for young immigrants

Published: November 26, 2014

Catholic Charities of Arkansas

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals process, targeting young immigrants living illegally in the United States, has been a great success, Maricella Garcia, Catholic Immigration Services Little Rock director, said.

Catholic Immigration Services Little Rock provides low-cost immigration legal services and support to families and individuals who are eligible for immigration benefits, but who otherwise are unable to afford private representation because of the high cost. Its mission is to aid people in clarifying their legal status in the United States, and thereby to alleviate the problems of family separation, economic victimization and social isolation.

One particular process, often called DACA, helps qualified young people to be able to work, go to college and give back to their communities. This initiative was announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012, and began to be implemented only two months later.

“We are now two years into the program and many of those who first applied in 2012 are now eligible to reapply to extend their DACA,” Garcia said.

“As DACA shows, if given the opportunity, those people who are stuck in the shadows would willingly come forward and enhance our communities.” Maricella Garcia, Catholic Immigration Services Little Rock director

DACA is intended to allow some young people to remain in the United States provided that they meet certain criteria. In order to qualify for the DACA program, applicants must be between 15 and 30 years old, be in school, graduated from high school or obtained a GED, came to the United States prior to age 16, have been continuously residing in the United States since at least June 15, 2007, and must pass a criminal background check.

Garcia said the program has been an unqualified success in Arkansas. In many states only a relatively small percentage of the eligible population has applied.

However, in Arkansas, there were an estimated 5,000 people potentially eligible to apply under the DACA program. According to the most recent statistics from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as of June 2014 they have accepted 4,580 applications from Arkansas, roughly 92 percent of the eligible population. Of those applications, 3,878 cases have already been approved, which is 78 percent of the eligible population.

Many of Catholic Immigration Services clients have graduated from high school and have been able to go to college. Many students are studying for various fields in schools throughout Arkansas. One client received a scholarship to Harvard where he is now studying chemistry. He hopes to become a cardiologist one day.

Sandra Carmona Garcia is a prime example of the success of DACA. Garcia came to the U.S. as a young girl and has grown up as an Arkansan. She applied for DACA in 2012 and was approved. Sandra has more than 50 cousins and many of them dropped out after elementary or middle school, but she always knew she wanted more. She became the first person in her family to attend college when she was accepted to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she is now a sophomore.

This October, at the League of United Latin American Citizens scholarship banquet she won both a scholarship from LULAC and was presented with the Clinton Presidential Center jacket as the winner of the first Clinton Foundation Scholarship Award.

DACA clients are grateful for the opportunity to have the opportunity to achieve their dreams, Maricella Garcia said.

“Having DACA has allowed me the opportunity of a better education,” Sandra said. “It has given me the opportunity to work so that I can invest in a better future for myself and those around me. Most importantly, it has taken me out of the shadows because it has allowed me to do simple but important things like get a driver’s license and an identification card that shows I am actually someone in this country. I no longer have to live in fear of being deported to a country that I do not know.”

Director Garcia said it’s important to remember that DACA does not confer lawful status upon an individual or provide a path toward citizenship. Instead, it simply allows certain qualified individuals who meet strict standards to receive a work permit and remain in the U.S. for as long as the program is in effect.

If DACA were to go away, these young people would find themselves once again in the shadows, director Garcia said.

“Immigration reform is a contentious and controversial issue these days, but true reform is needed to repair what is an irreparably broken immigration system,” she said. “As DACA shows, if given the opportunity, those people who are stuck in the shadows would willingly come forward and enhance our communities.”

This report was supplied by Catholic Charities of Arkansas.