UC Merced DACA recipients unafraid to share their stories despite threatening rhetoric

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Esqueda

Hannah or undocumented students at the University of California, Merced, President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigration threats are used as increasingly strong motivation to speak up and share their story.

“For me, I think it goes back to that same night when the election [results] were announced and it was clear that [Donald Trump] was going to be president. I felt like it was just time for me to let other people know the stu [undocumented] people do even if we’re not from here and how the executive action from President Obama bene ted a lot of us,” said Leslie Renteria, a second-year sociology major at UC Merced. Born in Mexico, but raised in City Heights, San Diego, Renteria is one of more than 400 undocumented students at the campus, many of whom are recipients of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Enacted in 2012, the law grants removal protections for those who came into the country as juveniles. Though DACA does not provide lawful status it has opened the door for many young people to more easily nd work and attend school.

To apply individuals must pay a $465 fee, a cost that can quickly add up, especially for families with several children who qualify, said Francisco Ortiz.

A DACA recipient since his sophomore year in high school, Ortiz is now in his second-year of undergrad at UC Merced. Three of his siblings also have DACA, while two are natural-born citizens. His parents remain undocumented.

“The application part [of DACA] is very complicated so my mom and my dad hired a lawyer for us,” he said. “It took a toll on my parent’s nances but it was literally an opportunity that we could not a ord to miss.”

While the program is far from ideal, recipients like Ortiz and Renteria agree that DACA has opened the door to many learning opportunities that may otherwise have been out of reach.

“It kind of made me feel like for once I was part of the system,” Ortiz said. “Before that, I’ve always felt like an outsider because I’m undocumented, but for once I feel more included.”

Renteria agreed and said through DACA, she’s had the chance to conduct university-level research, get published and travel to Washington D.C. to speak with elected o cials.

Her experiences were summed up in a tweet last week in which she invoked the social media trend “#WithDACA” and pledged to continue ghting for her future even without the protection.

“I wanted to share my story and show that ‘OK, I’m here and this is what I’ve been doing’,” Renteria said.

Since emerging on social media platforms last week, #WithDACA has grown to include thousands of posts, encouraging young people throughout the country to open up and share their personal stories.

That level of visibility is good, Renteria said, as it can help educate others who may be uncertain of what exactly is at stake when the president-elect threatens to repeal DACA.

“I think a lot of people don’t really know what DACA is. People think that if the new president comes into play, he can’t really do anything about it but they don’t really understand the di erence between an executive order and the law,” she said. “Like [Trump] can literally just take that piece of paper and throw it in the trash and that will be it. It won’t mean anything anymore.”

Opponents say such action would be devastating to the nearly 800,000 people who currently bene t from the program, and many are already shying away from applying or renewing their paperwork out of fear their immigration information will be misused by government o cials in the future.

Legal aid and immigrant’s rights groups warn the application approval process can take up to eight months, meaning many who are applying for the rst-time or even renewing their application may not be approved in time before the president-elect takes o ce.

But while the threat of Trump repealing DACA is real, Renteria said she is nding comfort in the way UC o cials throughout the state have responded. Earlier this month UC President Janet Napolitano spoke out against the president-elect’s deportation threats and pledged continued support for undocumented students.

“It’s good to know that we have the UC system and even the [UC] president protecting us and making us feel safe at a place where we spend a majority of our time,” Renteria said. “In many of my classes too, the professors are having this conversation and bringing it up.”

Hearing from others who face the same uncertainty and can identify with the situation is a huge bene t, Ortiz said.

“I’m a multi-minority so I often feel like I work my ass o to beat all these stereotypes,” he said. “To come [to UC Merced] and see not just undocumented students but also how Latinos are among the most represented here, it’s easy to feel comfortable.”

The visibility of undocumented students on-campus has increased since Trump’s win, and Renteria said she’s seen new faces come forward and share their personal tales of being undocumented.

“We’ve had open-mic nights where more and more students are coming out and identifying as undocumented. It’s so important because there are freshmen out there who don’t know that there are people older than them in the same situation,” she said.

Hearing all the anti-immigration rhetoric has still left many within the campus community feeling shaken and Renteria said she’s heard a growing number of conversations between people about what these changes may mean.

“Just last week, I was sitting at a table and a random student came up to me and started venting to me. He is an immigrant from China and he told me that he was afraid and didn’t understand why Trump can do these things,” she said.

“I was like it’s ‘OK, I’m from Mexico. I feel the same way you’re feeling right now and it’s perfectly ne’,” Renteria continued. “I think he was a little surprised by how well I could relate to him.”

While such support at the UC-community level continues to inspire him, Ortiz said he still harbors doubts about how far that protection may go if DACA is repealed.

“It’s kind of scary because yes, they said that UC Merced is going to protect undocumented students, but what about our families? There’s people in our lives like siblings and parents, where if they leave, the students will leave with them,” he said.

“It’s just so disappointing because it’s something that’s helped so many people to not only contribute to America’s economy but also feel like we belong here,” he continued. “For once, we nally feel like we belong in America and now it’s being threatened all because of one person.”