Commentary: In the summer of 2012, my life changed when President Barack Obama announced the DACA program. I felt as if I was being seen for the first time.
Opinion content—editorials, columns and guest commentaries—is created independent of news reporting and is exclusive to subscribers.Pro-DACA demonstrators march outside of the U.S. Capitol calling for a pathway to citizenship on Nov. 17, 2022, in Washington.
I was a Dreamer for many years, and this week marks the 11th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. I want to honor all of the young people like me who were given the opportunity to pursue their dreams thanks to this program and assure you that Democrats will continue to fight for you, for us, so that we can continue dreaming.
When I was 2 years old, my parents left their home in Guadalajara, Mexico, in pursuit of work and a brighter future for our little family in America. We moved to Chicago in November 1995. It was a brutal winter with unprecedented amounts of snow, but each day, we would walk to catch the early morning bus, with me bundled up inside my dad’s coat, so my parents could make it to work and save enough money to buy a car.
The United States was good to us. I learned English, my dad got a good union job with the Teamsters and my mom started a small business. Chicago became home, and so we stayed and looked toward the future.For a long time, it didn’t occur to me that being undocumented made me different. It really wasn’t until high school, when I wasn’t eligible to get a driver’s license at 16, that I started to understand what it meant.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Shedding equity: Housing slowdown leads to first annual drop in US homeowner equity since 2012For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier.
Read more »
Shedding equity: Housing slowdown leads to first annual drop in US homeowner equity since 2012For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier. Among the roughly 63% of U.S. homes with a mortgage, average homeowner equity per borrower was $274,070 in the first quarter, down 1.9% from the same quarter last year, according to real estate data tracker CoreLogic. The last time average homeowner equity fell year-over-year was in the first quarter of 2012, when the housing market was still regaining its footing after the mortgage meltdown and ensuing foreclosure crisis that helped trigger the Great Recession.
Read more »
DACA recipients face uncertain future as program enters 11th yearThe immigration protection program is associated with youth — but today, many of its 600,000 beneficiaries are not so young anymore.
Read more »
DACA court challenges leave hundreds of thousands of applicants outOn the 11th anniversary of DACA, court challenges have left out hundreds of thousands of eligible young applicants from enrolling in the Obama-era program.
Read more »
Lawmakers push bipartisan bill to give path to citizenship for 'Dreamers'On the 11th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a group of bipartisan lawmakers in the House relaunched efforts to provide a legal pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
Read more »
DACA turns 11: As White House calls for immigration reform, 'Dreamers' share their worriesThe Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is 11 years old, and some recipients are speaking out as their fate remains in limbo amid legal challenges.
Read more »