For more than 20 years, undocumented youth have been the poster children of immigration reform. Now, they are questioning the narratives that got them here in the first place — and whom they left behind
in an effort to win over immigration skeptics. Undocumented children, Sen. Patrick Leahy said the following year from the floor, “are technically illegal in status, but the Supreme Court has determined that these children are not responsible for the actions of their parents … recognizing that we disserve ourselves when we discriminate against them.”
young immigrants from deportation and giving them work permits if they had come to the United States before they turned 16 and met other requirements. “It makes no sense to expel talented young people … who want to staff our labs, or start new businesses, or defend our country simply because of the actions of their parents — or because of the inaction of politicians,” the president said in a speech from the Rose Garden.
With the “Dreamer” narrative now a fixture of the immigration debate, Alonso Reyna Rivarola, above, helped to found the University of Utah’s Dream Center, a resource hub for undocumented students, in 2017. Reyna Rivarola says he considered the advantages the center’s name might have: “The reality is that people are going to donate to a Dream Center because it fulfills those desires and fantasies for who these innocent undocumented children are.” | Courtesy of Alonso Reyna Rivarola; Bilgin S.
reforms to help all undocumented people. Soon after Trump rescinded DACA in September 2017, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was swarmed by young people at a press conference in her home district protesting her negotiations with Trump over whether to enact protections for some Dreamers in exchange for a stricter deportation and border security regime. Pelosi tried to quell the activists: “For a long time, we’ve been fighting the fight for the Dreamers.
Several undocumented immigrants I spoke with said the movement has “grown up” in some ways, learning to build on small victories over time. After Trump rescinded DACA, Justice Action Center founder Karen Tumlin, a longtime immigration lawyer, represented DACA recipients in one of many cases fighting Trump’s rescission in the courts.
Even though Democrats have tried approaching Republicans about narrower, bipartisan efforts, Menendez suggested his party would likely have to pass immigration reform on its own. And it seems he has heard advocates’ concerns about perpetuating the Dreamer narrative. “When you talk to Dreamers, they will tell you, yes, they want to finally have their dream come true and have their status adjusted, but they don’t want to leave their parents behind,” Menendez said at the event.
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