Tennessee DACA Recipients Face Deportation

Tennessee has 8,300 people who came to this country before they were 16 years old, and they have been able to apply for driver’s licenses and social security numbers, and to work without the fear of getting deported because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Many came to this country while in elementary school.

DACA, an Obama policy implemented in 2012, allowed children of undocumented immigrants to apply through the federal government for temporary work permits and relief from deportation.

But U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the federal government would rescind DACA. The decision was spurred by 10 states’ attorneys general sending a letter threatening to file a lawsuit against the federal government after Sept. 5 if it did not end the program.

Sessions called those affected “mostly adult” immigrants, but a recent survey from the Center for American Progress and the National Immigration Law Center says most are younger than 25.

While saying that DACA recipients were not “bad people,” Sessions stated in his announcement that the American people have “rightly rejected” DACA — which is not entirely true. He also chose to call undocumented immigrants “illegal aliens.”

In spite of going for Trump in the presidential election, Tennessee has been somewhat ambivalent about DACA. In late June, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery signed onto the letter indicating he would sue if the program didn’t end, but he pulled back on Sept. 1, saying he would prefer to see Congress work to find a solution rather than pursuing litigation.

DACA’s harshest critics have fought against the program since its inception. Among them is U.S. Rep. Diane Black, a Tennessee Republican who has called the policy a “back-door amnesty” program. Black, notably, is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2018.

“We need to be smart and we need to be strong in our immigration policies, and action is better left to Congress,” Black tells the Scene via email. “Any legislation regarding immigration must start with securing our border and building the wall, as I've worked for in Congress and President Trump has advocated for. Whatever decision the President makes on DACA, I know it will reflect his commitment to putting America first."

The action taken by the Trump administration shifts the focus back to Congress, and Nashville Democrats like Mayor Megan Barry and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper are urging the body of legislators to pass a law that would protect DACA recipients. The bipartisan DREAM Act, which contained many DACA provisions. failed to clear a Senate filibuster in 2010.

“These young people are innocent,” Cooper says in an email to the Scene. “Their lack of paperwork is not their fault, so they should not be punished. They’ve committed to obeying our laws, working hard, getting an education and, if they choose, even serving in our military. President Trump once pledged a compassionate approach to these Dreamers, so ending DACA would be another of his broken promises.”

Barry said slamming the door on hundreds of thousands of young people is “heartbreaking.”

“Many of these children and young adults who are DACA recipients have only ever known the United States as their home,” Barry says in a statement. “They deserve the chance to gain an education, earn a living, and continue contributing to our community without fear or threat of deportation.”

Cesar Rodriguez, for example, has a degree in mechanical engineering from Lipscomb University and currently works in his field in the Middle Tennessee area.

“[DACA] has allowed me to buy my family a house here in Nashville,” the 24-year-old Rodriguez says. “I was the first in my family to graduate from college, and because of that, a lot of my family members see me as an example of how hard work does pay off. … I would rather continue to support the country and the state where I’ve grown up, rather than go somewhere else where I’ve never had roots.”

Cesar Bautista, 28, also just purchased his first home. He was 7 when he came to Middle Tennessee with his parents. He’s worked for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition for three years as a youth organizer.

“Coming up through high school when DACA was not a policy, so many undocumented kids I knew just decided that even their high school degree wasn’t important,” Bautista says. “It’s a shame, because really smart kids lost out on an education and new opportunities when they didn’t have a choice in whether and how they’d come to the United States. In the past few years, those of us who’ve been able to apply for DACA have used that opportunity to better ourselves and our community, and this country can’t afford to lose those contributions.”

Dulce Castro, 18, was just 6 when she arrived to the United States with her parents. Unsure of the DACA program at first, Castro and her family waited until others successfully applied before giving the process a shot. Castro received a full scholarship, and this semester she started at Cumberland University. She's on track to earn a nursing degree. She began her adult life with the advantages that came with the DACA program.

“I never dreamed growing up that this is what I’d be able to do,” Castro says, stopping every few seconds to keep herself from crying. “My parents wanted a better life for us, and I’ve worked so hard to be able to earn this scholarship and these opportunities. It’s the kind of story anybody would and should be proud to tell.”

Like these three local DACA recipients — all of them now at risk for deportation — many people who’ve been able to stay in the United States under the program are educated and gainfully employed. According to the survey from the Center for American Progress and the National Immigration Law Center, nearly 95 percent of of DACA recipients are employed or in college. The same survey says DACA allowed 63 percent of its recipients to get jobs with better pay, 49 percent of recipients to get a job closer to their education and training, and 48 percent to improve their overall working conditions.

This is the greatest fear pushed by critics of the program — that somehow, people born in the U.S. are losing jobs because immigrants are taking their jobs. In Sessions’ announcement to end DACA, he called the move a compassionate one that would ensure “native born” Americans had more job opportunities — a dog-whistle that enforces the belief that immigrants are stealing something from white Americans. If Congress doesn’t pass legislation, Sessions said, the program will end in six months. In his comments, he signaled that the administration thought ending the program would improve the lives of Trump’s biggest supporters.

“It will further economically the lives of millions who are struggling,” Sessions said in the announcement. “And it will enable our country to more effectively teach new immigrants about our system of government and assimilate them to the cultural understandings that support it.”