Pero Why: Low DACA Application Numbers
Have you ever started working on something but then somehow you end up doing something completely different to what you were supposed to be doing? We were working on something that ultimately led us to facts about DACA numbers that really threw us off.
These facts were news to us:
There are up to 3.6 million Dreamers in the U.S., many of whom are ineligible for DACA due to not applying or aging into the program after new applications were halted.
Approximately 530,000 Dreamers – are currently protected under DACA.
Even at the height of DACA participation, only about 800,000 Dreamers were protected.
Are you as alarmed by these facts as we are? We started to think about reasons as to why, if eligible, someone wouldn’t take advantage of the opportunity of applying for DACA. Here are our thoughts:
Fear of Deportation
I don’t know if this is a thing for anyone else but I remember my parents always fearing our home address getting into the hands of la migra. I think this thought stems from the experiences my family and I experienced in Arizona, when SB1070 passed. Sheriff Joe Arpaio was tearing families apart and deporting people left and right. I remember my parents would say “no le digas a nadie en donde vivimos y nunca le abras la puerta a nadie.” There were even awareness campaigns on Univision with the mission to teach immigrant families what to do if a sheriff came knocking at your door asking for you or a family member. Some families had to go to the extent of using the home addresses of their friends and families who legally resided in the U.S. so that their children could be registered at a school. The norm was to NEVER use your own home address. I was so young but I still remember this.
Now, when DACA became available, a part of your application was giving your home address. My parents and I talked about this requirement and risk. I knew it was a concern for them to give away our home address. Doing so would basically mean telling ICE, “immigrants live here.” My parents, always selfless, were looking out for my future here (their sole purpose of coming to the states), said it was okay and encouraged me to apply. Never did I hear about their fear after that. However, when I moved out into my own place they told me they were relieved that my next DACA application would be with my new home address. That’s when it hit me, they never stopped fearing. They just didn't want to worry me about their own fears.
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The biggest obstacle when I decided to apply for DACA was absolutely fear. I feared that this was a scam or a way to separate me from the only person I had in the U.S., my mom. I was completing a government application with every detail of my personal life: address, birthplace, family dynamics, income, etc. My mom’s information had to be entered into my application, and the U.S. government now had a record of her too. Would they use this information against us? If this program suddenly ended, wouldn’t it make sense to deport the people who were gullible enough to apply? At the end of the day, for us, the benefits outweighed any potential risks of deportation. I was only exposing my mom, but what about the people that had multiple family members to think about? I can only imagine that their decision to apply was far more complex than my own.
Lack of Funds
When the DACA application became available I was still in high school. This meant that I had to rely on my parents to fund the money for the application. If it wasn’t for their sacrifice of providing the money for it, how else would I have applied? DACA recipients that were my age at that time needed the help of their parents.
On the other side, there were DACA eligible candidates that were grown adults and even had families of their own. Being undocumented means that you probably are not eligible to be hired and paid by a W2. This more than likely meant that many DACA eligible candidates were probably working jobs that immigrant families call “getting paid under the table”. Which oftentimes meant that they were not being paid fairly. How in the world were they supposed to come up with the $495? Mind you this was just the application fee. It did not include any lawyer fees that were highly advised during that time since the application was brand new and there was truly no room for error if you wanted to obtain a work permit.
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The next major obstacle that was forever present was the cost of the application process. The application itself was about $400 for a 2 year permit. This included the application the government needed and the cost of biometrics (fingerprints and your picture). However, there were additional costs that most people didn’t consider right away. The first time I applied my mom hired a lawyer. I was one of the first DACA cases they took on. They didn’t know how to price this new process. I recently talked to my mom about this and she explained that she spent additional money on document fees. She had to get certified original copies of so many documents, most of which were in Spanish and needed to be translated to English (more fees). She remembers spending close to $2000 in 2012 to complete this application. Who has $2000 sitting around for something like this? My mom was a single mother who had to work extremely hard to make it happen. Imagine if you are one of 3 siblings eligible for this application? Where do you get $6000 to cover the cost for everyone? The cost of the application is a huge obstacle.I remember meeting other eligible applicants but they didn’t have the funds to go through the process. Even now, the application fee has increased every year. Imagine having to budget and save to pay for your application only to have that goal increase on you year after year.
Resources
Resources have always been available to support people going through immigration processes, however, sometimes they are hard to find. It wasn’t until later that I found out that there was financial assistance to help people with the DACA application fee, lawyers that did work pro bono and organizations that assisted in other ways.
After working at one of these nonprofits that assisted families, I realized that many people in our communities fear reaching out. They are afraid of these organizations because they don’t want to disclose their immigration status or because they think they might get ripped off somehow.
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Another obstacle that was prevalent was the lack of education and/or support. I was blessed with a mother that acted quickly and guided me through every single step. Her confidence was a protective shield. It was impossible to let the fear, worry, and anxiety consume me. I realize that a lot of people don’t have that support. It’s hard to be vulnerable enough to ask for help. It doesn’t help that there were a lot of people targeting immigrant communities who were scammers or were giving false information. If you don’t know where to start, or who to go to for help you will likely end up paralyzed just watching things happen around you.
Granted this may not have been the case for everyone, and I have come to realize that for some, becoming a DACA recipient, may not have been something they cared about or wanted to do. It’s hard for me to imagine that there are people that aren’t affected by their legal status. Some people with the same legal status as me at that time could care less whether or not they are legally allowed to work, but I know that it happens. If there are people that were once passive and didn’t care about applying for DACA, and now want to go through the application process for the first time, they no longer can.
Final Thoughts
These are just three of the many reasons that came to mind when confronting the alarming numbers of DACA recipients. What we learned is that we have a responsibility to teach our communities about the opportunities that they have. We need to advocate for those that feel that they don’t have a voice. And most importantly we need to take advantage of the opportunities that are given to us. Together we can build our communities' confidence and knowledge and become stronger together. And we can start by increasing the number of eligible DACA recipients.
Resource: https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-on-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca/