It’s been almost six months since the last time I saw my father. On November 2022, he left behind Los Angeles and returned to his home in Queretaro, Mexico. After 17 years of being in the United States without papers, my dad decided it was time to go back to Mexico and reunite with his family.
Tag: DACA
Posted inUncategorized
As A DACA beneficiary, I’ve waited for this trip to Mexico all my life
De Los Santos is the host of a new LAist Studios podcast, How To L.A. He says: “It’s a dream job for this city boy. I get to help Angelenos discover, explore, affect change and connect with our beautiful — yet complicated — city. I don’t have all the answers, but let’s find them together.”
Posted inEquity
SHARET GARCIA, mentoring and training Latino ‘undocuprofessionals’
In 2020, Sharet Garcia launched Undocuprofessionals, a free online mentorship program that connects undocumented mentees with undocumented mentors that have professional careers. Alongside the mentorship program, Garcia uses Instagram to provide information about undocumented opportunities and news nationwide. “I wanted to give back to my community, I knew if I started a platform like this, it would push me to work harder as well,” said Garcia. Garcia, 37, is an undocumented advocate, who became a single mother and head of the household in 2020.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: U.S. Senators introduce DACA bill
The Dream Act of 2023 is just the latest alliteration and has been introduced in the last three sessions of Congress, but similar versions have been introduced – and at one point even passed the U.S. House of Representatives only to never see the light of day in the upper chamber. And while some legislators might say the ninth time’s a charm, others aren’t so convinced, in part because even supporters of granting permanent legal status to DREAMers and others seeking a path to U.S. citizenship complain that legislators constantly use DREAMers in particular as a pawn for greater security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Posted inImmigration
Financial aid access has worsened for California’s undocumented students
The struggle for financial aid has intensified for undocumented students in California, making it even harder for them to access higher education. Learn about the challenges these students face and the potential consequences for their future.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Congress wraps with no action on farm workers or DACA
The massive $1.7 trillion – trillion with a T – bill of which the farmworkers and DREAMers legislation would have been a part of includes a funding boost for the U.S. Border Patrol, which is in line to hire several hundred new agents for what the agency says is an expected influx at the U.S.-Mexico border if Title 42 ends.
Posted inImmigration
COLUMN: My undocumented father went back to Mexico, making holidays so hard
It has been a little more than a month since I had to say my goodbyes to my father, who left the United States for his hometown in Queretaro, Mexico. The last time I hugged him was on a late-November evening as he entered my cousin’s truck, the car that would take him to the Tijuana airport. “God bless you mija, take care of yourself, and do not be eating too much salt,” he told me as he was getting ready to board the truck. I held his hand and told him not to worry about me. He gave me his blessing and told me that he loved me. What followed was the longest hug I have ever received in my life.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: CA Congressman Pete Aguilar elected Democratic Caucus Chair
Pete Aguilar moves up from the vice chair position to become the third-most powerful Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. “It’s not lost on me what my election means for my community, for the Latino community,” Aguilar said last week at a gathering of House Democrats. “Being a kid from San Bernardino, having an opportunity to guide this caucus is a great responsibility and I don’t take it lightly.”
Posted inCollege
COMMENTARY: My journey as an undocumented college student
The government needs to understand it is not meeting me and other DACA recipients halfway by fully recognizing me with a pathway to citizenship when I have sprinted a marathon for this country. I have a work permit but no permanent status. Will my career be limited?