BY: ARACELI MARTÍNEZ ORTEGA, La Opinión ~ FEB. 3, 2019
Sheila Salinas, beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program since 2012, raised her voice to ask Congressman Jimmy Gómez for his support so that permits are reinstated and they can travel abroad and re-enter the country, what is known as Advance Parole .
«Since President Trump canceled DACA in September of 2017, they were suspended,» Sheila told the congressman during a meeting with leaders of organizations advocating for immigrants in Los Angeles.
She works for Altamed in the Government Relations Department. She studied a master’s degree in public administration at Cal State Long Beach and awaits a response from the University of Southern California (USC) to do a doctorate in gerontology.
» Not being able to travel outside the country affects us when we need to do a semester or participate in an academic activity abroad, » she explains.
The impact is also felt when, due to labor issues, they need to travel abroad. » Not having the advance parole, prevents us from growing and opening more professional doors,» she says.
But it also affects those Dreamers whose parents and relatives live in other countries and are seriously ill. «You cannot go see them,» says Sheila.
From January 14 to 18, at least 20 dreamers from different states traveled to Washington, DC to launch a campaign to reestablish Advance Parole for the DACA program.
«We succeeded because we collected almost 30 signatures of congress members, in addition to the 14 that were already in the letter sent on December 11, 2018 Secretary of the Department of National Security Kirstjen Nielsen, in which she was asked to restore the authorization for the Advance Parole», affirms Professor Armando Vázquez-Ramos, president of the California-Mexico Studies Center, Inc., and who leads the efforts to reactivate permits to travel abroad for Dreamers.
Since 2014, he has organized travel-study trips to Mexico. » We have taken five groups of 35 students from up to 25 universities, » he says.
It is worth mentioning that Congressman Jimmy Gómez and many other Latino legislators are not included among the signatories.
He added that they are satisfied because they accomplished to start the campaign and have the second round ready to return to Washington in early April and get more support from national organizations and legislators and educate them on the issue.
«The most important objective of the next DC trip is to schedule a hearing in Congress exclusively on the subject, and we want the Secretary Nielsen to be summoned to listen to the moving testimonies of the Dreamers and to continue fighting for our educational program,» he says.
«This is the first time that a national effort has been made to advocate to restore DACA’s Advance Parole, which does not harm anyone. Its elimination is racist and discriminatory. Not allowing it has a very profound humanitarian impact. It is a real tragedy «, considers Professor Vázquez-Ramos.
In January of last year, Mayra Garibo’s father died in an accident in Mazatlán, Mexico. Luis Tinoco’s grandfather lost his life in December 2018 in Guanajuato. Karina lost her grandmother three months ago. None of these three young DACA beneficiaries could visit their family and heal their loss due to the arbitrary decision by the Department of Homeland Security to deny all Advance Parole applications to DACA beneficiaries.
«I could not say goodbye to my father. I tried to get a humanitarian Advance Parole permit, but unfortunately they denied me because of the elimination of DACA», testified Mayra Garibo during their visit to Washington, DC, in January.
Because the Supreme Court decided not to rule on the Trump administration’s appeal to eliminate DACA, the program will continue until mid-2020. Therefore, Professor Vázquez points out that DHS must grant Advance Parole permits to Dreamers to have the opportunity to travel for humanitarian, educational or work reasons. For the second stage of the campaign, they seek to raise $25,000 to cover the travel expenses of 50 Dreamers from all over the country to converge at Washington, DC in the spring. The California-Mexico Studies Center needs to raise at least $500 to cover transportation, lodging and food for each participant in the trip.
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