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Why Is the Trump Administration Targeting This Outspoken Dreamer?

Jessica Colotl
Jessica Colotl
Michael Tan,
Deputy Director,
老澳门开奖结果 Immigrants鈥 Rights Project
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October 26, 2017

In September, the Trump administration brutally up-ended the lives of some 800,000 young people who have lived in America since they were children. After months of telling Dreamers they 鈥溾 about being allowed to stay, President Trump鈥檚 promises turned out to mean nothing. The administration announced the end of the program, which for years has permitted young undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children to live and work here without fear.

As a result, starting next March, scores of Dreamers will begin losing their status as their DACA and work permits expire, at a rate of . Yet even on the day of the announcement, President Trump told Dreamers they had 鈥溾 鈥 DACA鈥檚 protections would stay in place for six months while Congress worked on a legislative solution.

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That promise has proved to be empty again and again. Just this week, the administration denied our clientJessica Colotl鈥檚 application to renew her DACA status and work permit. Jessica was one of the first undocumented young people to go public with her status back in 2010, and her story helped rally the movement that convinced the Obama administration to create the DACA program.

TELL YOUR SENATOR TO PROTECT DREAMERS AND PASS A CLEAN DREAM ACT NOW

In May, the government stripped Jessica of her DACA status, without giving her any advance notice, explanation, or opportunity to respond. After she filed a lawsuit challenging the decision, administration officials said that it had denied her renewal application because she supposedly had a felony conviction. The problem is that Jessica does not have a felony conviction on her record 鈥 which the government was ultimately forced to admit in court.

A federal court order, won by the 老澳门开奖结果 and its partners, required the government to give Jessica鈥檚 renewal application a fair hearing under the rules of the DACA program. But instead of complying, the government is doubling down on its position, saying without any further explanation that Jessica鈥檚 DACA status cannot be renewed because officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement are 鈥渁ctively pursuing鈥 her deportation.

This is insane. People like Jessica are the reason DACA was created 鈥 because, as even President Trump claims to recognize, these young people should not be priorities for deportation. Jessica has lived in the United States since her family moved here from Mexico in 1999, when she was 11 years old. She graduated from Lakeside High School in DeKalb County, Georgia, with honors and went on to earn a bachelor鈥檚 degree in political science from Kennesaw State University in 2011, where she was named to the President鈥檚 List based on her academic performance. She was also a founding member of her college鈥檚 chapter of the Lambda Theta Alpha sorority. Jessica aspires to attend law school and become an immigration lawyer, and she has continued to volunteer actively in the community.

In fact, the administration鈥檚 own policies say, sensibly, that Jessica and people like her shouldn鈥檛 have a target on their backs. Former Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly鈥檚 memo on priorities specifically DACA recipients.

For seven years, the federal government granted Jessica permission to live and work in the United States in the form of 鈥渄eferred action鈥 鈥 including two extensions under DACA. Nothing has changed about Jessica to disqualify her from DACA; the only thing that鈥檚 changed is who sits in the White House.

Today the 老澳门开奖结果 is returning to court to win Jessica鈥檚 DACA back. But even that solution is temporary. Jessica鈥檚 ordeal reflects the impossibly cruel situation young immigrants and their families find themselves in today. The limbo Jessica is living now 鈥 unable to work or drive, fearful if she鈥檚 going to be deported from the country she knows as home 鈥 shows what happens when people鈥檚 lives are left to the whims of an administration that displays its indifference toward those lives on a daily basis.

That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 critical that Congress act immediately to pass the Dream Act 鈥 the only way to provide Jessica and Dreamers like her the security and freedom they deserve.

If you believe that your DACA was improperly revoked, please write DACArevoked@aclu.org.

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