College students, Rep. Norma Torres gather at Cal Poly Pomona to talk about immigration solutions for DACA recipients
POMONA >> They gathered Thursday at Cal Poly Pomona to talk about topics such as immigration-related legislation and what it's like to be a college student without proper immigration documentation.
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Ontario, and a group of more than 30 students from Cal Poly Pomona, Mt. San Antonio College and Chaffey College took part in a question and answer session. Students asked questions related to Congress and its efforts to address students who came to the country without proper immigration paperwork as children but who were able to remain in the country legally through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. The Trump administration has called for winding down the program but gave Congress until March 5 to pass legislation that would protect them from deportation.
In her opening remarks, Torres explained how she came to the U.S. as a 5-year-old from Guatemala and went on to become a naturalized citizen. But when she arrived in the 1970s, it "was a very different time," Torres said, and it didn't take years to obtain the necessary immigration documents.
Torres said polls show people want young people with DACA to be allowed to remain in the country.
"Your community is standing with you," Torres said, and she and others are "pushing for a federal relief package that will give you a pathway to citizenship."
During the question and answer session, students presented questions that included what some of them could do to be more effective in getting the message out to Republicans about the needs of DACA recipients while others had questions related to veterans who found themselves deported.
Other questions, such as Diana Escamilla's, involved proposed legislation. Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are relying on the use of continuing resolutions, a type of legislation tied to the funding of federal departments and programs, she said.
Escamilla, a 2017 Cal Poly Pomona graduate who is active with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, and its California Dream Network, wanted to know what other options are available for Democrats to work with.
Torres said, for now, it's the only approach available, but one that has worked to get Republican support for other much-needed programs.
Escamilla said several bills have been introduced attempting to address the situation of those who were brought into the country illegally as children. The best of the proposed legislation is the USA Act of 2018, co-authored by the Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino. Escamilla asked Torres to sign on to the bill.
"I will probably vote for that, but I'm not going to sign on," Torres said, adding the bill includes provisions for a border wall. Escamilla said the matter would have to be addressed in Congressional committees.
Torres said the bill is the best that has been drafted up to this point and could be approved by the House of Representatives. However, more can still be done, but it can take time to get a better proposal.
She pointed to California legislation that led to undocumented immigrants being able to apply for driver licenses, she said. That took time, as well as having elected officials get voted in who supported such legislation.
After the session, Escamilla said Torres' willingness to study all proposals is "not good enough."
Torres said, after the session, she and other Democrats can sign on to the Aguilar's legislation but that can be counterproductive.
"If all of us do that, the Republicans will walk away," she said. And Republican support is needed to get legislation adopted that will allow DACA recipients to remain in the country legally.
The 800,000 young people who qualified for DACA "grew up here, they played Little League with our kids," Torres said. "We know who they are."
So it makes sense to pass legislation that makes it possible for them to address their immigration situation, she said.
"But common sense doesn't exist in Congress," she said.
Aguilar's legislation would require having a barrier at the border that would cost about $30 billion, Torres said.
However, a spokesman for Congressman Aguilar's office said that is not the case.
Aguilar's proposal "neither authorizes nor appropriates funds for a barrier," said Parker Dorrough, spokesman with the congressman's office.
The proposed bill contains language stating that if it were approved, officials with the Department of Homeland Security would have until 2020 to draft a report with a strategy for addressing security at the southern border. The report would have to justify the use of a physical barrier, and Congress would determine if it wanted to provide funding for it, he said.
Aguilar's proposal is "not necessarily a bad thing," Torres said, adding that funding for a barrier or border wall would take funds away for other necessary projects including infrastructure projects such as road and bridge improvements.
Torres said something has to be done to assist those with DACA and then focus on a broader immigration reform affecting 11 million people, she said.
She said the stories students told her are ones she will take back with her to Washington, D.C., to share them with other lawmakers.
Miriam Juan is an applied math student at Cal Poly who shared her story. She plans to graduate this year and has encountered struggles in school and out of school tied to her lack of immigration documents. But she wanted Torres to know something else.
"I think a lot of politicians focus on how we are going to contribute to the economy," she said.
Juan will contribute to the economy and the community, she said, but politicians must see people like herself in a different way.
"See me as a person struggling with family and school," she said. "I'm a person, I'm a human being."
Juan said she came as a child to the United States, and even though she learned at an early age that she was undocumented, she didn't have a grasp of what that truly meant until high school. That, combined with her family's conservative approach to many situations, meant she wasn't always aware of opportunities open to her that would have better prepared her for college.
Yet Juan, who aspires to be a researcher, said students like her have excelled academically, gone on to be valedictorians and earn recognition for their work but remain an oddity in the eyes of many people.
"It's like were some kind of unicorn," she said, after the session.
And even though they work hard and are involved in the community, they can't have what others have and that is to "be seen as a person who has a right to have peace of mind," she said.
Cal Poly President Soraya Coley said having the session "reinforces the message to our students that there are people who care about them."
Not only do they care, but they sympathize with them and the fears and anxieties they are living with, she said.
Having the students and Torres meet allowed them to hear from her what is taking place in Congress, to assist them, but also allow Torres to see the faces of those experiencing the difficulties.
Source: Monica Rodriguez, Daily Bulletin