October 5, 2023 • 23 mins
DACA only extended protection to a little under a million people, leaving out millions for reasons of age, felony status or just plain bad luck. After the Obama administration kept hearing concerns about all those people that were left out of the program, President Barack Obama is being pressured to do something especially for the parents of the Dreamers.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lisa Martinez Rosas is standing in the security line at
the airport in a border town. She an undocumented immigrant,
so she's understandably nervous, but she has her doga card
with her. It'll be fine, she reminds herself. An IE
agent glances at her, so she looks away. When she
(00:34):
looks again, he's walking directly toward her. Her body goes stiff,
and she grips her DOCA card in her pocket, hoping
he's walking towards someone else. Excuse me, ma'am, the agent says.
(00:55):
She pretends to ignore him. He taps her shoulder and said,
can I see your identification? Like a reflex, she immediately
pulls out her card and hands it to him. He
takes a look, scanning it, darting his eyes between it
and her. Oh, he says, like he's realizing something. You're
(01:22):
a criminal. You need to come with us. This was
gray SA's worst nightmare, especially now that Donald Trump is
in office, and she was living it. She was detained
for eight hours. Her mind was racing, thinking about everything
(01:44):
that could go wrong, but then instinctially, her training kicked in.
This might be gray SA's first time being detained, but
she was familiar with this song and dance. You see,
Gray Sa' is an active and she knew how to
fucking tango. She spent the better part of her youth
(02:05):
organizing on behalf of undocumented immigrants, building their cases to
prevent removal proceedings. A sense of calm washes over her.
She knew that she had a team. She knew that
the organization she worked with, United We Dream had her back.
She'd be out of no time. They'd go to the
(02:26):
ends of the earth to ensure her release, and if not,
she'd go back to Mexico, hug her family and perhaps
become an organizer there. Or maybe she'll start a new life,
maybe in Canada as an undocumented immigrant that was just attained.
She was oddly zen about it all. This was all
(02:47):
part of her coaching as an organizer. Social movements, after all,
start from within. In the midst of this strange moment
of mental clarity, she starts singing Amazing Grace, How sweet
the sound. Even the border agents were confused. She was
(03:18):
eventually let go, just like she knew she would be.
She faced her deepest fear head on with calm and
a little bit of harmony.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This is Out of the Shadows a podcast about America's
tangled history of immigration.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Rodriguez I America Lindo.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Last season, we tackled Ronald Reagan's nineteen eighty six Amnesty Act.
This season, we're tracing the origins of DACA, or Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals, a contentious executive order to protect
undocumented young people from being deported.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Issued by former President Barack Obama in twenty twelve. DACA
was meant to be a temporary stop gap on a
broken immigration system. It was like putting a bucket under
a leaky roof, But with multiple Supreme Court challenges and
looming presidential elections, the roof feels like it may collapse
at any moment, impacting the US economy and American culture
(04:41):
as we know it. Meanwhile, the future of millions of
lives hangs in the balance.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Welcome to Out of the Shadows Dreamers. DACA only extended
protection to a little under a million people, leaving out
(05:09):
millions for reasons of age, felony status, or just plain
bad luck. After the Obama administration kept hearing concerns about
all the people that were left out of the program,
the president had to do something. The biggest concern was
for the parents of Dreamers and DACCA recipients. Organizers demanded
(05:31):
that the president extend protection to them. Two years after
issuing DACA, there was a spark of hope. In twenty fourteen,
a few days after the midterm elections, President Obama announced
an expansion of deportation protection for undocumented immigrants, later known
as DAPPA or the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans.
(05:54):
An estimated five million could qualify for this new protection.
But here's the video of that speech from the White
House's archives, where Obama reminds the public that undocumented immigrants
broke the law.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Now here's the thing. We expect people who live in
this country to play by the rules. We expect that
those who cut the line will not be unfairly rewarded.
So we're going to offer the following deal.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Lupita Riola recalls the day Obama made the announcement. She
tuned in with a lot of her friends and they
all watched, hoping, as a parent of a Dreamer for
some good news.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Mio mbids perandokes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Lupito was excited at the prospect that she'd be able
to qualify for protection, but Her excitement was short lived
as she kept watching.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
If you've been in America for more than five years,
if you have children who are American citizens or legal residents,
if you register, pass a criminal background check, and you're
willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you'll be
able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without
fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows
(07:21):
and get right with the law. That's what this deal is.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Who cannot la.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Like the previous executive decision, DAPPA would defer deportation and
granted work permit for three years, but not to the
parents of Dreamers, only to those parents of American citizens
or permanent residence. When Obama said no protections for people
like her, Lupita says they started crying thinking about what
(08:14):
could have been another example of the constant moving goalpost
in the American immigration machine. When we come back more
on DAPA.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
At the top of the show, we told you about Graisa.
She's the doctor recipient I was detained by ICE together
with United we dreamed Gaysa actually had a direct hand
in getting DAPA to Obama's desk.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
DAPA was the first campaign that I ever led it's
like the campaign that was the campaign of my dreams.
I was the director of the campaign in the field,
organizer for it, and it was this idea that like,
if we had just went DACA and we've seen like
how beneficial it was for ourselves in our community, like
we should also expand that to our families, because they
are the original dreamers, as we talked about.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Greisa was part of a mixed status family. She was
born in the Mexican state of Iago, the oldest of
four sisters, to Elia Rossas and Luis Martinez. When she
was just seven years old, her parents brought the family
to Dallas to pursue better futures for their daughters.
Speaker 7 (09:48):
I still remember crossing the border and we had to
cross the Rio Grande, and I remember what it felt like,
how cold the water was and how scary it was.
But you know, my parents told me that on the
other side was safety opportunity. So we made that we
held hands tight, and we made it to the other side.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And the investment in Graysa's prospects looked bright. In high school,
she led walkouts to raise awareness for undocumented immigrants. She
became a community activist, fighting for people like her parents,
like herself and her three younger sisters. At Texas A
and M, where she went to college, Gadisa founded the
first undocumented student group on campus. After college, she rose
(10:31):
through the world of grassroots activism to lead the immigrant
rights advocacy group United We Dream, where as a dreamer herself,
she helped pave the way for DAPPA. The future was
promising for Graysa and her family. Her work on DAPPA
was like a form of repayment to her mom for
(10:52):
all her struggle. If DAPPA was successful, her mom would
be eligible to receive deferred action. It was unbelievable to
see it come to life.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
I was on cloud nine.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
I remember calling my mom that day and she started
making plans about the business and she was going to
open and the house that she was going to buy.
I remember, we had learned so much about implementing DACA.
We'd implemented DACA to ensure that millions of undocumented young
people and their families had access to the applications, and
(11:31):
so we knew exactly what to do because we had
just done it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
While Obama made certain strides to address immigration, his administration
ramped up RAID campaigns in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen
in response to a huge surge of immigrants from Central America.
It was a hard time for people who had benefited
from some of Obama's policies but who saw how their
community was being impacted by the raids.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
I had a lot of things to say about that moment,
and I remember being called to the White House to
just process with people that had been supportive of us
in that space. And as we were going into the
White House, all of a sudden, I found myself sitting
across the table from President Obama.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Imagine sitting across from the guy who's at the head
of all of this DACA now DAPPA, but also at
this time is deporting a shitload of people. That's where
Todaysa found herself right across from Obama, and she wasn't happy.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
He saw how.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Devastated we were.
Speaker 7 (12:46):
And the only thing that I could think of in
that moment was to say, you know, we're going to
do our work to build political power to protect our
people and to have more wins like this that cannot
be pushed back by lawsuits. But like you missed, President,
need to stop these raids.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
And I was like, the most shaking thing that I've
ever die like.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
It was the most scary, scariest moment in my life
at that point. But he heard me, and he understood,
and you know, I was a reflection of the work
that United Region has been doing for more than a
decade now of stopping deportations and releasing people from the
tension and ensuring that we're using our power and our
voice and our privilege.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Another organizer he met with was Lupita's daughter, activist Erica Andiola,
who also aired out her frustrations with his administration's constant
raids and the New programs shortcomings, and Erica wasn't exactly
polite when she encountered the president. Lubita says she and
(14:03):
Erica met with Obama and Miami, and Erica was bold, rude,
even challenging the President on Life TV, demanding to know
what would happen to her mom Lupita now that she
didn't qualify for DAPA protection. When Erica's mad, Lupita says
she might even cuss out the president.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Programmatas President.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Lubita says that when it was all over, Erica was
still pissed and didn't want to shake Obama's hand. So
when the President extended his hand to Erica gave him
the cold shoulder, but Lubita elbowed her and reminded her
of her manners, and Erica took his handshake begrudgingly. For
(15:06):
the administration, these moments served as a reminder that issuing
DACA and now DAPPA are both double edged swords for
the undocumented community. These executive orders didn't go far enough,
and since Obama acted unilaterally when he issued the DAPPA
expansion program, conservatives thought Obama was going too far and
(15:29):
they worked quickly to strike it down. Here's ASA again.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
And then we saw the Republicans and they filed their
lawsuit against the program, and it just was a stand still.
And that's when we first learned to fight through the
courts at United Redream and so we put out like
a big campaign to defend the DAPPA program in at
(15:57):
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Texas among other states, quickly challenged DAPA in the courts,
claiming that it violated the Constitution. A year later, in
twenty fifteen, DAPPA was blocked while the suit continued. Then
in twenty sixteen, in a split four or four court decision,
the block remained.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Today all right.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
Solicer General's standard ext to me argued the case strongly
for the rule of law.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Crowds of organizers showed up to protest the decision. One
reporter asked the Texas Attorney General if you wish the
protesters showed up on behalf of them. He smugly answers,
we're here.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Defending the constitution, and so whether we have people out
here or not is not relevant.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Seeing DAPPA stricken down was a huge blow for Graysa
who had to watch all her work being torn down
by the courts.
Speaker 7 (17:00):
Unfortunately, our Republicans won. I still remember the day of
the decision, being outside of the Supreme Court and hearing
the news of the outcome of the case and calling
my mom and how sad she was and crying with
her on the phone. It was also at the same
(17:22):
time where during the Obama administration there were mass rates
happening across the US.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Then, at the end of twenty sixteen, Donald Trump gets elected,
sending a collective chill down every immigrant spine. Docca's future
was immediately called into question. Trump had run on a
platform of anti immigration, but confusingly sent mixed messages about DOCA.
(17:57):
This is how Luis Cortes rometto, a lawyer and DACA beneficiary,
remembers it.
Speaker 8 (18:03):
So that was right when President Trump was inaugurated, and
you know, we were all trying to see what he
was going to do, because he said a lot of
really anti immigrant things, but then he was going back
and forth on DACA. He kept saying, you know, I'm
going to treat dreamers with heart. I remember that selling,
which he used because I was like, that's weird for
him to say. We were trying to see what was up,
but people still felt some type of way.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Aline Ronnie, author of Crossing Borders, was astounded by the
manipulative way Trump used immigration.
Speaker 9 (18:34):
I think President Trump's willingness to weaponize DACA just really
mess with lives of hundreds of thousands of young people
was probably it was probably the second ugliest thing that
he did in the context of immigration. The ugliest thing
is the cold hearted ruthlessness of separating families at the border. Right,
(18:54):
that's far and away the worst thing. But the time
and time again used DOCA recipients as some sort of
a a chip to be played in a poker game.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It was really really disgusting, even celebrated legendary journalists. Maria
Ina Jsa was uncertain about how things would play out
with Trump in office.
Speaker 10 (19:13):
I try not to be afraid of anything, really, but
I was very clear that during the time that Donald
Trump was president that at any time there could be
a knock at my door.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
In the first few months of Trump's tenure, in twenty seventeen,
his Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly, formally rescinded DAPPA,
leaving DACA in place for the moment. Out of the shadows.
We'll be back after the break. Losing DAPA was heartbreaking
(20:15):
for Graysa. Gisa sacrificed so much to make DAPA real
for her mom, only for it to be stricken down
by conservatives. She sacrificed her youth, her sanity, and she
never got to see her mom, Elia Rossa's get protected status. Tragically,
(20:37):
Elia died of non Hodgkins lymphoma in twenty eighteen. Despite
it all, Graysa remains centered like she did when she
was detained by Ice. She knew it was never going
to be easy.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
I used to have that meriss and now I mostly
have dreams. Mary Kava talks about the discipline of hope.
You have to practice it, and it's not something that
just comes at you. That hope is not shiny, pink,
bubbly thing, but like hope has like mud on her
face because she's been on a fighter too that she
has like has to have felt strength. And so it's
(21:19):
unfortunate that we have to be this resilient.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So that brings us to the end of Trump's first
year in office, when he's finally made up his mind
on what to do with DACA, and now our documented
lawyer Luis Cortes Romelo is about to embark on a
battle with the administration and the Supreme Court, taking up
sword and shield on behalf of dreamers.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
President Trump gets elected, he gets sworn in, and then
at the beginning of February, so like a few weeks later,
I get a call and it's from this guy named
Tony and he said, hey, my brother Daniel, he has
DACA and he just got picked up by ice outside
President Trump and DOCCA. For everybody, now, the question is
(22:06):
can the government in DACA just like that for hundreds
of thousands of people.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
That's next time on out of the shadows. Out of
the shadows. Dreamers is a Semelo Production in partnership with
Iheartsmichael Duda podcast Network. It's created, hosted, and executive produced
(22:37):
by me, Patti Rodriguez and eric A Lindo. This show
was written by Sessa Hernandez and executive produced by Jaselle Bancis.
Our supervising producer is Arlene Santana. It's produced and edited
by Brianna Flores. Our associate producer is Claudia Marti Gorena.
Sound design, mixing and mastering by Jessica Cranechitch and a
(22:59):
special thanks to all our Dreamers. Remember to subscribe to
the podcast and share it. For more Michael Duda podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lisa Martinez Rosas is standing in the security line at
the airport in a border town. She an undocumented immigrant,
so she's understandably nervous, but she has her doga card
with her. It'll be fine, she reminds herself. An IE
agent glances at her, so she looks away. When she
(00:34):
looks again, he's walking directly toward her. Her body goes stiff,
and she grips her DOCA card in her pocket, hoping
he's walking towards someone else. Excuse me, ma'am, the agent says.
(00:55):
She pretends to ignore him. He taps her shoulder and said,
can I see your identification? Like a reflex, she immediately
pulls out her card and hands it to him. He
takes a look, scanning it, darting his eyes between it
and her. Oh, he says, like he's realizing something. You're
(01:22):
a criminal. You need to come with us. This was
gray SA's worst nightmare, especially now that Donald Trump is
in office, and she was living it. She was detained
for eight hours. Her mind was racing, thinking about everything
(01:44):
that could go wrong, but then instinctially, her training kicked in.
This might be gray SA's first time being detained, but
she was familiar with this song and dance. You see,
Gray Sa' is an active and she knew how to
fucking tango. She spent the better part of her youth
(02:05):
organizing on behalf of undocumented immigrants, building their cases to
prevent removal proceedings. A sense of calm washes over her.
She knew that she had a team. She knew that
the organization she worked with, United We Dream had her back.
She'd be out of no time. They'd go to the
(02:26):
ends of the earth to ensure her release, and if not,
she'd go back to Mexico, hug her family and perhaps
become an organizer there. Or maybe she'll start a new life,
maybe in Canada as an undocumented immigrant that was just attained.
She was oddly zen about it all. This was all
(02:47):
part of her coaching as an organizer. Social movements, after all,
start from within. In the midst of this strange moment
of mental clarity, she starts singing Amazing Grace, How sweet
the sound. Even the border agents were confused. She was
(03:18):
eventually let go, just like she knew she would be.
She faced her deepest fear head on with calm and
a little bit of harmony.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This is Out of the Shadows a podcast about America's
tangled history of immigration.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Rodriguez I America Lindo.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Last season, we tackled Ronald Reagan's nineteen eighty six Amnesty Act.
This season, we're tracing the origins of DACA, or Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals, a contentious executive order to protect
undocumented young people from being deported.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Issued by former President Barack Obama in twenty twelve. DACA
was meant to be a temporary stop gap on a
broken immigration system. It was like putting a bucket under
a leaky roof, But with multiple Supreme Court challenges and
looming presidential elections, the roof feels like it may collapse
at any moment, impacting the US economy and American culture
(04:41):
as we know it. Meanwhile, the future of millions of
lives hangs in the balance.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Welcome to Out of the Shadows Dreamers. DACA only extended
protection to a little under a million people, leaving out
(05:09):
millions for reasons of age, felony status, or just plain
bad luck. After the Obama administration kept hearing concerns about
all the people that were left out of the program,
the president had to do something. The biggest concern was
for the parents of Dreamers and DACCA recipients. Organizers demanded
(05:31):
that the president extend protection to them. Two years after
issuing DACA, there was a spark of hope. In twenty fourteen,
a few days after the midterm elections, President Obama announced
an expansion of deportation protection for undocumented immigrants, later known
as DAPPA or the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans.
(05:54):
An estimated five million could qualify for this new protection.
But here's the video of that speech from the White
House's archives, where Obama reminds the public that undocumented immigrants
broke the law.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Now here's the thing. We expect people who live in
this country to play by the rules. We expect that
those who cut the line will not be unfairly rewarded.
So we're going to offer the following deal.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Lupita Riola recalls the day Obama made the announcement. She
tuned in with a lot of her friends and they
all watched, hoping, as a parent of a Dreamer for
some good news.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Mio mbids perandokes.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Lupito was excited at the prospect that she'd be able
to qualify for protection, but Her excitement was short lived
as she kept watching.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
If you've been in America for more than five years,
if you have children who are American citizens or legal residents,
if you register, pass a criminal background check, and you're
willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you'll be
able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without
fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows
(07:21):
and get right with the law. That's what this deal is.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Who cannot la.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Like the previous executive decision, DAPPA would defer deportation and
granted work permit for three years, but not to the
parents of Dreamers, only to those parents of American citizens
or permanent residence. When Obama said no protections for people
like her, Lupita says they started crying thinking about what
(08:14):
could have been another example of the constant moving goalpost
in the American immigration machine. When we come back more
on DAPA.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
At the top of the show, we told you about Graisa.
She's the doctor recipient I was detained by ICE together
with United we dreamed Gaysa actually had a direct hand
in getting DAPA to Obama's desk.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
DAPA was the first campaign that I ever led it's
like the campaign that was the campaign of my dreams.
I was the director of the campaign in the field,
organizer for it, and it was this idea that like,
if we had just went DACA and we've seen like
how beneficial it was for ourselves in our community, like
we should also expand that to our families, because they
are the original dreamers, as we talked about.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Greisa was part of a mixed status family. She was
born in the Mexican state of Iago, the oldest of
four sisters, to Elia Rossas and Luis Martinez. When she
was just seven years old, her parents brought the family
to Dallas to pursue better futures for their daughters.
Speaker 7 (09:48):
I still remember crossing the border and we had to
cross the Rio Grande, and I remember what it felt like,
how cold the water was and how scary it was.
But you know, my parents told me that on the
other side was safety opportunity. So we made that we
held hands tight, and we made it to the other side.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And the investment in Graysa's prospects looked bright. In high school,
she led walkouts to raise awareness for undocumented immigrants. She
became a community activist, fighting for people like her parents,
like herself and her three younger sisters. At Texas A
and M, where she went to college, Gadisa founded the
first undocumented student group on campus. After college, she rose
(10:31):
through the world of grassroots activism to lead the immigrant
rights advocacy group United We Dream, where as a dreamer herself,
she helped pave the way for DAPPA. The future was
promising for Graysa and her family. Her work on DAPPA
was like a form of repayment to her mom for
(10:52):
all her struggle. If DAPPA was successful, her mom would
be eligible to receive deferred action. It was unbelievable to
see it come to life.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
I was on cloud nine.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
I remember calling my mom that day and she started
making plans about the business and she was going to
open and the house that she was going to buy.
I remember, we had learned so much about implementing DACA.
We'd implemented DACA to ensure that millions of undocumented young
people and their families had access to the applications, and
(11:31):
so we knew exactly what to do because we had
just done it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
While Obama made certain strides to address immigration, his administration
ramped up RAID campaigns in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen
in response to a huge surge of immigrants from Central America.
It was a hard time for people who had benefited
from some of Obama's policies but who saw how their
community was being impacted by the raids.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
I had a lot of things to say about that moment,
and I remember being called to the White House to
just process with people that had been supportive of us
in that space. And as we were going into the
White House, all of a sudden, I found myself sitting
across the table from President Obama.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Imagine sitting across from the guy who's at the head
of all of this DACA now DAPPA, but also at
this time is deporting a shitload of people. That's where
Todaysa found herself right across from Obama, and she wasn't happy.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
He saw how.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Devastated we were.
Speaker 7 (12:46):
And the only thing that I could think of in
that moment was to say, you know, we're going to
do our work to build political power to protect our
people and to have more wins like this that cannot
be pushed back by lawsuits. But like you missed, President,
need to stop these raids.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
And I was like, the most shaking thing that I've
ever die like.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
It was the most scary, scariest moment in my life
at that point. But he heard me, and he understood,
and you know, I was a reflection of the work
that United Region has been doing for more than a
decade now of stopping deportations and releasing people from the
tension and ensuring that we're using our power and our
voice and our privilege.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Another organizer he met with was Lupita's daughter, activist Erica Andiola,
who also aired out her frustrations with his administration's constant
raids and the New programs shortcomings, and Erica wasn't exactly
polite when she encountered the president. Lubita says she and
(14:03):
Erica met with Obama and Miami, and Erica was bold, rude,
even challenging the President on Life TV, demanding to know
what would happen to her mom Lupita now that she
didn't qualify for DAPA protection. When Erica's mad, Lupita says
she might even cuss out the president.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Programmatas President.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Lubita says that when it was all over, Erica was
still pissed and didn't want to shake Obama's hand. So
when the President extended his hand to Erica gave him
the cold shoulder, but Lubita elbowed her and reminded her
of her manners, and Erica took his handshake begrudgingly. For
(15:06):
the administration, these moments served as a reminder that issuing
DACA and now DAPPA are both double edged swords for
the undocumented community. These executive orders didn't go far enough,
and since Obama acted unilaterally when he issued the DAPPA
expansion program, conservatives thought Obama was going too far and
(15:29):
they worked quickly to strike it down. Here's ASA again.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
And then we saw the Republicans and they filed their
lawsuit against the program, and it just was a stand still.
And that's when we first learned to fight through the
courts at United Redream and so we put out like
a big campaign to defend the DAPPA program in at
(15:57):
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Texas among other states, quickly challenged DAPA in the courts,
claiming that it violated the Constitution. A year later, in
twenty fifteen, DAPPA was blocked while the suit continued. Then
in twenty sixteen, in a split four or four court decision,
the block remained.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Today all right.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
Solicer General's standard ext to me argued the case strongly
for the rule of law.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Crowds of organizers showed up to protest the decision. One
reporter asked the Texas Attorney General if you wish the
protesters showed up on behalf of them. He smugly answers,
we're here.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Defending the constitution, and so whether we have people out
here or not is not relevant.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Seeing DAPPA stricken down was a huge blow for Graysa
who had to watch all her work being torn down
by the courts.
Speaker 7 (17:00):
Unfortunately, our Republicans won. I still remember the day of
the decision, being outside of the Supreme Court and hearing
the news of the outcome of the case and calling
my mom and how sad she was and crying with
her on the phone. It was also at the same
(17:22):
time where during the Obama administration there were mass rates
happening across the US.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Then, at the end of twenty sixteen, Donald Trump gets elected,
sending a collective chill down every immigrant spine. Docca's future
was immediately called into question. Trump had run on a
platform of anti immigration, but confusingly sent mixed messages about DOCA.
(17:57):
This is how Luis Cortes rometto, a lawyer and DACA beneficiary,
remembers it.
Speaker 8 (18:03):
So that was right when President Trump was inaugurated, and
you know, we were all trying to see what he
was going to do, because he said a lot of
really anti immigrant things, but then he was going back
and forth on DACA. He kept saying, you know, I'm
going to treat dreamers with heart. I remember that selling,
which he used because I was like, that's weird for
him to say. We were trying to see what was up,
but people still felt some type of way.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Aline Ronnie, author of Crossing Borders, was astounded by the
manipulative way Trump used immigration.
Speaker 9 (18:34):
I think President Trump's willingness to weaponize DACA just really
mess with lives of hundreds of thousands of young people
was probably it was probably the second ugliest thing that
he did in the context of immigration. The ugliest thing
is the cold hearted ruthlessness of separating families at the border. Right,
(18:54):
that's far and away the worst thing. But the time
and time again used DOCA recipients as some sort of
a a chip to be played in a poker game.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It was really really disgusting, even celebrated legendary journalists. Maria
Ina Jsa was uncertain about how things would play out
with Trump in office.
Speaker 10 (19:13):
I try not to be afraid of anything, really, but
I was very clear that during the time that Donald
Trump was president that at any time there could be
a knock at my door.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
In the first few months of Trump's tenure, in twenty seventeen,
his Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly, formally rescinded DAPPA,
leaving DACA in place for the moment. Out of the shadows.
We'll be back after the break. Losing DAPA was heartbreaking
(20:15):
for Graysa. Gisa sacrificed so much to make DAPA real
for her mom, only for it to be stricken down
by conservatives. She sacrificed her youth, her sanity, and she
never got to see her mom, Elia Rossa's get protected status. Tragically,
(20:37):
Elia died of non Hodgkins lymphoma in twenty eighteen. Despite
it all, Graysa remains centered like she did when she
was detained by Ice. She knew it was never going
to be easy.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
I used to have that meriss and now I mostly
have dreams. Mary Kava talks about the discipline of hope.
You have to practice it, and it's not something that
just comes at you. That hope is not shiny, pink,
bubbly thing, but like hope has like mud on her
face because she's been on a fighter too that she
has like has to have felt strength. And so it's
(21:19):
unfortunate that we have to be this resilient.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So that brings us to the end of Trump's first
year in office, when he's finally made up his mind
on what to do with DACA, and now our documented
lawyer Luis Cortes Romelo is about to embark on a
battle with the administration and the Supreme Court, taking up
sword and shield on behalf of dreamers.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
President Trump gets elected, he gets sworn in, and then
at the beginning of February, so like a few weeks later,
I get a call and it's from this guy named
Tony and he said, hey, my brother Daniel, he has
DACA and he just got picked up by ice outside
President Trump and DOCCA. For everybody, now, the question is
(22:06):
can the government in DACA just like that for hundreds
of thousands of people.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
That's next time on out of the shadows. Out of
the shadows. Dreamers is a Semelo Production in partnership with
Iheartsmichael Duda podcast Network. It's created, hosted, and executive produced
(22:37):
by me, Patti Rodriguez and eric A Lindo. This show
was written by Sessa Hernandez and executive produced by Jaselle Bancis.
Our supervising producer is Arlene Santana. It's produced and edited
by Brianna Flores. Our associate producer is Claudia Marti Gorena.
Sound design, mixing and mastering by Jessica Cranechitch and a
(22:59):
special thanks to all our Dreamers. Remember to subscribe to
the podcast and share it. For more Michael Duda podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.