{"id":29385,"date":"2018-02-22T16:52:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T22:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29385"},"modified":"2018-02-22T16:52:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T22:52:23","slug":"one-oklahoma-student-plans-for-an-uncertain-future-as-daca-deadline-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/02\/22\/one-oklahoma-student-plans-for-an-uncertain-future-as-daca-deadline-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"One Oklahoma Student Plans For An Uncertain Future As DACA Deadline Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29384\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 613px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29384\" alt=\"The principal at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City wants undocumented students to feel safe in school, so he put &quot;Dreamers Welcome&quot; signs throughout the building. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/180215-Suzeth-DACA5_WEB.jpg\" width=\"613\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/180215-Suzeth-DACA5_WEB.jpg 613w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/180215-Suzeth-DACA5_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/180215-Suzeth-DACA5_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/180215-Suzeth-DACA5_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The principal at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City wants undocumented students to feel safe in school, so he put &quot;Dreamers Welcome&quot; signs throughout the building.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>When President Donald Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last September, he put<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/post-politics\/wp\/2017\/09\/07\/how-many-people-will-trumps-daca-rollback-affect-about-100000-fewer-than-initially-reported\/?utm_term=.203de4e49576\"> 700,000<\/a> immigrants\u2019 futures in jeopardy.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/403733382&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p><p>The Obama-era policy, also known as DACA, protects young people who were brought to America by their parents \u2014 many illegally \u2014 from deportation.<\/p><p>But even as Trump began the process of dismantling the safety net program, he also gave them a glimmer of hope: Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/09\/03\/trump-dreamers-immigration-daca-immigrants-242301\">gave Congress six months<\/a> \u2013 until March 5, 2018 \u2013 to come up with a permanent replacement before he ended the DACA program. If Congress doesn\u2019t meet the deadline \u2014 now less than two weeks away \u2014 those who are currently covered by DACA will become eligible for deportation.<\/p><p>In Oklahoma, there are about<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/research\/immigrants-in-oklahoma\"> 6,000<\/a> people protected under the DACA policy. An 18-year-old high school student named Suzeth is one of them. She agreed to talk to StateImpact about what these past six months of uncertainty have been like if we withheld her last name.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018You lose your wings\u2019<b><\/b><\/h3><p>Suzeth\u2019s parents brought her to Oklahoma illegally from Chihuahua, Mexico, when she was 6.<\/p><p>\u201cThe first thing I remember seeing is the red soil. It\u2019s not something you see in Mexico,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you just see all these stores and all these restaurants. Things you had never seen before.\u201d<\/p><p>In the 9th grade, Suzeth started thinking about going to college, and that\u2019s when she realized she was not a legal citizen of the United States.<\/p><p>\u201cThere were a lot of things, like scholarships, that I couldn\u2019t apply to,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>So Suzeth filled out the DACA paperwork and started receiving the temporary protections it provides.The program doesn\u2019t grant a path to citizenship, but it allows people like Suzeth to get a work permit, driver\u2019s license and pursue higher education.<\/p><p>Suzeth says DACA made her feel secure. The program gave her the confidence to plan for college and apply for those scholarships. When Trump announced his plans to end DACA, Suzeth was crushed.<\/p><p>\u201cAll of a sudden you lose your wings,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the beginning, it felt like there\u2019s not much to wake up to &#8230; you just felt like it wasn\u2019t really worth going to school.\u201d<\/p><p>Such a sentiment is unusual for Suzeth, who takes school very seriously. She\u2019s in the National Honors Society, and a top-10 student in her senior class. Suzeth gives her parents a lot of credit for helping her regain her motivation and teaching her to fight back against those feelings of hopelessness.<\/p><p>When she\u2019d find herself losing focus, Suzeth would stop and tell herself, \u201cNo. If anything, I\u2019m going to do this work ten times better than the person sitting next to me, because that\u2019s what I have to do right now.\u201d<\/p><p>Trump\u2019s announcement to end DACA fueled heated public debate about immigration in America. Suzeth says anti-DACA Facebook posts, and negative comments on news articles became inescapable.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s been learning to not dislike people for not supporting you,\u201d she said. \u201cLearning to deal with criticism, and dealing with discrimination and dealing with comments from people who don\u2019t understand, or people who are in their full right to not want to support us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Waiting on Congress<b><\/b><\/h3><p>Suzeth wants to travel to Washington, D.C., to rally in support of DACA. She wants to talk to U.S. lawmakers and tell them why they should support policies and laws that protect young undocumented people like her. Suzeth wants politicians to know there are many others like her who are doing their best to deserve to stay in America.<\/p><p>\u201cBecause you can\u2019t demand to stay here if you\u2019re not doing anything,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>There<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2018\/2\/14\/17013570\/senate-immigration-proposal-charts\"> is bipartisan support<\/a> in Washington for allowing those protected by DACA to become citizens. But Republicans and Democrats are fighting over the details of a broader immigration deal, like money for a border wall.<\/p><p>Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s deadline for action on the program is quickly approaching.<\/p><p>Suzeth\u2019s parents have told her to prepare, and to be ready to blossom in any situation \u2014 whether that\u2019s here in America or Mexico.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019ve done what we\u2019ve had to do,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to prove ourselves. Now it\u2019s a matter of believing that whatever happens, happens for a reason.&#8221;<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When President Donald Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last September, he put 700,000 immigrants\u2019 futures in jeopardy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":29384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[771,855,772],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29389,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29385\/revisions\/29389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}