It’s been hard to miss the many news articles in the last 24 hours about President Trump revoking the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Here are some places, however, where you can more deeply explore the personal stories of those affected by DACA to better understand what its end will mean.
Many of these stories are short and perhaps useful for sharing with your children to help them understand what DACA is really all about, or to help them know they’re not alone, if they’re Dreamers themselves. There are plenty of other stories out there; I’ve stuck with sites that emphasized the immigrants’ own voices rather than heavily edited stories about them.
- “Stories in Defense of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” from the National Immigration Law Center. Short text stories from those who are or have been part of DACA, their friends, colleagues, and others impacted by both the benefits and limits of the program, including one couple who adopted a boy from Ethiopia through circumstances that meant he could receive DACA but not citizenship, despite being their legal son.
- “LGBT Dreamers,” stories by recipients of grants from LGBT DREAMers Fund, created in October 2012 by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center to help young LGBT undocumented immigrants pay for DACA applications fees.
- “American Dreamers,” from the New York Times, stories from young people who became part of DACA during the Obama administration.
- “Dreamers in Jeopardy,” from the Chronicle of Higher Education. A video of five Dreamers at Trinity Washington University who last December shared what the then-proposed revocation of DACA would mean for them.
- “My Undocumented Life,” a blog of information and resources for undocumented immigrants. Link is to a page that further directs readers to stories about undergraduate students, graduate students, other undocumented young adults, and “Dating While Undocumented.”
- “DREAMer Narratives,” short text stories from United We Dream.
- “DACA Stories,” from FWD.us. A video and short text stories (scroll down their page to see).
- “DACA Stories,” from South Asian Americans Leading Together, a collection of Obama-era Q&A interviews with DACA recipients.
