Trump: DACA recipients will ‘morph into’ citizens
President Donald Trump said he’s open to creating a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally. He told reporters, “w e’re going to morph into it” in 10 to 12 years.
This comes just before politicians head back to Washington for more immigration talks.
But before leaving the Central Coast, congressman Jimmy Panetta met with DACA students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) to give them an update.
“Please continue to excel, and do it with the confidence. There are representatives on both sides of the aisle that are not just standing with you, but they are fighting,” Panetta said.
A comforting message, but it didn’t put Cal State Monterey Bay senior Andrea Cervantes fully at ease.
“I still feel like anything could happen and that one day I could just lose everything that I’ve been working for,” Cervantes said.
Like every DACA recipient, Cervantes has a story of facing challenges head-on to make something of herself. And she knows getting what she wants isn’t easy.
“I wanted to hear, ‘Oh, it’s all going to be OK. We are passing this.’ But it was great to hear that something was being done and that there’s still, there’s still a possibility of it being better,” Cervantes said.
As a part of the deal to reopen the government, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell pledged to allow a vote on immigration before the government runs out of money on Feb. 8.
“It’s unfortunate that it takes events like we saw last weekend for this type of bipartisanship to arise, but that’s what Congress is about,” Panetta said.
Panetta said politicians are reaching across the aisle for a permanent solution to DACA before the president’s deadline to shut down the program on March 5, which adds a sense of urgency to the debate.
“Up to March 5, up to 100 DACA recipients are losing their status every day. After March 5, that number is going to bump up to 1,000 every day,” Panetta said.
Meanwhile, immigration attorneys are urging DACA recipients due for renewal to do so as soon as possible.
The most up-to-date form can be found on USCIS’s website, and the filing fee is $495. And there are nonprofits that can help pay for it.
