Behind the shadow cast by DACA success stories

I’m not going to start off this piece describing a heartfelt anecdote about me coming from a low-income, Mexican immigrant family, who persevered and made it to college. Why you ask? Narratives that focus on youthful and scholarly resilience dominate news headlines, which in turn erases the real, ongoing struggles that older undocumented immigrants face in the United States. 

In 2010, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors or DREAM Act was passed in the United States House of Representatives but blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The act sought to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented minors upon a clean background check, earning or working to obtain a college degree and having entered the U.S. before the age of 18. Regardless, the term “Dreamer” arose from legislative speech, which applied to anyone who would have qualified for the DREAM Act. Being a Dreamer became a movement, propelling youth to dream about a future in the U.S., educated and all. 

Following the failure of the DREAM Act, former President Barack Obama announced a band-aid solution to the ethical dilemma that concerned many in 2012 — the deportation of undocumented youth who lacked agency in the decision to immigrate to the U.S. at a young age. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program functions similarly to the DREAM Act, apart from one crucial measure: DACA lacks any clear path for citizenship. 

So, how has this shaped the 2010s? Although DACA was meant to be a temporary solution, it was still ground-breaking legislation. It allowed for undocumented youth to temporarily work, attend school and even get a driver’s license. But with such a legislative program, came an overload of the DACA success narrative. 

Every night my parents would watch the news, all sorts of outlets in Spanish. On air, they’d see a young person named Isidro or Lourdes or Joel or Citlali graduate from high school and attend a prestigious university with the intent of becoming a politician or an immigration lawyer or a political activist. All thanks to DACA, my parents know about Harvard. 

Considering there are more than 600,000 DACA recipients this year alone, DACA success stories are everywhere. Though, it’s not anyone’s fault for their success. Naturally, we crave a good story and often that means spotlighting the underdogs. The U.S. is built on broader narratives like these, which follow the beats of the once-loved, now rancid American Dream. News broadcasts, magazines and viral Twitter posts feed us any underrepresented success story and we eat it up. They give us these glimpses of hope, and by happenstance, we forget real issues that rot the wellbeing of many — the issues the older generation of undocumented immigrants endure. 

California farmworkers produce an astounding amount of agricultural capital, producing about one third of the U.S. vegetables. And working these fields are around 600,000 undocumented immigrants, about 75% of total farmworkers. They’re here and working without benefits or any security, and at the same time, facing environmental discrimination via rising rates of pesticide poisoning. According to a California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the number of pesticide poisoning cases in farmworkers disproportionately make up overall cases.

This is only one issue in a country ranging widely in biomes and population demographics and political climate. And as we dip between state lines and confront different issues — the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, hurricane conditions in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the raging temperatures in the South West —  we can approach each issue understanding how undocumented immigrants experience it differently — often worse off. 

The lived experiences of this older undocumented generation often do not get to tell their stories. Nor do they seek help due to fear of deportation at any governmental interaction. Advocacy on behalf of this generation is minimal, and while DACA opened many doors for immigrants, it has also shut the door even tighter for older immigrants.

In 2015, Barack Obama intended to create a program similar to DACA in order to help the parents of childhood arrivals called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans or DAPA. DAPA would have provided the same benefits as DACA but was quickly challenged and stopped by the Supreme Court. Today, this potential program remains unknown and DAPA is known simply as a typo for DACA. 

DACA stories quell our concern for other discriminatory issues older undocumented immigrants face, and we fall into this continuous loop of the American Dream evolving and lying to our faces. While “dreamers” are allowed to dream, we must not forget those who aren’t granted such luxury and must continue advocating for them.