SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Friday marked the 11th anniversary of the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, an Obama-era program that protected undocumented migrants who came to the United States as children.
ABC 10News spoke to a local DACA recipient, or Dreamer, named Andrea Tecpoyotl Tepale. She was just four years old when she came to the United States in 2005. Almost 20 years later, she recently graduated college, and she says that wouldn't've been possible without DACA.
San Diego is home to Andrea. She was born in Mexico, but came to the U.S. with her mom and dad with dreams of higher education and getting a good job. There was always uncertainty about her ability to stay in the U.S., until years later.
"In 2012, I remember my mom being extremely excited because she had heard the news, right, that you know, there was going to be a program, and that this program was going to allow me to have a work permit and that I was going to be here," she says.
Andrea's mom was referring to DACA. The program protects young adults like Andrea from being deported when they turn 18, and they're allowed to stay in the states under a work permit.
It wasn't until high school when Andrea started being comfortable enough to talk about her journey from Mexico to the U.S.
DACA gave her the confidence she needed.
"Something for me that was going to give me the opportunity for, one day, to be able to work and for me to pursue my dream of going to higher education and to be able to go to college and to be the first one in my family to graduate," Andrea says.
But Andrea's journey continued to have twists and turns. The same year DACA started, her dad was deported back to Mexico.
And while dealing with normal struggles and challenges of high school, Andrea had to deal with something out of her control.
"At the time, with DACA being in limbo in 2017, and with it you know ending, there was a lot of stress and a lot of uncertainty of what was going to come for my future," she says.
The Trump administration announced plans to rescind the program in 2017. But in 2020, the Supreme Court overruled that decision, allowing DACA to remain in place.
On Capitol Hill, Congress has not been able to come to an agreement on legislation to codify DACA. There have been efforts to try and find a permanent solution for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers living in the U.S., but no proposal has received enough bipartisan support.
"I think we would all die for a permanent solution, right? One that includes everybody. One that includes a path to citizenship for all of us, because nobody wants to live in limbo," Andrea says.
Now at age 23, Andrea has focused her life on helping others, including her fellow DACA recipients.
"The community, really, and my family is what really keeps me in this work, and you know, just wanting to continue to fight for what's right for our community," she says.
Andrea works with the legal rights organizer for Alliance San Diego. She says if anybody needs help with DACA renewals, they can go to the group's website.
