A 15-year-old immigrant girl living in Little Rock without lawful status said she won't apply for legal protection she's newly eligible to obtain because she's afraid to submit her information to the federal government without assurance the program will continue.
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The girl, a Mexican national who has lived in the United States since she was 1 year old, said during an interview Saturday that she doesn't want to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals consideration because revealing her personal information may make it more likely that she's deported back to a country in which she has no memory of living.
"I was planning on applying, but my parents told me, 'You're [submitting] a lot of personal information about you, and you don't know what they can do with that information,'" said the girl, who became eligible for the program after her birthday in December.
President Donald Trump swiftly moved to uphold some of his immigration-related campaign promises, but he has taken a slower approach to his predecessor's executive action shielding childhood arrivals from immediate deportation, leaving thousands of immigrants in Arkansas and more than 750,000 nationwide in limbo.
Immigration attorneys and advocates said the fear expressed by the 15-year-old is common, and they are advising people weighing the same decision to make it in consultation with lawyers. The program is currently being administered in the same way it was under President Barack Obama, but its future is not guaranteed.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is not identifying the girl by name because she does not have legal residency status.
Trump has said he would decide by the end of February how to address the program, which Obama established in 2012 by executive order. While campaigning, Trump criticized the program as an overreach of power that amounted to "amnesty," but recently said he would make his decision with "great heart."
The program grants 2-year work permits and deferred-removal status to immigrants without lawful status who arrived to the U.S. before their 16th birthdays. Applicants must meet education requirements, pass a criminal background check and have lived continuously in the country since June 2007. Participants, often called "dreamers," are also eligible for driver's licenses.
People who receive the status aren't granted citizenship -- so they can't vote -- or other lawful residency status. Instead, the exemption shields them from immediate removal through prosecutorial discretion. Because they're allowed to legally work, they must pay state and federal income taxes.
The 15-year-old Little Rock girl came to the United States with her parents when she was 1 and moved to Arkansas when she was 2, she said.
She does not remember the trip nor have memories of Mexico. Because she does not have legal status, she is unable to visit cousins, aunts and grandparents who remain in her home country, though she talks to them by phone a few times each month.
A high school student who plays soccer and dances tap and ballet, the girl hopes to attend college and law school.
"It's hard," living in the U.S. without legal status, the girl said. "It's harder to get a job for me because I don't have DACA. ... I can't go to Mexico and visit my family, get to know them and come back."
More than 750,000 people have received deferred status since 2012, including 4,998 in Arkansas, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, estimates that 12,000 people in Arkansas are currently eligible for deferred status and an additional 1,000 would age into eligibility.
Applicants file for deferred status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles most interior U.S. immigration-law enforcement. Both agencies are under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Trump could direct that Homeland Security continue the program in full, dismantle it immediately or stop granting future deferred status, which may prevent those currently with deferred status from renewing as required every two years.
Teenagers who have received deferred status said it allowed them to take control of their lives.
Jesus Fabian, a 17-year-old Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School student, drives to his job at David's Burgers, where he works about 25 hours per week in the kitchen, he said.
Fabian arrived to the U.S. from Mexico as a 5-year-old and has lived in Little Rock since shortly after his arrival, he said.
Fabian, a member of his school's robotics team, said he is saving money to attend Pulaski Tech to complete basic college courses. He ultimately wants to pursue a bachelor's degree and a career in software development, he said.
Fabian received deferred status nearly two years ago. It is scheduled to expire in December without a renewal.
Asked about his expectation for how Trump would approach the program, Fabian said, "He might change is mind." If not, he said, "My thoughts of chasing the American dream will be burst."
During an interview with ABC News broadcast Jan. 25, Trump said that so-called dreamers shouldn't worry.
"They shouldn't be very worried," Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview. "They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody. We're going to have a very strong border."
Anchor David Muir specifically asked whether immigrants with deferred status would be "allowed to stay."
"I'm going to tell you over the next four weeks," Trump said. "But I will tell you, we're looking at this, the whole immigration situation, we're looking at it with great heart."
Some Republicans, including Trump, have long characterized the deferred-status program as "amnesty," or a pardon for people who broke immigration laws.
"President Obama's executive amnesty was an overreach of his Constitutional powers," U.S. Sen. John Boozman said in an emailed statement. "The president does not have the authority to pick and choose what laws get enforced in the name of 'reform.'"
Spokesmen for U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman and Steve Womack didn't directly speak to the program when asked about it by email, and the other three members of Arkansas' congressional delegation -- Sen. Tom Cotton and Reps. Rick Crawford and French Hill -- did not respond to a request asking what they want to see happen with the program.
Mireya Reith, executive director of Arkansas United Community Coalition, an advocacy group that works directly with immigrants on several issues, said she is advising all people who would be first-time applicants for deferred status to confer with legal experts.
"For new applications, we are definitely very strongly suggesting -- whether it's going through us, an attorney or whomever -- that individuals don't apply independently, on their own," Reith said.
Northwest Arkansas immigration attorney Drew Devenport said his office is discussing "the risk versus potential rewards" with would-be applicants.
Devenport said he has filed four first-time applications since Trump's election. He said he has a list of another 13 children who are eligible for deferred status under the program but have not yet applied because of the program's uncertainty.
"I honestly can't envision a scenario where the information obtained by the government through the DACA program would be used to target the children," Devenport said. "You're going to see large public outcry attacking that policy."
Little Rock immigration attorney Cristina Monterrey said she's finding it difficult to provide advice to potential deferred-status applicants.
"On the one hand, I don't want you to apply, because you're putting yourself out there," Monterrey said of the dilemma. "We're forcing people to fly under the radar. That's not what we want. On the other hand, if you don't apply, you're still in violation without any protection. It puts immigration attorneys in a really hard position."
Maria Meneses, a 19-year-old Parkview graduate, arrived to the United States when she was 2 years old. She first received deferred status four years ago and recently renewed it for the third time, she said. Meneses also has a pending request for permanent residency status, or a green card, through her father, also a green-card holder.
Meneses, who said she graduated high school with a 3.9 grade-point average, is a biology pre-med student at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
"My mother, she inspired me," Meneses said. "She was a doctor and she was the first one to graduate from her family. She went through poverty. She's really had to hustle for what she wanted."
Meneses said she wants to be a pediatrician, a family doctor or, maybe, a politician.
"I have been shifting my views slightly on getting involved in politics," Meneses said. "It kind of angers me that [elected officials] say so many bad things about us, but do they really go out there into the community? And do they really look at us and see how much we work and contribute back to this country? I just want justice. I want equality."
Meneses said she's not talking about local politics: "Maybe, like governoress of Arkansas."
Meneses visited her home country of Guatemala for the first time in 2014. Because of her deferred status, she was allowed leave the country for a predetermined time -- and later return -- in order to go to see an ill family member.
"It was my first memories of Guatemala because the last time I was there, I was only 2 years old, and before that I didn't have a memory," Meneses said. "It was as if I was going somewhere new."
A Section on 02/13/2017