NewsTaco

By Valeria Fernandez, New America Media

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Arisbeth Meza came to Phoenix from Mexico City, following the path of her older sister. She was 13 and has been working ever since cleaning the homes of the wealthy. In Mexico, she studied until the 7th grade. She never got a chance to go to school in the United States, because she had to work to help support her family.

Now 21, Meza’s low literacy skills in both English and Spanish stand in her way to benefiting from a federal program that offers her a reprieve from deportation.

To qualify for President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, applicants need to have been younger than age 16 when they entered the United States illegally. They must also be either a high school graduate, have a General Education Development (GED) certificate, or be enrolled in high school. They cannot have certain criminal convictions.

Those who qualify for DACA receive a two-year deferral from being deported and can contunie their work or schooling.

Came to Help Parents

For Meza, obtaining her GED certificate –even in her Spanish native tongue–is a huge challenge. She understands a little bit of English, but that is not enough for the test. When it comes to Spanish, it is difficult for her to write or make sense of punctuation. Comas and parenthesis, dashes and semicolons confuse her when she reads.

“I wanted to study when I first arrived, because I saw others doing it. But I came here hoping I could help my Mom and Dad financially,” she said in Spanish.

Meza’s situation is not unique. Advocates for “Dreamers” like her – undocumented youth who came to the country as children and who are advocating for a legal pathway to citizenship — are aware of their educational challenges.

“These are dramatic situations because these kids were not enrolled at school, perhaps out of fear that they would be singled out as undocumented immigrants,” said Carmen Cornejo, an activist from CADENA, an organization that advocates for legalization allowing Dreamers a path to citizenship. “This can also be considered a denial of their rights as children to have an education. In some instances, their family circumstances might have led them to have to work.”

Cornejo said there are opportunities for Arisbeth. Immigration authorities still consider those enrolled in GED classes for the temporary deferred action, she added.

“These kids would have a lot of problems in the long run, if they don’t enroll in a program to try to get the GED,” said Cornejo. Part of the issue is that if Congress gives support for the legalization of youth through legislation similar to the Dream Act, the threshold of education required might be much higher, she explained.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, in Washington, D.C., roughly 1.76 million youth are eligible for DACA nationally, and about 500,000 of those are younger than age 15. MPI estimates that 350,000 of all who qualify for the benefit have neither a high school diploma, nor are enrolled in school. In Arizona, an estimated 80,000 youth could benefit from DACA. There’s no data on how many of them are currently in high school or have received a diploma.

A Chance to Catch Up

In Arizona, Dreamers have faced a number of hurdles to get ahead in their education. A state law – Proposition 300 — approved by voters in 2006, bars state-funded schools from offering free GED classes to undocumented immigrants, making the path to DACA eligibility difficult for those who may have aged out of the high school system, but still wish to become eligible for the new federal program.

Proposition 300, however, doesn’t remove their right to take the GED exam altogether. Rather, advocates say, it merely bars them from taking GED classes at institutions that receive state funds.

In response, local nonprofits serving Latinos are jumping in to offer GED preparation classes for a fee. The groups are responding to a spike in demand for such services.

In October, the nonprofit Friendly House started offering GED preparation classes focused on helping DACA applicants at a fee of $300 for 10 weeks. The classes are offered in English and Spanish, and test-takers have the option of taking the GED in either language.

“We were very honest with them and told them, “This is where you’re at and this is what you need to do,” said Luis Enriquez, director of adult education and workforce development at Friendly House. “We’re not miracle workers; we’ll give you the tools. We’ll give you a good teacher. It depends on the effort you put in it.”

The program has enrolled about 100 students so far. Assessment tests showed that nearly two-thirds of them had a 6th or 7th grade literacy level in both English and Spanish.

He said it would be extremely difficult for these students to make up for six years worth of education in 10 weeks, but the program can provide clients with extra support and a plan to prepare for the GED exam.

“The problem with Spanish, is that some people speak it, but the Spanish they’re getting in the test, is academic Spanish, [with a lot] of the vocabulary they’ve never seen in social studies,” he said. “They don’t use it in everyday life,” he added.

The students that Enriquez has met are a lot like Meza. They never enrolled in school, because they had to support their family or have children of their own they have to support financially.

DACA May Offer Protection

Some of them, despite their disadvantages, were able to pass the test and are already filing for DACA, Enriquez noted. The educational program offers another advantage, he said. Immigration authorities may consider enrollment in courses to earn a GED in the DACA process.

Meza wants to get her DACA application in because she feels it will protect her, especially now that she’s pregnant and about to have her second child.

In Arizona, laws severely restricting immigrants, such as SB 1070, make it mandatory for authorities to question a person’s immigration status and turn the individual over to immigration authorities.

Financial pressures could once again set her back.

Besides the expense of a second child, Arisbeth is now sending money to her grandmother to buy medicine. So, it may take time for Meza to save up enough for GED classes and application fees to apply for the federal program.

This article was first published in New America Media.

[Photo by a caballero/New America Media]

By Elise Foley, Huffington Post Latino Voices

WASHINGTON — Civil rights groups sued Michigan Secretary Of State Ruth Johnson (R) on Wednesday for blocking driver’s licenses for undocumented young people given deportation relief by the president. Denying the group licenses makes many unable to use their newly-granted work authorization, attend school or simply get around.

The American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center filed the Michigan suit on behalf of three undocumented young people and a youth immigrant group, One Michigan.

Receiving driver’s licenses is a significant issue to the estimated 1.76 million young undocumented immigrants — often called Dreamers — in Michigan who may be eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Although there are no breakdowns for how many young people in Michigan have been granted deferred action, 102,965 people were approved nationwide as of Dec. 13.

The two-year deferred action means that in most states, those undocumented immigrants can apply for driver’s licenses.

But Michigan, Arizona and Nebraska governments have refused to grant licenses to Dreamers who have been granted deportation reprieve.

“They’re really unable to work and to use benefits of that status because they can’t drive,” said Karen Tumlin, an attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “Michigan winter is not exactly where you’d want to walk to work.”

In Arizona, the decision seemed partially political. Gov. Jan Brewer (R), an immigration hardliner, announced in August that the state would deny driver’s licenses to deferred action recipients. The civil rights groups filed a complaint in Arizona in November along the same grounds as the suit in Michigan.

Attorneys with the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center said Michigan seems somewhat different — possibly just confused, rather than trying to thwart the policy for political reasons. Johnson, the secretary of state, told her staffers in November not to grant driver’s licenses to deferred action beneficiaries. Her spokeswoman, Gisgie Gendreau, told the Detroit Free Press at the time that they were not allowed, by law, to grant licenses.

“Michigan law requires legal presence, that someone be here legally,” Gendreau told the Free Press. 

READ MORE HERE

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Elise Foley is a reporter for the Huffington Post in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at The Washington Independent.

[Photo courtesy Michigan.gov]

By Latinovations

With President Obama re-elected into office and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) secure, there has been an increase of interest and applications from undocumented students.

“I’ve seen an increase in three ways,” says Jose Peñalosa, an immigration lawyer in Phoenix and a worker for No Dream Deferred. “In my office and through the increase volume of phone calls. Secondly, with the numbers of attendees to workshops on filling out paperwork for the application and lastly with the activity and comments on Facebook and Twitter. People are waking up and saying I’m going to do this now.”

According to Peñalosa, many of those interested in applying for DACA were hesitant in fear of a Mitt Romney presidency, which lowered the number of applications. Romney was once quoted saying that he would veto legislation to provide a path to citizenship for those who benefit from Obama’s new policy, but went back on his statement promptly, saying that he would honor temporary work permits.

“A lot of Dreamers had doubts about applying for DACA, mostly because they didn’t know if Romney would take it away,” says Erika Andiola, an activist for undocumented youth and an applicant for deferred action.

As of November 15^th, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a report that shows that out of 308,935 applications received, 298,834 have been accepted and 53,273 have been approved since the program began in August. The report also shows that Mexico is the leading country of origin for applicants, with California being the top state for applicants.

“This is a very huge thing for the work that we’ve been doing as Dreamers,” says Cristina Jimenez, Co-Founder of United We Dream. “One of the key things for us that was very clear as a result from the election is that our work in winning deferred action for Dreamers was a key—I would say the key—motivator for getting Latinos and other immigrant voters out to the polls.”

This article was first published in Latinovations.

[Photo by  paulinaclemente]