What Happens Now For Undocumented Youth?

“I was 10 years old, and I still remember it like it was yesterday,” Santos said of the day her mother left. “For weeks, months, even, I didn’t want to go to school. I fell into a depression because of it, and I was about to go back to Mexico to be with her for that reason. It was really hard. Until this day it’s hard.”

As Santos held Jayleen, who’s just learning to walk, she began to cry as she talked about what the future might look like for her young family.

“It doesn’t matter if they deport me, but I don’t want [Jayleen] to be apart from me. I don’t want her to feel all this chaos that’s happening, even though she’s so small,” Santos said. “I just applied for a new job as a preschool teacher, and I’m scared that, because of how things are now, if I get the job it’ll be for a couple months and then get fired… If [Trump] starts doing things like massive deportations, I’ll leave voluntarily. I won’t fight. I’m not going to suffer things like being in detention centers. Because that’s what I don’t want for her.”

The consequences of someone who says undocumented immigrants “have to go” being in charge of a country built on them are far-reaching and devastating. Both Santos and Calzadillas-Andujo said that they were wary of law enforcement before the election, and now, they’re even less likely to call the police if they’re in trouble. If Calzadillas-Andujo loses her ability to work legally, she’ll likely have to give up her apartment and her car (on which she’s making payments) and she won’t be able to send money to her parents in Kansas, where her father works on a farm.

“My dad is getting older, and he needs to stop working,” she said. Calzadillas-Andujo’s aging parents are undocumented and, as such, aren’t eligible for benefits like Medicaid or Social Security. That means the burden of caring them falls to Calzadilla-Andjuo, which is the case in many families where children are DACA recipients and parents are undocumented.

“No one understands a damn thing about immigration in this country despite the fact that everyone seems to have a really strong opinion about it,” Love said. “If asked to articulate why Maria and Hali can work, and why another person can’t, or who’s deportable… I didn’t understand it ‘till I went to law school. People need to take responsibility for understanding what they’re talking about, and us advocates need to take responsibility for communicating that to people in a way they can understand. But it’s a two-way street, and it’s not going to come in a tweet.”

Part of learning about immigration includes dissecting the reasons people migrate, which often have less to do with a brazen desire to break the law and more to do with physical safety, food security, and being with one’s family. Love noted that if DACA is repealed, her office will begin to try to shift those cases into some other type of immigration relief, like U-Visas, which are granted to immigrants who’ve been the victims of certain crimes.

“A funny thing is, sometimes I wish some violent crime had occurred to me, so I could get some type of immigration relief,” Santos said. “Sometimes my husband and I joke, hit me, so I can get papers.”

Immigrants who are or will be eligible for DACA can find comprehensive and up-to-date information at United We Dream, a national network for DACA recipients and hopefuls. Some organizations, like the National Immigration Law Center, advise against submitting new applications for DACA, because it’s uncertain what the Trump administration will do with the information on the applications, plus the application fee is $465, and non-refundable if the program is terminated. Applications for renewal of DACA are less risky because immigration authorities already have the recipient’s information.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. has fact sheets available in both English and Spanish about how to prepare for the coming administration, including state-by-state legal directories and a section about knowing one’s rights when interacting with immigration agents.

For those of us who are documented, participating in rallies and community forums, or volunteering at a community organization—even one that isn’t specifically geared towards immigrants, like a food bank or a shelter—is important in building a sense of community. Donating even small sums money to local organizations is important, too, because they often need the funding as much (or more) than national organizations, which usually have publicity and marketing departments at their disposal.

Additionally, read up on immigration policy and how immigrants are contributing to our country. The Immigration Advocates Network website is a wealth of information and has a page that allows visitors to search by zip codefor for nonprofits that work with immigrants in your area. The website is also a good resource for immigrants themselves—Love notes that finding local services in one’s area is the most effective way to receive help. Citizens with special skills are especially needed right now: attorneys to help handle caseloads, mental health professionals who can counsel those who are feeling frightened and alone and in some cases, suicidal, and people who are bilingual to help translate.

“Showing up is really important,” Calzadillas-Andujo said. “I see a lot of people passing articles and posting stuff on Facebook, like ‘you’ll be okay’ which doesn’t really help. A lot of people don’t understand the fear because they’re not in that place. They’re citizens, or they’ve gotten a green card. Even our own people, who have forgotten what it feels like to live in fear. There needs to be more space for those feelings, to process them, instead of shooing them off and telling people they’ll be okay.”

Adele Oliveira is a freelance writer in Santa Fe, New Mexico.