Martha Herrera Coria is now unsure of her immigration status, but she’s not afraid to speak out.
The 27-year-old Mexican woman is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was thrown into turmoil Tuesday when President Donald Trump announced a plan to end it.
“I’m speaking out because so many are afraid to,” Herrera Coria told Seven Days Tuesday through an interpreter. “Now is not the time to be defeated, or hide and go back living in the shadows.”
Herrera Coria arrived in the U.S., undocumented, with her siblings when she was 15. She gained DACA status in 2012, the same year that president Barack Obama issued an executive order granting temporary relief from deportation for undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as children.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has so far granted DACA status to about 800,000 undocumented immigrants. DACA recipients — sometimes called “Dreamers” after a similar, failed bill considered by Congress in 2001 — are able to stay in the U.S. to study, obtain a work permit and apply for a Social Security number. The most recent statistics show that Vermont is home to 42 DACA recipients, the fewest of any state.
But Tuesday’s decision means the program will be phased out over the next six months, giving the Republican-controlled Congress a short window to decide on the fate of DACA recipients such as Herrera Coria.
“Having DACA has meant having freedom in this country,” she told Seven Days during an interview at Migrant Justice, where the group’s spokesman, Will Lambek, acted as an interpreter. “It’s been the freedom to have a better job with better pay, it’s been the freedom to leave my house, to travel without fear that because of the color of my skin, for being a person of color, that I would be detained and deported.”
Herrera Coria moved to Vermont last year after spending much of the past 12 years in New York. Her parents and grandmother still live in Mexico and they, too, are worried for her. She is currently a member of Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based human rights organization that focuses on advocating for undocumented dairy workers in Vermont.
“They live in this anguish of what could happen to me,” Herrera Coria said of her family. They fear she’ll be detained, mistreated “behind bars and kicked out of my country like I’m nothing, and being sent back to Mexico.”
Herrera Coria isn’t speaking out just for DACA recipients. She’s calling on politicians to help all undocumented immigrants, including those who don’t qualify for DACA. Being a DACA recipient allowed her to get a better-paying job and a driver’s license, she said.
“Now’s the time when we need your support more than ever,” Herrera Coria said. “And not just for those of us who can lose DACA, but for all immigrants, because migration is a human right.”
Lambek agreed. “It’s never been just about DACA,” he said.
While Dreamers might sometimes be seen as “special” or “a class apart,” the new development means that the “800,000 youths who have benefited from this program are being shoved into the same boat as the 10.5 million” undocumented immigrants, Lambek said. “Having this program at risk is having an opportunity for the community to unite and push for something that affects everybody.”
Eliminating the DACA program was one of Trump’s core campaign promises. In discussing the decision Tuesday morning, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the U.S. “cannot admit everyone who would like to come here.”
“Therefore, the nation must set and enforce a limit on how many immigrants we admit each year and that means all cannot be accepted,” Sessions said. “This does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way. It means we are properly enforcing our laws as Congress has passed them.”
The Department of Homeland Security also announced in a memorandum that its personnel will take “all appropriate actions to execute a wind-down of the program.”
Vermont’s Democratic congressional delegation, as well as Republican Gov. Phil Scott, denounced Trump’s decision.
Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, Middlebury College was one of several schools to issue a statement affirming its support for both DACA and undocumented students.
“This past year we offered assistance to help with DACA renewals, access to an immigration lawyer, and covered other emergency expenses as needed,” college president Laurie Patton wrote in an email last Friday. “We pledge to continue with this support and to look for ways of offering resources in case a change of immigration policy leads to a loss of status that invalidates our students’ ability to work or collect financial aid.”
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After 12 years in the US she can’t speak english? Why?
Right on Walter Moses. I wonder if you and I are paying for the interpreter. I disagree with Ms. Coria: Migration, immigration to the U.S. is NOT a human right. And she’s not even talking about doing it legally. You want our country’s freedom then get legal. And please, learn to speak English.
My understanding from most media stories is that DACA was meant to provide some legal immigration status for children. Kids who were 2 or 6 years old and brought illegally by their parents to the United States. Who have little to no memory of their native country/nation of citizenship; who are bilingual in English and their native language, having attended public schools, etc. A 2 year old or 6 year old has no agency independent from their parents and if their parents illegally drag them here, it is not the kid’s fault.
However, the woman profiled here by Ms. Sari has parents and grandparents in Mexico. She came to the USA at age 15. And I have to agree with the others, she has been here 12 years and still needs a translator?! Isn’t this exactly what Bill Maher was saying on his HBO show a few weeks ago? “If you’re coming to the melting pot, melt a little bit.”
Barbara Jordan, the African-American, Democratic Congresswoman who led Bill Clinton’s Bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, made clear that no illegal alien is deported because of the color of their skin. Rather, the illegal alien is deported because they have not complied with immigration law.
Ms. Herrera Coria seems to conflate the two. Regardless of melanin, legal immigrants and US citizens can also lose their freedoms if they don’t comply with the law. And the same thing would happen if US citizens did not comply with another nation’s immigration law.
Is the argument for migration as a human right the abolishment of the 190+ nation-states of the world and their laws and regulations or jurisdiction over their own territory? I am not sure how well that would work out. The other nations may also have some concerns or objections. Freakonomics had an interesting episode on this.
Been all these yrs and can’t speak english.? Haven’t even tried to apply for citizenship..Why haven’t you learned English?? You came here illegally, this is not your country. if you really felt that way learn our language, except for being a member of Migrant Justice, what does she have for a job?? Living off the system? She needs to leave and come back legally …
Speaking English in the United States is not required by law. That being said, maybe she can speak English but can speak more eloquently in the language she learned as a child? Learning and becoming fluent in a new language at 15 is difficult.
Their dreams, our nightmares.
https://howiecarrshow.com/tired-of-sob-sto…
The bottom line regardless of when and how you got here is, you are a illegal alien. We have laws and if congress doesn’t like the laws change them. Trump raised his right hand stating to uphold the Constitution. That means enforcing the laws of the land. Have any of these illegals go into another country and see what happens.
All you liberal assholes why don’t you all take in a few illegals?? You Hollywood pinheads why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and take in a few. And to all you liberal morons, if we stop giving free stuff away, my tax dollar, people will do the jobs that illegals do.
How many of the critics here have had to migrate to another country as a child or young teen when one is still developing as a person? Have you learned about conditions in Mexico and Central America that cause people to migrate north to US? Have you, yourself ever moved to a very different community with different cultural norms and hostile attitudes? Can you imagine what it is to live in constant fear of arrest, detention in a crowded prison for months, and deportation to a country in economic and social turmoil? How many of you have tried to learn English as a second language? It is a very difficult language to learn because it is so irregular compared to other languages. Migration is part of the universal, continuing human experience: our own country is an example of that. Let’s open our hearts for compassion, and our minds to see current immigration quotas as unworkable, and support comprehensive revision of immigration policy. I for one am glad to know Ms Herrera Coria, a compassionate, loving, intelligent person who is part of a movement for dignity, equity and human rights in our community. And she is indeed learning to speak English!
Edward, you sound upset. take some deep breaths, go outside and enjoy the 68 degree weather.