Arriving in a whirlwind from a hectic day so far and setting a 30-minute timer in preparation for more work to follow after the interview, Esmeralda Montesinos took time out of her busy schedule at BPNC as an Immigration Organizer to share her story about growing up undocumented and what that status meant, and about the continuing issue of DACA protections in the United States.
I didn’t really realize what it meant to be undocumented until my sophomore year of high school and I think that’s something that a lot of people actually relate to, because that’s when people start going to driver’s education and they need a social security number. Eventually, I was able to apply for DACA when that got passed and I was of age to be able to apply. DACA has given those of us who qualify and applied just a little bit of a leg up to people who are fully undocumented.
But regardless, I think it’s important to recognize that it really isn’t much that DACA gives you . DACA provides a social security number for which you can legally work in the United States, obtain a driver’s license, be protected from deportation, and maybe receive some help here or there. But having DACA, I still have to file an extra form saying that I can legally work here, I can’t receive my social security benefits and in Illinois, although you can now apply for federal financial aid for school, when I went to college I couldn’t do that.
The Rise Act didn’t get passed until the year I graduated. So, I went to school completely out of my own pocket. It was a blessing and a curse at the same time that I graduated with no debt, but I literally had to pay off every single semester before the next semester, which meant that I had to work three jobs throughout my entire college career in order to be able to graduate.
Currently, there can’t be any new applicants for DACA. A judge in Texas has blocked any new applications from coming in so they are only taking renewals now, but people who already have DACA can continue to renew it. I don’t think that Biden and Congress are doing enough to protect us. I definitely think he can be doing more– taking some type of executive action to grant citizenship, as well as our legislators themselves should be fighting to truly push a bill as well, because DACA has been up in the air since the moment Obama passed it. We’ve seen it through the constant attacks on DACA in this decade.
I am an Immigration Organizer for BPNC. I work around advocating for immigrant rights at the state and federal levels, which means empowering people from the community to speak out, to not hide in the shadows about their immigration status and reminding them that their voices and stories are important. That’s kind of what keeps you going-the sense of community that is created. Education is power–I will believe that forever and always in my life.