[IM]MIGRATION
UNDERSTANDING THE INTERSECTIONS OF DACA/DAPA X AAPI
Capstone Project for the Public Service Internship Program at Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL)
A community-based photo essay highlighting the personal, human impact of DACA/DAPA policy on the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Through the summer of 2016, my group and I interviewed over a dozen individuals in the D.C. metro area, representing nonprofit directors, government workers, activists, and undocumented/DACAmented folks.
Here are their stories. Here are their voices.
What is DACA/DAPA?
In November 2014, President Obama announced a program for undocumented parents and children in the United States that would defer deportation actions against specific groups of immigrants identified with the following programs:
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): Unauthorized immigrants born after June 15, 1981 who were brought to the United States before their 16th birthday and have been in the country since June 15, 2007.
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA): Unauthorized parents of children who are United States citizens or legal permanent residents born on or before Nov. 20, 2014. To qualify, parents must have been in the United States since Jan.1, 2010.
Expanded DACA: Unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children before January 2010.
The plan authorized DAPA immigrants to receive a work permit to work in the U.S. for three years at a time in addition to expanding the DACA program by increasing the qualification date from June 2007 to January 2010.
Supreme Court Ruling
On June 23, 2016, the Supreme Court arrived at a 4-4 decision in United States v. Texas, which challenged the legitimacy of DAPA. Because DAPA and the extended DACA were enacted through presidential executive order rather than congressional action, it was highly debated and eventually taken to the courts system. It originated with Texas and 25 other states in their efforts to stop Obama's immigration plans. Millions of immigrants in the U.S. now face the threat of deportation.
Esther LEE
“I really didn’t understand what it meant to be undocumented until I was in the ninth grade. I was at the SATs, and there was this one column that told me to fill out my Social Security Number. And I couldn’t fill it out because I didn’t have one at the time. And I raised my hand, went to the bathroom, and I started crying. Because it was at that moment that I realized my life would be significantly more difficult than it would be for anybody else who was taking these tests to get into college.”