DACA recipient cautiously optimistic
As a DACA beneficiary, Samantha Ramirez, 19, has been through a rollercoaster ride these last few months.
In September, the Justice Department — in a move seemingly led from President Donald Trump’s White House, as per his tweeting — cancelled deportation stays for Ramirez and hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants making them vulnerable for forced removal.
Then, in an unexpected surprise, a federal court ruled the sudden cancellation of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) improper and ordered immigration authorities to resume accepting applications from Ramirez and others who’d been affected by the cancellation.
Ramirez, a Mexican-born immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a toddler, was elated.
“Yeah, I was happy. It would mean a lot to still have it for at least two more years,” she said.
Yet at the same time, “I feel like … he’s only doing it for his benefit so people won’t go against him,” Ramirez said.
The last few months of sometimes warm and sometimes callous remarks from Trump has made her suspicious of his motives.
“What if he’s really not helping us, just doing it so people will be quiet?”
Ramirez said she’s applied. If the process goes as quickly as it did before, she’ll be issued a temporary deportation protection and work permit, which are good until 2020.
Like the revival of DACA, that could change at any moment.
Last week, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco granted a request to block the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA while lawsuits against the administration play out. This week, the administration announced they would seek an appeal in the Ninth Circuit — a traditionally liberal judicial panel that doesn’t favor Trump’s decision as a plaintiff — as well as the Supreme Court, a majority conservative institution with Judge Neil Gorsuch’s appointment this year.
All the while, Trump has — at least on Twitter — called for compassion toward Ramirez and other DACA recipients.
“He might do something for us, but I’m just not that faithful because [of] how much he took from us at the beginning,” she said. She said his recent moves against temporary protections for Salvadorans made her wary adding her Central American friends are “pretty pissed.”
Also, “he still has that crazy idea of the wall.”
