Massachusetts

Boston Dreamers React to DACA Repeal

In light of President Trump's expected announcement to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), Boston-area immigrants affected by the program reacted Monday.

"We didn't get this far to go all the way back to the bottom," said Erick Deblas, of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Deblas came to the United States from Mexico when he was seven years old and falls into the category of Dreamer, an undocumented immigrant who meets the criteria of entering the U.S. under the age of 16 and living here continuously since at least June 2007.

To date, there are almost 800,000 Dreamers registered and living in this country.

Due to his Dreamer status and qualification for DACA, Deblas has been able to attend school and work, both while using his real name, without fear of deportation.

"No matter what he doesn," said Deblas of Trump, "we are going to be ready and we're going to step forward. And he will see that the majority of us are still here and will still fight."

Cairo Mendes, who immigrated from Brazil in 2002, said that "I think it's a psychological warfare. I think that the administration knows what it's doing - I think that people are very much anxious.

Mendes, a UMass Boston student, is fighting back as part of the organization Student Immigration Movement.

"It makes me feel very sad," said another SIM member, Northeastern University student Valeria Do Vale. "It's a breach of trust from the government."

Do Vale is trying to stay positive in light of the repeal and the six months Trump is projected to give Congress to sort out how to go about it.

"We have been undocumented before and we have been in this situation before and it is going to change," she said. "It's going to impact our lives a lot but, at the same time, we survived."

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