By Roxanne Ramos and Alyssa Tornel, Courier Staff Writers
With Logan being a culturally diverse school, it is a vital piece of information to know the current events regarding the recent DACA ruling.
For those of you who don’t know, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, is an American immigration policy that allows people who entered the country illegally as minors receive a renewable two year period of deferred action from deportation and are eligible to gain a work permit. However, on September 5th, Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced that they would be ending the DACA program.
Mr. Santos, an ethnic studies teacher, voiced his thoughts on this ruling.
“I honestly wasn’t surprised, … it was just a matter of time… We expected this to happen. Obama’s admin deported the most people during his time but now it’s just a more blunt topic.”
Santos was also not afraid to mention that he was “critical of the system” and scrutinized the fact that “things that happened in history are still happening, which shows that we have not learned anything.”
Ms. Wright, both an English teacher and a part of the Puenté program, also voiced her opinion about the DACA ruling. She expressed that she was“[angry] on behalf of my students and the community here.”
The English teacher mentioned that she was concerned “about the stress and anxiety that this change could cause.”
“The program fits my personal view which is to protect and shield my students from things that would threaten their well being and chance at success,” said Ms. Wright.
She also voiced her concern about not knowing whether or not there were dreamers in her class.
“…that’s part of the anxiety and sense of mystery that makes this stressful for everyone, we aren’t allowed to ask students directly, it makes it this unspoken thing that makes it ever present but also invisible, I imagine for students with undocumented status the decision to tell people is a burden… [it] isn’t fair to them and is stressful enough to be a teenager in high school.”
She also urges both students and teachers to “stay up to date with the news, keep informed, be open to talk with family or friends if they come to you with any immigration issues.”
She left us with the following advice to “Pay attention enough so that things don’t change so fast that you lose the power to do something.”
As of right now, if any Logan students’ DACA expires between September 5th, 2017 and March 5th, 2018, they need to renew it on or before October 5th, 2017 or else their DACA permit will expire. The Mission Asset Fund is also providing scholarships of $495 to over 2,000 undocumented youths to renew their DACA permit by October 5th, 2017.
