Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - Obama Presidency Oral History

...this. And it is so particular— DACA is—in terms of who qualifies. It's no...

...immigration policy in general, and in DACA in particular. They were very muc...

...access. And did the DREAMers help shape DACA ? They did. We wouldn't have eve...

...did. We wouldn't have even contemplated DACA if the DREAMers hadn't actuall...

...with that. We wouldn't have even done DACA if they wouldn't have figured out ho...

...of DREAMers that have been able to get DACA . Absolutely, and people willing t...

...in awe of these young people. In fact, DACA did. It changed the lives of over seve...

...meetings that laid the groundwork for DACA , whom did you find the most receptive...

...or labor and workforce issues. So DACA became a We Can't Wait thing. That wa...

...Express. I remember, we announced DACA on a Friday, and so the next day me an...

...meantime, we were still implementing DACA . There were other ideas that peopl...

...farther could we push the envelope. And DACA wasn't the only thing we announced. W...

...that we took into consideration. Now, DACA had withstood legal challenge in it...

...and will also call into question DACA . So we have to be very careful abou...

...Well, if DAPA can't happen, should DACA had ever happened? And that's where w...

...people would push us to do more than DACA is, are we going to go too far, wher...

...kids that are out there that have DACA who've been able to do all kinds o...

...and our communities because they have DACA . But at the same time, we didn't ge...

...can't claim victory just because he did DACA . In my estimation, he knows that w...

...the election, I had been disappointed DACA happened so close to the election...

...five. And now I think, When he gave us DACA —and I know he didn't give it to us. ...

...giving it to you. So when he gave us DACA , the weight that lifted off my mom an...

...We celebrated the ninth anniversary of DACA . And for the record, how has DAC...

...of DACA. And for the record, how has DACA changed your life? The morning DAC...

...DACA changed your life? The morning DACA was announced, José Parra called me. I...

...And then, as things started happening, DACA gave me a liberty of not worrying abou...

...doing at that time. Honestly, having DACA gave me the opportunity to take som...

...we needed it. And so, honestly, what DACA gave me was the ability to open Drea...

...things. I think that's why, not having DACA during the past three years, it was s...

...for college. But the difference is, DACA also made a lot of people mor...

...made a lot of people more complacent. DACA made a lot of people just grin...

...much from having to have this journey. DACA was just another component that reall...

...difficult time. That's another thing DACA gave me. I thought I had to be gratefu...

...told me that her son had applied for DACA because I had said it was okay. And sh...

...flaunting every interview, saying, “ DACA is safe.” So, after that I didn't leav...

...on all the highs of, Astrid helped with DACA , and Astrid did this, and Astrid di...

...Trump ended in 2019, so we still had DACA . But the first two years of Dream Bi...

...which was enough to cover most of the DACA fees that we were helping peopl...

...apply for unemployment, if they were DACA recipients, or if they were TP...

...If you ask me right now, “So your DACA 's only for a year?” I'm not going t...

...half our DREAMers don't even know their DACA work permits are two years [laughs] . ...

...when I opened my work permit. And DACA has made a huge difference. ...

...graduation, that was because I had my DACA . Yes, all these things may hav...

...these things may have happened without DACA . But I may have been fifty by tha...

...able—this past week we gave seventeen DACA scholarships. Now those seventeen wil...

...take that away. They can try and take DACA away all they want, but we've alread...

...what it's like to have a world without DACA . When DACA was taken away, they had n...

...like to have a world without DACA. When DACA was taken away, they had no idea how t...

...doing?” And they're like, “Well, I have DACA .” I'm like, “You're stil...

...because a lot of them, again, they got DACA when they were fifteen. They'r...

...to be a DREAMer, literally, you have DACA . And also, especially now with so man...

...lot of kids who will never qualify for DACA . Even if DACA was to be around, lik...

...will never qualify for DACA. Even if DACA was to be around, like TPS, for thirt...

...United We Dream contribute to shaping DACA ? The desire to protect what are no...

...desire to protect what are now known as DACA recipients began really in the lat...

...the Republican leadership on behalf of DACA . He was the godfather for th...

...for the Republican Party of the DACA legislation. But, again, we're a lon...

...use their voice to make the case for DACA and for DAPA and immigration reform. S...

...political group that helped get DACA on the table. And I'll mention on...

...in 2011, in the year leading up to his DACA executive order—which we, again, ha...

...of 2012 where he moved forward with the DACA executive order. And it had ...

...us rally so many in that 2012 election. DACA has changed the lives of over seve...

...but also for their parents. It was DACA that gave impetus, I would argue, fo...

...the White House the importance of DACA —not just to DACA itself but to th...

...the importance of DACA—not just to DACA itself but to the understanding tha...

...of negative repercussions to get DACA over the finish line. But we did, an...

...And while making a solution for DACA permanent, we also see another te...

...your involvement in the creation of DACA . Could you talk about where you fit i...

...end, in the actual formal creation of DACA . The beginning of it played out in th...

...ultimately recognized more formally in DACA for protection, or fo...

...work authorization that we now know as DACA . But an informal version of DACA wa...

...as DACA. But an informal version of DACA was going on all the way from the ver...

...of legislative efforts to legislate DACA , but they were unsuccessful due to th...

...ultimately led to what we now know as DACA . I give the secretary a lot of credi...

...as the prosecutor for the system, DACA was a binding statement of policy o...

...it your sense, at the time that DACA is announced, that it would withstan...

...how did how ICE functioned change once DACA was put into place, if it changed a...

...was a much more formal process under DACA . A lot of the work-authorizatio...

...who would ultimately have qualified for DACA , or was in that same zip code o...

...informally, in the existing process. DACA came along and gave a formal structur...

...don't want to pretend that DACA was just a light touch. No, it was ...

...of the challenge with something like DACA —it's at once the right thing, but it'...

...the Morton memos, the stance we took in DACA , and I don't see any issue in callin...

...life. I mean, we're talking about DACA , and a lot of things. That weight o...