A Dreamer at Work: Jackie

Nearly 80,000 young adults in the United States are protected by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Those with DACA lived in the U.S. illegally when they were young, and the program protects them from deportation.

The program started during the Obama administration, and the Trump administration said it would end the DACA program. October 5 was the deadline to renew DACA for current recipients, and no new applications are being accepted. Those who renewed before the deadline have two more years of protection under the program, which allows them to work legally, but it is not equivalent to citizenship.

The names of the subjects in this piece have been changed for privacy reasons.

Photo by Alina Dennis

Arrival

“I’m gonna meet my dad.”

For Jackie, coming to the United States meant meeting her father, not because she hadn’t met him before, but because she was too young to remember him since he first left for the U.S. She was eager to see what her father looked like, excited to see how he was going to act upon her family’s arrival, and anxious to set eyes on their first house in America. Having received only phone calls and letters from her father, Jackie’s first memories of America were mostly of excitement to see her dad.

From nearly fifteen years ago, she remembers the goodbyes from her aunts in Mexico urging them, “don’t leave,” but during the emotional time, Jackie felt excited to meet her father again and overwhelmed by emotions. From the small town of Guanajuato, Mexico, where most pre-school children her age knew her father was never around, Jackie remembers being questioned about where he was by other classmates. According to Jackie's mother, their father left for the U.S first on his own, in search of a better economic situation for the family. Working in America, he was making money that couldn’t be earned in Mexico, and he sent that money back to his family in Guanajuato for groceries and just about everything else.

“What my mom would be making in a week, my dad would be making in like half a day.”

Jackie, without ever actually having the conversation with her father of the reasoning behind his decision to leave for the U.S understood the crucial economic difference of the household once her father began working in America. Her father fearing that the family would start from the ground up, if he went back to Mexico, asked his wife and children to come to America.

“It was more of a future thing, than him going back to us, where he knew we were going to start from zero again. So pretty much that is why we are here.”

Following her father, Jackie’s mother arrived, then her aunt, grandma, and later arriving herself along with her brother. Lastly her oldest sister and fiancé came, pregnant with their first child. The family lived in a crowded one-bedroom apartment off of Neil Road. Together they shared beds, and the one bathroom. It wasn’t exactly the vision of a home in America that Jackie had. But at a young age she was surrounded by family and a support system.

Jackie’s story is not unlike other immigrant families. The economic assurance from work in the U.S is often one of the biggest driving factors for families to cross the U.S/ Mexico border.

On Saying Goodbye

Leaving behind relatives, friends, even homes, many choose economic stability, or the promise of economic stability that the U.S vows to offer. Recalling an emotional moment of personal guilt, Jackie shared a story of the time she didn’t say goodbye to her grandmother who was leaving to go back to her home country of Mexico. At the time, the family lived in a second-story apartment and for whatever reason, Jackie’s mother was the only one who went downstairs to say goodbye to her grandmother.

“Why didn’t I go downstairs and say bye. I never got to say ‘bye or be safe’ and so that’s something I’ll always remember… If I could go back in time, I’d at least give her a hug.”

Photo by Alina Dennis

Despite losing her grandmother, Jackie continues to be supported and heartened in Reno by her mother, father, aunt, brother, sisters, nieces and nephews, friends and coworkers.

“So, Reno is my home. I’ve never lived anywhere else.”

Her personal community is wide, and she enjoys a hearty group of people. Many of whom may not have known that she is granted temporary but legal authorization to work through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

To return back to Guanajuato, where her grandmother perished, and only distant relatives live, would be foreign to Jackie. And she fears that with the upcoming decision of (DACA), her future here in Reno could be taken away. The last time she lived in Guanajuato she was in early education, and has since made a home in Reno, with many friends and family. Her life is here. And she does not want it to be temporary.

She joked that from back home in Mexico, she wouldn’t even be able to tell someone where things were located, instead she’d have someone Google it. Vaguely, she can remember her first home in Guanajuato, which was built with no doors, and only archways. Together, her family would share two beds located in the living room, fighting over whom had the chance to sleep with their grandmother.

A Dreamer at Work

To Jackie DACA is a really big opportunity to skip the steps that many undocumented immigrants take. She states that many others, in effort to do something good, end up getting false documentation or fake identification, so that they are able to work in the U.S. The struggle occurs when an immigrant wants to work in this country for the good of their family and economic opportunity, but does not have the proper documentation to legally become authorized to work.

Photo by Alina Dennis

Jackie works at a financial institution, and has been a recipient of DACA now twice. Gaining her employment proved to be rather difficult with DACA, because employers know the temporary status of the permit and don’t always wish to risk employing someone who has only two years to work. Jackie waited an entire month for her background check to clear, and for her authorization number to clear with the company she works for, before getting hired. Recently, she just got promoted from her current role and moved to another location, she oversees a team of co-workers and manages daily operations.

Without her, the business could not function effectively, nor would her team members be as joyful to show up to work. Formerly she worked undocumented at a business that did express-sends to foreign countries. Her employer at the time did not ask for documentation because her sister was already employed with the company. Jackie states that some companies will accept immigrants for who they are, but will not back the immigrant up if immigration services were to come in.

Renewal

Wanting to work legally, Jackie most recently applied for her DACA renewal in 2017, after her first initial application in 2015. She is 22 years old, and first applied after graduating from a local high school in Reno. Every two years recipients are eligible to reapply. Or at least, that is the current policy, which is currently being debated in congress. Under President Trump's administration congress is deciding to cease members from reapplication all together. That means, in 2019, Jackie who has lived her entire life in Reno, who plans to get married here, who has generations of family residing, who works full-time in her community, could lose her temporary status and be sent back to a country that is more foreign to her than the U.S ever was when she first arrived.

"Personally, we don't have a place to call home over there."

She would lose her chance at ever applying for temporary authorization again.

It's not just Jackie who would lose the opportunity to work in America.

Nearly 80,000 young adults are protected by DACA in the United States, which started during President Obama's administration. According to an article in the L.A Times, Congress could end the program within the next six months, leaving the nearly 1.1 million immigrants who are DACA eligible without protection either once their two-year period ends, or eliminating their chance all-together if they haven't applied yet.

But applying wasn’t easy or cheap, and might be a reason most who are eligible are afraid to apply for DACA.

"This is not as easy or as piece-of-cake as you guys think of. There's a lot of things you go through just to even get this permit. When you apply for it, it literally takes months and months for you to even get a response to say 'we're still looking at your documents.'"

Jackie sought help from a notary republic, obtained a passport and Matricular ID to prove her identity, and then applied for DACA with the help of a place on Wells Ave that does notaries. She paid a representative to help fill out, and send her DACA application the first time.

The second time she felt confident enough to apply online by printing the forms on her own, asking around, and using the directions online. However, the application process online is in English, most of the forms are too, and Jackie feels strongly that some eligible DACA members stall at the language barrier and cease their applications.

Learning English

Since arriving at a young age, Jackie's family sought a school for the children to learn English. Jackie and her brother were declined from one school because they did not speak any English and instead only Spanish. But they were accepted at Mariposa Academy, which is primarily the place she learned English, through the English as Second Language (ESL) program.

Photo by Alina Dennis

She remembers the long bus ride to the school from her home and feeling very scared because she could not speak the language of the bus driver to tell him when to stop. Instead, she learned visual cues to alert the bus driver when to stop.

Later, she would make friends at the academy after hearing them speak Spanish like she did. Her mother also would make the children watch English cartoons or listen to English music, so the language was constantly in their young heads. "It was very difficult to learn English. I think my English is not great. But it's definitely advanced to what I know some people can speak at this time."

Jackie's Future

Jackie speaks both English and Spanish and imagines herself one day as a teacher. She had favorite teachers in high school who she felt she could trust with her immigration status, and encourages others to privately seek out trusted teachers to help with DACA applications or citizenship status.

Art schools in either Las Vegas or Sacramento are her ultimate goal, but she envisions herself as the art teacher, guiding other students. Drawing and art has always been important to her, she draws on just about anything, even bananas she said. Art, above all else, is her passion in life. DACA allows her the chance to work toward admissions to those art schools, to becoming a teacher.

Photo by Alina Dennis

Coming to America has given her the chance to live the life she's always dreamed of. DACA has given her the opportunity to work, save money for books and school, and even save money to wed her fiancé Álvaro next year.

When asked what DACA means to her, Jackie, rather emotionally stated "It's everything."

Interview done by Natalie Van Hoozer, Dani Vogel, and Alina Dennis. Audio by Natalie Van Hoozer. Written by Dani Vogel.