Back-and-Forth on DACA Leaves Young Immigrants ‘Just Dangling’
Violeta Gomez-Uribe, 32, goes to kickboxing classes in Brooklyn. Eduardo Garcia, 22, lifts weights at the gym, in between classes and two jobs. Apolinar Islas, 34, who came to New York from Mexico when he was 15, said he walks around in “zombie mode” and tries to stay off social media to avoid “the tsunami of confusion.”
All of them are recipients of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation and lets them work legally in this country.
They have felt a whiplash of emotions since Sept. 5, when, after months of uncertainty, the Trump administration announced it would be ending the program. Hours later, the president showed his support for DACA recipients on Twitter. A little more than a week later, Democratic leaders said they had struck a deal with Mr. Trump to preserve the program, only to have the White House deny it. . .