A decade of DACA: A middle-class launching pad for thousands is at risk
As DACA marks its tenth anniversary, the Obama-era program has opened pathways for undocumented immigrants, but its viability is still risky politically.
As a young girl raised in the U.S. without legal status, Karla Mendoza Arana learned how to accept a limited future.
Mendoza Arana's dad was a chemical engineer in Peru and her mother was a pre-school teacher; both were pastors. But when they moved to the U.S., the couple, who were undocumented, worked at a warehouse, later switching to housekeeping.
For Mendoza Arana, her prospects changed when in 2012 President Barack Obama implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DACA, allowing hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who were largely raised in the U.S. to apply to work and study in the U.S. without fear of being deported.
From left, Karla holding Suyana, Hector Mendoza, Veralucia Mendoza and Dee Haynes.Courtesy Kellie Robinson“I just remember all of us were instantly sobbing. We knew, especially my sister and I, our lives would be changing,” Mendoza Arana, 32, originally from Lima, Peru, told NBC News.
There is mounting evidence that, in its decade of existence, DACA has done on a smaller scale what the GI Bill did for returning veterans — it elevated a group of people into the middle class, thus conferring advantages to parents, children, siblings and communities.
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