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Millions of illegal immigrants await news with mix of excitement, anxiety, confusion For millions of Illegal immigrants, a mix of celebration and deep disappointment
(about 2 hours later)
In Baltimore on Thursday, an undocumented mother from Mexico named Jessica Mejia, 31, was praying that President Obama’s executive action would protect her from deportation along with several million other illegal immigrants. Maria Martinez clutched her 8-year-old son Rene’s hand and fingered her rosary beads, listening intently Thursday night as President Obama announced his plan to shield several million illegal immigrants from deportation.
Mejia said her greatest wish is to have a work permit — and to become legalized like her boyfriend, who was granted “deferred action” on deportation two years ago, and their 5-year-old son, who was born in the United States All around her, people inthe basement room at the CASA de Maryland headquarters in Hyattsville, Md., were clapping and cheering. But Martinez, 33, a housekeeper from El Salvador, was quietly absorbing the magnitude of what had just happened and how it would change her life.
“This is my great hope,” said Mejia, who went to a branch office of the CASA de Maryland immigrant advocacy group in anticipation of Obama’s announcement. “The fear is over,” Martinez said tearfully. “All I can think about is what I’m going to tell the kids.”
“If I can get a work permit, I can complete the picture of my life. I can study art. I can do more and know more people, not just my boyfriend and my son,” she said. “It would change everything in my life.” For nine years, Martinez has not seen her two older children, whom she left behind in El Salvador to join her husband in the United States.
But in Lafayette Square, where a group of “Dreamer Moms” has been fasting across from the White House for more than two weeks, another illegal immigrant named Maria Reyes, 68, was crushed when she asked Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) whether there was any hope that she and the others would be included. Now, the president had just announced that parents of children like Rene, who was born in this country, could apply for a reprieve from deportation. Martinez might finally be able to travel home and return legally to the United States.
Grijalva sighed and shook his head. Across the Washington region and the nation, illegal immigrants celebrated as the president announced that 3.7 million parents of U.S.-born and resident children as well as 1 million or more undocumented immigrants who arrived as children would have a path to receive work permits, drive and conduct legal transactions.
“It’s a step, in general, but the goal we are seeking will not be realized,” he said in Spanish. There were also scenes ofdeep disappointment, especially among groups of Latina women known as “dreamer moms,” whose children were among about 600,000 legalized by Obama in a 2012 program but were not included in his new action as grounds for legalizing parents.
Reyes, a Mexican who lives near Oakland, Calif., has two children who came to the United States illegally and were given temporary relief through Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But that was not enough to protect her entire family, she said. Now, she said, it seemed that Obama’s new announcement would also fall short. “It’s a small bandage for a large wound,” said Maria Reyes, 68, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who lives near Oakland, Calif., and waited outside the White House on Thursday evening after fasting there for several days. Although her two children were granted deportation relief through the 2012 “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program, they will not be able to confer legal status on her.
“It’s a small bandage for a large wound,” Reyes said. There were also several million illegal immigrants who never stood a chance of reprieve under Obama’s plan, especially adult men who left their families behind and came to work in the United States illegally. Some Central Americans obtained temporary protection as war refu­gees, but many could not convert that to permanent legal status, while Mexicans — the great majority of undocumented immigrants — had no such benefit.
Mejia and Reyes were among the winners and losers in the executive action that Obama outlined Thursday night. As the White House gradually released details ahead of the announcement, it appeared that Mejia could qualify for a three-year deportation reprieve that will be granted to parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. And Reyes and other parents of the 600,000 “Dreamers” granted reprieves by Obama’s 2012 executive action will not receive legal status. Mario Juarez, 40, a painter from Honduras, spent Thursday in a parking lot in Arlington, Va., hoping a contractor would come along in a van to offer him a day’s wages. Around him were a dozen other men in thick jackets and scuffed workboots, many of whom had been working in the United States for years, and yet knew they had no hope of deportation relief.
In the hours before Obama’s announcement, millions of illegal immigrants across the Washington region and the nation awaited the news with equal measures of excitement, anxiety and confusion.
They gathered outside the White House and in Latino community centers from Los Angeles to Miami to Hyattsville, Md., speculating endlessly over the still-unreleased details of his plan.
Many remained torn between hope and defeat, wondering whether they would qualify for an executive action that could literally transform their lives.
What minimum age would the president set for U.S.-born children who could confer legality on their parents? How many years would he require parents to have lived in the United States? What new age limit would he set for the Dreamers — those who arrived illegally as children? What kinds of documents would they need to prove their case?
For some illegal immigrants such as Mario Juarez, 40, a painter from Guatemala, the answers to those details were irrelevant, because there is no chance he can qualify for relief.
On Thursday morning, Juarez was one of a dozen men in thick jackets and scarred workboots waiting for day-labor jobs in a parking lot in Arlington. All had come from Central America and Mexico, and many had lived and worked in the United States for years.
All of them knew about the president’s imminent action — and all of them knew it would have no impact on them.
“I’m happy for all those families who will be able to stay together now, but there are a lot of guys like me who came with the same dream. Now we’re being left out,” said Juarez, who has spent the past 12 years working odd construction jobs and sending money back home to his wife and three children.“I’m happy for all those families who will be able to stay together now, but there are a lot of guys like me who came with the same dream. Now we’re being left out,” said Juarez, who has spent the past 12 years working odd construction jobs and sending money back home to his wife and three children.
A few feet away, Jose Medina, 62, nursed a cold cup of coffee. He said he had fled El Salvador in 1990 and obtained temporary protection as a war refu­gee but lost it because of paperwork problems and never found a way to become permanently legal. Nonetheless, the mood in many Latino communities Thursday night was one of enormous relief. People who gathered in ­churches, nonprofit agencies and social halls to watch the speech cheered, hugged one another and chanted “Viva Obama” or “Si, se pudo,” meaning “Yes, he could.”
“It’s hard being alone here,” Medina said, mentioning that his sister in Maryland had become legal but that she had not been able to help him. “If people are criminals they should be deported, but not if they do honest work,” he added. “We are all out here on the corner because we don’t have work permits. Now maybe we never will.” In Chicago, Doris Aguirre sat in the front row of the Lincoln United Methodist Church with her daughter Izaithell, 13, at her feet as they looked up at Obama on the big screen. The president’s words meant that because of Izaithell, a U.S. citizen born in Chicago, her mother has a chance to remain in the country legally after nearly 15 years as an undocumented immigrant.
According to several recent surveys of the illegal immigrant population, about 3.7 million adults live with U.S. citizen or resident children, and 6.5 million live with no children at all. Of those, several hundred thousand may qualify for protection as “childhood arrivals,” a category Obama expanded. “I am still trying to process all this, but I am optimistic,” Aguirre said when Obama finished speaking. “I think everything is going to get better for us. I hope I qualify, because I think I deserve it.”
But several million, such as Juarez and Medina, will fall outside the tent, either because they never sought to obtain permanent legal status or tried and failed. In interviews Thursday, several day laborers in Arlington and Hyattsville said they had not been able to parlay temporary refu­gee status into permanent residency. Others said they had children born in the United States but were divorced or estranged from the mother. Aguirre came from Honduras in 2000, traveling for 10 days while still breast-feeding her 5-month-old son, Bladimir, now 15 and also an illegal immigrant. She said U.S. Border Patrol agents picked her up in Texas but gave her a bus ticket to Chicago, where she had relatives.
A few of the laborers, especially those who had joined unions or other groups, said they had been closely following the news of Obama’s pending action but did not yet know the details. Some were still holding out hope of being included. There she met Roberto Aguirre, 68, a Mexican immigrant who had become a U.S. citizen in the 1980s. When they went to apply for a marriage licence, they discovered that there was a deportation order outstanding for Aguirre and Bladimir. They have been living in the shadows ever since.
“I wish the president would help all 11 million of us, not just 5 million, but something is better than nothing,” said Antonio Chavez, 52, a Salvadoran construction worker who has been in the country for 20 years but had lost his original refu­gee protection long ago because of legal complications. “It’s been so hard. We lost our house, and we lost everything because I have never been able to work and we don’t have enough money,” she said. “But now it’s like everything has changed. It’s like all my dreams have come true. We came here to make a life, and now maybe I can.”
One immigrant who has little doubt of qualifying is Rosario Reyes, 36, of Gaithersburg. She is the mother of a Dreamer, Ricardo, 19. and a U.S.-born child, Victor, 6. Aguirre said she hoped that she could now apply for a driver’s license, get a job and not be afraid of being deported every time she leaves the house. She said people who think Obama is rewarding law-breakers don’t understand the misery she faced in Honduras. She says she is only guilty of trying to help her family.
After days and nights of fasting with other Dreamer Moms in Lafayette Square, she said she planned to stay there and watch the president’s speech on her mobile device. But even as she smiled with happiness, her expression changed as she glanced at Maria Reyes and another protester sitting on a bench. “God bless that law that I broke, because it got me here,” she said. “I will never regret breaking that law.”
“I am also sad because so many don’t have citizen children like I do. It’s not fair,” she said. In Las Vegas, where people gathered at the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional community center to watch the speech, an activist named Astrid Silva addressed the crowd. She called Obama’s action a “huge victory for our community” and described how protesters had braved rainy weather and risked arrest to push him to act — but also said they must keep pressing Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
One of the women, Karina Nunez, said she emigrated from Uruguay and settled in Connecticut with her two grown children. Because neither one of them was born in the United States, she will not be eligible for legalization under the details of the executive action. People applauded, whooped, cried and held hands throughout the speech — and then went wild when Obama unexpectedly mentioned Silva by name. She came to the United States from Mexico at age 4 and is now a 26-year-old “dreamer,” whose parents remain undocumented and whose father has an order of deportation pending.
“What is the message they are sending?” she said. “Have your kids here? I pay taxes, and I should have the same rights.” After Obama spoke of her, she stood in disbelief, crying on her father’s shoulder.
Immigration activist Francisco Diaz did not hesitate to question Grijalva about the president’s action when he approached the small group of immigration demonstrators in front of the White House. “Just to know that they’re going to be okay, that I don’t have to be scared that they’re going to be deported every day. It changes everything,” she said.
“What will happen with Secure Communities?” he asked. The controversial program calls for local law enforcement to help identify immigrants for deportation and forward their information to federal authorities. It is designed to target violent criminals and repeat offenders, but critics have said it’s been used to incarcerate and deport those accused of minor infractions. The Obama administration revamped the law this year, but Diaz said the program continues to wreak irreparable havoc on immigrant families across the country. Lorena Palos had big plans Thursday night: She was going to the Latin Grammys. Palos was supposed to walk the red carpet and hobnob with celebrities. She had picked out a pink gown to wear but put it back in her closet when she heard that Obama would speak.
“It will be eliminated,” Grijalva said, eliciting muffled claps from the gloved hands of the Dreamer Moms gathered near him. “It has brought about more problems than solutions.” Palos, 18, was born in Mexico and granted deferred action two years ago. Her brother is a U.S. citizen and her parents are undocumented.
Diaz, 42, who lives in South Florida, followed up with another question, asking the congressman how he felt about the action. “I knew I didn’t want to miss this,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for this for so long. It’s not right to say that I’ll find out about this later for something so big.”
“For me, I don’t know whether to be happy or . . . ” Grijalva started saying when Diaz interrupted: “Es agridulce,” he said. “It’s bittersweet.” She texted her parents during the speech.
The congressman shook his head. “It’s a weight lifted off our shoulders,” she said. “I don’t think there could be a more historic moment. This is a moment that will live forever in the immigrant community,” she said.
Kevin Sullivan in Chicago and Katie Zezima in Las Vegas contributed to this report.