An answer to prayer: Dalton teens talk about how Obama order will affect them

photo Adriana Rascon poses for a portrait next to her section of a "Memory Wall" on Friday at Morris Innovative High School in Dalton, Ga. A group of Hispanic students at the school have put together the "Memory Wall" documenting their experiences as immigrant children.

Read moreIn Dalton, Obama's immigration action offers hope to many

DALTON, Ga. - Adriana Rascon hates watching her mother fold her hands in prayer every morning before she picks up her keys to drive to work.

"My mom is always scared she is going to get deported," said Adriana, who is a U.S. citizen by birth and a 10th-grader at Morris Innovative High School in Dalton.

For Adriana and her family, President Barack Obama's immigration announcement Thursday night could provide the safety they pray for daily.

"This change could change my life," Adriana said through tears on Friday. "My mom may be able to be a mom now, and not just be afraid."

At the heart of the president's executive action is a new program that will protect immigrant parents from deportation if they have lived in the United States for at least five years and have children who are citizens or have been issued green cards.

Experts believe the order will be fully implemented within six months.

White House officials say this measure alone will protect nearly 4 million undocumented immigrants.

Adriana said her mother is one of them.

A conversation with Adriana and other teens at Morris Innovative High illustrates what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said about how Obama's action will "keep families together and expand educational opportunity for so many currently living in the shadows."

The Hispanic population in Dalton has soared over the past 20 years, and Obama's executive order will likely have more impact here than in any other area in the tri-state region.

Deportation is a common fear in Dalton, and students say everyone in town interacts with undocumented immigrants daily.

Paige Watts, who teaches Spanish at Morris and directs the school's Translation Academy, has lived and worked in Dalton for more than 15 years, after growing up the child of missionaries in Mexico.

She said stories of siblings being deported are common in the school hallways. Many kids in her class work full-time jobs to support their families, or live alone because their family members are stuck in Mexico.

"Students come and go," Watts said. "There is not stability in this community."

Another aspect of the president's plan that will protect undocumented immigrants is the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal program launched in 2012, that allows young immigrants to apply for work permits and promises that the government will not deport them for at least two years.

Now immigrants older than 30 can qualify for the program if they came to the United States before they were 16. Immigrants who arrived between 2007 and 2011 can also apply.

Juan, a senior at Morris who asked that his last name not be used to protect a family member, received one of these work permits more than a year ago, and said responsibility has been the theme of his life.

"I am the one in my family who can legally be here," he said. "I am the driver because I am the one with a license."

When not driving his mom to the grocery store, Juan said, he is the family's translator and works to help pay the bills, while still completing his homework.

Juan hopes the new immigration protection will allow his mom to get her own driver's license and a job, which will take some of the pressure off of him to provide for the family.

The plan also diminishes Juan's concern about traveling to Atlanta in a few months to renew his two-year work permit. He said the president's action makes him confident he will be able to graduate from high school in the United States.

Watts said the majority of her students take their education seriously. She frequently talks with them about the American dream, but said she frequently feels like she is lying to them.

"Many of these students' hands are tied," she said. "They don't have the same opportunity kids born into an American family do, and not everyone understands this."

Watts and her students sat in chairs around a circular table on Friday as she explained how Obama's plan is working to expand the American dream for them.

She called the president's action "hope."

Watts and her students have been working on a project to represent their individual experiences as Latino/Latina youth in Dalton, and they plan to share pictures from the project with the broader Dalton community this spring.

"Changes may not take place, but I hope perceptions about one another may become healthier through this project," Watts said. "All Americans deserve the same dream."

Armando Rangel, 20, is a senior at Morris and said graduating from high school in May is part of his dream.

"What I really dream for is a better chance for every Hispanic," he said. "This plan is a start."

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6592.

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