As Monday's deadline for Congress to find an alternative for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program came and went, local DACA recipients and their families are left in limbo.
Last September, President Donald Trump called for an end to the program enacted in 2012, and he gave Congress until March 5 to propose a new option for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the U.S. as children DACA now protects.
The DACA program allows childhood arrivals who are undocumented to apply for Social Security numbers and work authorization.
It also protects them from being deported for two years. It does not provide a path to citizenship.
What is DACA?
› The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program protects certain immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children from deportation. It grants them a two-year reprieve that can be extended and issues a work permit and a Social Security number.› DACA recipients must be at least 15 years old when they apply. They must have arrived in the U.S. prior to their 16th birthday and must have been under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012. They cannot have a criminal record and must have continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007.› Immigrants who are accepted into the program and later get arrested face deportation to their home country.› The application costs nearly $500, and permits must be renewed every two years.› DACA does not give beneficiaries legal U.S. residency.Source: Times Free Press archives
In January, a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup led to a nationwide injunction. Late last month, the Supreme Court refused to hear the administration's appeal, sending it back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"A lot of people are in limbo," said Jessica Oliva-Calderin, an immigration lawyer with Calderin & Olivia, P.A. in Dalton, Ga. "It's causing a lot of anxiety. It's uncertain. They don't know if the program, with the court's ruling, they don't know if they're going to have this work permit for a year, another two years. ... There's a lot of uncertainty. ... It's holding a lot of people back, I guess, is the end result."
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now is accepting renewal requests from DACA recipients, but USCIS is not accepting new DACA applications, according to public affairs officer Sharon Scheidhauer.
More than 9,000 people in Tennessee have applied for DACA since 2012, according to USCIS data. Almost 8,400 of those initially were granted deferred action.
Areli Solorzano is one of those people.
Solorzano was 8 months old when her parents traveled to North Carolina from Mexico City. The coyote - the man hired to get them over the border - pretended she was his own "so there wouldn't be complications." Solorzano, her mother and her sister - who was in born in the U.S. - eventually left North Carolina for Chattanooga, fleeing her abusive father.
Solorzano remembers when her mother finally told her she was undocumented.
"I remember when I was around 8 or 9, I can't remember why my mom told me," Solorzano said. "There was a little bit of fear but I didn't want to let it get in the way."
As Solorzano's high school career at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences came to a close, though, she began to sink into a what has since been diagnosed as clinical depression.
As her classmates got their driver's licenses and applied to college, Solorzano didn't know what her options were.
Alondra Gomez, another local DACA recipient, remembers that same feeling. As she completed high school at Chattanooga High School for Creative Arts, Gomez wasn't sure if college was in her future.
"This changed my life," Gomez said of obtaining her DACA status and work authorization. Gomez completed a certified medical assistant program at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Chattanooga State and is now a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Solorzano graduated from Lee University. Both women though, are unsure of their futures - whether they will be able to renew their DACA applications, if they will be good for another two years, what will happen when their status runs out.
The two are part of a group of seven activists who traveled from Chattanooga to Washington, D.C., this week to join up with the national immigrant youth advocacy group, United We Dream, to organize and lobby lawmakers for a permanent solution for immigrant youth.
"We want something that is permanent to ensure all of us have something for us and our families," Solorzano said. "We are tired of living like this. We want people to have a voice. We don't want people to be afraid anymore."
Arguments for a permanent option for immigrants who arrived to the country as juveniles aren't new. United We Dream is advocating for legislation similar to the DREAM Act, which has been shot down by legislators for years.
In 2013, the U.S. Senate passed a Comprehensive Immigration Reform package that ultimately failed in the House. At the time, Tennessee's Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander approved of that package, but U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said he approved of a more piecemeal approach.
This weekend, the Times Free Press reported that Fleischmann is now in favor of a more comprehensive fix.
"Keeping this one point in mind, DACA is only one small part of the entire immigration scenario," he said. "And what I would like to see is some sort of comprehensive fix to the entire immigration situation. DACA is only a small part of it."
On Saturday, about 200 people rallied on the steps of Chattanooga City Hall, urging legislators to support the more than 2 million undocumented youth who they say need protection across the country.
Jared Steiman, Gomez's husband and a U.S. citizen who helped organize Saturday's rally, is part of the group in Washington this week. In January, Steiman was arrested on a similar trip with United We Dream while protesting in the halls of Congress.
This time around, Steiman said they are still fighting for the same things.
"I hope to show Congress that just because the Supreme Court ruled like that, we won't stop fighting," he said. "It isn't a fix. It just extends the problem, so we can't stop being heard."
Terry Olsen, an attorney in Chattanooga, said that since President Trump rescinded the DACA program last fall, his clients have been filled with despair.
"The last two to three months in my practice have been the most unhappiest and hardest times in my 16 years. Compared to two, three years ago, I saw optimism in people. Maybe too much optimism. But there was a confidence in the immigration system. There was a confidence that, eventually it will work out," Olsen said. "Now there is utter despair and utter worry."
A lot of immigrants aren't sure what to apply for and what might exist in a year or even in a couple of months, Olsen said.
With the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will have to review the plaintiffs' - California, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and the University of California - claims that the administration failed to justify ending the program. A decision isn't expected until June.
Congress has until March 23 to pass a permanent spending bill, and some hope this will allow Democratic lawmakers to push for an immigration reform bill. Until then, the futures of people including Gomez and Solorzano will remain up in the air.
Contact staff writer Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.