SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Arkansas immigrants and supporters reacted here and in front of the White House with dismay to President Donald Trump's decision to phase out legal protections for some immigrants who were brought illegally into the country as children.
"Today was really a fulfillment of our worst nightmare," Mireya Reith, director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition, told reporters Tuesday at the coalition-managed Immigrant Resource Center in Springdale. "We need to do right by children here in Arkansas," she added, calling for the program to continue.
Meeting information
The Immigrant Resource Center plans to hold a community forum this evening to answer questions about the Trump administration’s immigration decision and provide mental health care for those affected.
• Where: 1301 E. Robinson Ave., Ste. B6
• When: 5-8 p.m. today
Source: Immigrant Resource Center
Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced Tuesday morning the government would stop accepting applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that provides temporary, renewable protection from the deportation process for young immigrants who have no serious criminal convictions and meet other requirements. Current deferred action permits will work until their expiration dates.
Former President Barack Obama began the program, often called DACA, in 2012. The program covers almost 6,000 Arkansans and almost 900,000 people across the country as of March, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
"There can be no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will," Trump said in a statement calling on Congress to improve the immigration system. DACA recipients whose permits expire in the next six months can still apply for renewal.
Reith said many details remain unclear, including whether and when childhood arrivals whose permits expire will be targeted by immigration officers. She, advocates and several DACA recipients gathered Tuesday to say Trump and his supporters don't understand the harm they're causing to families, schools, businesses and communities.
"It's time to end the fear, Jeff Sessions," said George McManus, a Springdale attorney who has employed several DACA recipients at his firm. "All of them have been success stories."
The resource center held a community forum Tuesday and plans another tonight to answer immigrant residents' questions and help them deal with anxiety or other responses to Trump's decision.
Christina Pollard, director of the free immigration law clinic at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and other legal experts spoke to a crowd of about 60 people Tuesday evening. They urged all DACA recipients to seek an attorney and avoid scammers, and not to leave the country. A legitimate attorney will ask detailed questions to find out if their clients qualify for any other legal protections, they said.
Several Northwest Arkansas residents under deferred action said in recent months they were trying to avoid drawing the attention of law enforcement as Trump's administration stepped up immigration arrests around the country. Trump as recently as Friday said, "We love the dreamers," using a nickname for the program's recipients, but had said during the campaign he would end deferred action immediately.
Frankc Berlanga Medina of Fayetteville was 6 when he and his sister entered the country on foot from Mexico in 1992, hiding in trash cans whenever a law enforcement officer neared. He came to Northwest Arkansas to join an uncle who was working in construction.
Medina is now pursuing a master's degree in history at the university and works with a local nonprofit group helping low-income families become more engaged in their children's education. He received deferred action in 2012 and could get a driver's license and car insurance and can travel for his research and conferences.
Medina later became a permanent legal resident after marrying a U.S. citizen. But his sister remains part of DACA.
"She's in that limbo," he said from Springdale, calling his reaction to Trump's decision "visceral." "We are individuals, we are humans, we're a part of the community."
Trump in his statement said the issue will be resolved "with heart and compassion." Immigrants whose DACA permits would expire before March can apply for a renewal, but only until Oct. 5.
In Washington, Jairo Reyes, 25, is a native of Mexico but said he doesn't know the land of his birth.
"When I left, I was 1 year old and I haven't been back," the Rogers man said.
Reyes, who has lived in Northwest Arkansas for 24 years, said his father told him what it was like to eke out a living south of the Rio Grande.
Opportunities are few and wages are low, he was told.
"A dollar an hour. No vacation. No sick days. No retirement. Nothing like that," he said.
Reyes said he and others like him want to remain in the United States and to live without the fear of deportation.
"We just want to work," the 2014 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate said. "You know, we just want a better life. We want to live the American dream."
Another activist, Ana Karen Garcia of Fayetteville, said she's also trying to achieve the American dream.
For her and other so-called dreamers, America is home, she said. "We grew up here. We grew up doing the Pledge of Allegiance."
If she were deported to Mexico, "I wouldn't know what to do," Garcia, 25, said. "I've never been [back] to Mexico. I have no recollection of ever even being there."
Diego Quinones, 27, who moved to the United States from Mexico at age 7, told journalists that people of faith should defend immigrants.
"Arkansas is a conservative state. We pride ourselves on Christian values. And if one is to look at the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, it's a message of love, compassion, forgiveness, respect," the Bentonville man said. "If we want to be a kind and forgiving nation, we need to find a permanent path for immigrants to come out of the shadows."
The university's long-running Arkansas Poll in 2015 found a majority of respondents favored allowing immigrants who aren't lawfully present to become citizens if they meet certain criteria, such as learning English or paying the taxes they owe. The chancellor of the university and other civic leaders in the state said recently they oppose ending DACA.
NW News on 09/06/2017