A couple of weeks ago, Marin Community Free Library (MCFL) in Novato, hosted a book discussion on The Journey of Daca Students Living in The United States Today, a collection of personal stories written by eight students who moved to the United States at a very young age in the hopes of fulfilling their dreams. They say that they are now in fear of losing everything they have worked for because of the President’s new proposal to end DACA.

Three of the book contributors, Jose Ordonez, Itzel Lopez, and Erick Palafox, attended the event. They all shared their portions of the book. They opened up to the audience about sensitive issues such as family deportations and depression. Dealing with these issues affected their learning abilities but with time they managed to overcome their traumas.

Jose Ordonez, former SRHS alumni and contributor of the book, emotionally shared his experience of coming to the United States at 11 years old and having nothing but his mom and his sister. “I was a little kid from El Salvador afraid of coming into the United States, I didn’t want to leave everything I’ve ever known behind,” said Ordonez. “The language barrier is one of the hardest things for me to overcome because I only spoke Spanish but I went to school where everyone spoke English, everyone could tell I was different and it made me feel like an outcast.”

Despite Ordonez facing many challenges at school and in life, he pushed himself to overcome them and use them to grow as a person. He graduated from San Rafael High School in 2013 with a 4.0 GPA and then from UC Berkeley in 2017. He truly believes that anyone is able to reach their goals no matter what circumstances they may have been put in. 

“I will not stop fighting for the injustices that my undocumented people, people of color and underrepresented group space in this country. I thank DACA for giving me opportunities to work and be able to receive education in this country but, I still worry about my status in this country as DACA continues to be under attack recently being declared illegal,” he said. 

Over 800,000 qualified individuals brought to the United States as children have received legal work permits and a protected status that helps them from deportation from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Along with a period of two years and the opportunity of renewal, DACA status has opened a door for its recipients to pursue their education and build their careers. However, opponents of DACA have taken extensive measures to end it—threatening the lives of individual DACA recipients, their families, and the communities that they serve.

These stories are real life experiences of being a DACA student and coming to the United States as young immigrant children and how this protected status has been able to transform their lives for the better, giving them opportunities to pursue higher education but with the government’s recent changes to policies there’s a fear of losing this status which could change their lives. 

Another of the book contributors, Itzel Lopez shared her experience of having to migrate by foot to the United States at only 8 years old. Her journey is inspiring due to the circumstances she was put in as a child. “It was a very hard experience. From having a happy life in my hometown, Oaxaca to walking for four days to a country I didn’t know or felt like I belonged there,” Lopez said. 

As with Ordonez, English was the main challenge all the contributors faced. “I was teased in school for not being like the other kids, for not speaking English. I would constantly cry to my teachers and tell them to take me home (Mexico) because the others didn’t want to be friends with the girl who couldn’t speak English,” she said. Despite this, she excelled pretty well in school. 

She now has a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Sociology and a Master’s degree in School Counseling but discusses the unfairness of how DACA is yet it still helps her be “legal”. “I’m grateful for DACA because I can work legally but it’s also a reminder that every two years I have to think about my identity as a undocumented person in the US,” Lopez said.

Book contributor and current board member of Lideres Del Futuro, Erick Palafox not only shared his experience of being a DACA recipient but also talked about how this organization helped him get to where he is now and is what helped make their book happen. 

At just 13 years old, Palafox moved to the United States with his family and from there was enrolled in school where he found himself as an outsider because of the accent in his voice and how different everyone else saw him. He experienced his first derogatory comment from a counselor at the high school he was enrolled in. 

“Because I didn’t know how different the California academic standards were from those in Texas I thought I was confident in school because my transcripts were full of A’s in which I decided to take more difficult math classes. My counselor’s response was ‘Well your people are not good at math.’” 

He proved them wrong. He graduated from a private high school as salutatorian and along his journey met his community college counselor Rafael Vasquez, founder of Lideres Del Futuro, who helped him get admitted into UC Berkeley. He got his Master’s degree and started working at Berkeley Geochronology Center and is on his path to a PhD in Geology at UC Davis. 

“Rafael has definitely helped shape what I’ve become now and I’m glad he came into my life as a counselor and guided me. Now I’m able to be a part of this organization and help DACA recipients receive help as well,” he said.

Palafox hopes to ensure that future generations facing challenges like his or Jose’s or Itzel’s understand that they can overcome them and that they are not alone because there’s always people willing to help. “Always keep in mind that words whether written, spoken or unspoken have no authority to define who you are or limit your potential,” he said. 

The resilience they have all had to overcome challenges that were thrown at them at such young ages has inspired many young readers of the book who were present at the discussion. Many with their own personal stories and felt related to when others would share similar stories to their own. 

“As a DACA recipient reading the book made me feel related to, and attending the discussion has inspired me and given me a sense of comfort of what my future can turn out to be and I know there’s people fighting for us everyday,” said an audience member who wished to remain anonymous. 

Another audience member, Roberto Dias, said, “I’m glad this topic is being discussed and taken seriously in places like libraries and events around the country. DACA is what has been giving jobs to many and we need DACA to stay.”

For many decades, being able to fulfill the American Dream and have the privilege of living and working in the United States peacefully has been a struggle and will be for many immigrant individuals if DACA ends. 

“We have hope that our community will fight against these new proposals and that DACA continues to help us and doesn’t take away everything we have worked for and done for this country,” said Palafox.