Garcia: A peaceful protester wins right to remain in the U.S.

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When the federal government said Ireri Unzueta Carrasco posed a threat to public safety, she sought legal help to set the record straight.

But the government wouldn’t budge. Hanging in the balance was the Little Village resident’s ability to live and work in the U.S. without the threat of deportation under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

DACA has given temporary relief to some 800,000 younger undocumented immigrants who as children had no say in their unauthorized residency in this country and know only the U.S. as their home.

Unzueta Carrasco, an activist for immigration reform, received relief under DACA in 2013 despite a history of peaceful civil disobedience that had resulted in a few arrests. Charges always were dropped.

In 2015, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services refused to grant Unzueta Carrasco a DACA renewal. She wrote the agency’s ombudsman for help. In a reply, the agency cited the civil disobedience as “reckless” conduct to explain the denial.

Unzueta Carrasco, 29, and her lawyers went public with her case in May, and I wrote about it then. They filed a lawsuit against USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security and rallied publicly.

More than 500 professors across the U.S. signed a letter to vouch for Unzueta Carrasco, who graduated with honors from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2009.

Unzueta Carrasco was never under a direct threat of deportation but, legally, she couldn’t work without it.

Last month, the government relented and told her she would receive the renewal.

“I knew they were wrong and I felt there was nothing I could do individually,” Unzueta Carrasco told me this week. “It was all the support that created an atmosphere for USCIS to make that new decision.”

It was only fitting that Unzueta Carrasco had national support. She, her sister and parents have been pivotal organizers in the push for immigration reform and a slowdown of Obama’s record deportations.

Her mom, Rosi Carrasco, just returned from Maricopa County in Arizona, where she helped grassroots organizers in their push to unseat Sheriff Joe Arpaio, considered by some to be a racist for his treatment of undocumented immigrants (a recent poll shows Arpaio trails in his race for re-election by 15 points).

Unzueta Carrasco, who works with a non-profit to teach gardening classes to elementary and high school students, remains active with Organizing Communities Against Deportations. Some of the organization’s members are part of a coalition in negotiations with the city to strengthen its sanctuary ordinance.

“For me, part of surviving is organizing and sharing your story, seeing you’re not alone, and doing whatever you can for people like you,” she said.

She and her local supporters are using the government’s reversal in her case to bolster support for Lizbeth Mateo, an activist and law school graduate in California who was denied DACA. Their cases are part of a broader pattern of USCIS retaliating against activists, Unzueta Carrasco said.

I asked Unzueta Carrasco if the government had to some degree succeeded in chilling activism by undocumented immigrants. Maybe some who want to join the movement have opted to stay on the sidelines to be assured they will hang on to DACA.

Unzueta Carrasco, who is soft-spoken, gave an emboldened response. “We succeeded,” she said. “They had to overturn their own decision because of pressure we put on them.”

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