For these Chicago Dreamers, a ‘big sigh of relief’ at Supreme Court’s DACA ruling

A first-year teacher, Robles is among the “Dreamers” covered by the Obama-era policy, and she’d been worried about how the ruling would go.

The Loyola University Chicago grad just finished her first year as a Spanish teacher at Palatine High School. Until the court ruling, she didn’t know whether she’d soon be forced to leave the country and need to find work elsewhere.

The 23-year-old Logan Square resident woke up Thursday to her sister-in-law telling her the nation’s high court had rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to end the program.

“My brother also has DACA,” Robles says. “We also hugged and cried in celebration. It’s a big sigh of relief.”

When she was about 8, her family overstayed their visas because there were more educational opportunities in Chicago than in Mexico.

Around 12 or 13, she remembers people asking her if she was “legal.”

“When peers asked me, I was very nervous,” Robles says. “I would just say I’m a resident and try to avoid the questions or details.”

When she was starting high school, her older brothers were detained by immigration agents while visiting a friend in Boston. With community support, the family was able to get them out of detention and worked with the National Immigrant Justice Center on their immigration cases.

Their detainment changed Robles, prompting her to start speaking out about her immigration status.

In high school, she applied for DACA. That allowed her to legally continue on to college and become a teacher.

Now, in her classroom, she’s open about her immigration story. She doesn’t want other students to feel the way she once did. She says she wants them to know this: “There is someone in the building who is rooting for them.”

After the Supreme Court ruling, Robles planned to make a video for her students about the news.

“I wish that I could find a way to tell them in person,” she says. “I just have a smile on my face.”

Tyler LaRiviere / Sun-Times

As a teenager, Sanchez-Molina stood in Daley Plaza, telling whoever would listen that he was undocumented. He had just finished high school but couldn’t legally find work or get a driver’s license. The specter of deportation loomed over him.

“There were a multitude of obstacles that made me feel like I have to do it,” says Sanchez-Molina, who was part of a wave of activism driven by young immigrants that led to the creation of DACA.

He applied as soon as the program started taking applications and, as a result, says he was able to get a driver’s license, apply for jobs and go on to study at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Dominican University.

Now 29, he’s taking a break from school, working at a café. He also recently was part of a team of researchers that looked at how healthcare facilities serving large populations of undocumented immigrants responded to enforcement of immigration policies after the 2016 presidential election.

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And he has his sights set on getting into medical school.

“DACA does protect me from deportation, but it also kind of gives me some sort of dignity,” he says. “It recognizes my value just as a person.”

In recent months, his attention was focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and the movement spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

He sees the ruling as a nod to societal changes driven by activism but says: “There are more fights for immigrant justice that have still yet to be fought. Who knows how long they might take. We will win. The people will win at some point.”

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

“It’s a bittersweet moment with everything happening,” Bueno says. “There are Black immigrants who are disproportionately affected by deportations and police brutality. We have to remember that, and we have to stand in solidarity. This fight isn’t over.”

Bueno, 24, has lived in the United States since she was a toddler. Her family lived in Georgia before moving to Chicago.

She was granted DACA protections soon after the program started. She remembers traveling to Navy Pier to seek help filling out the application, how there were so many people there it took a couple of days before she could complete the application.

Today, Bueno works for the Little Village community organization Enlace, doing outreach work in the immigrant community. The day before the court’s ruling, she received her renewed work permit.

As a community organizer, Bueno says she already is moving on to the next fight for immigrants. She views having DACA protections as a privilege, saying it’s important to work with other movements, like Black Lives Matter.

“It requires us to work together with other movements that are happening right now,” she says. “Always remembering that there are millions of undocumented immigrants that are left out of DACA, and we need a permanent solution that will include everyone.”

Elvia Malagón’s reporting on social justice and income inequality is made possible by a grant from the Chicago Community Trust.