Writer / 'They just go on': For Latino mixed-status families, uncertainty is a way of life

For NBC Latino, Nov. 30, 2019

Esperanza can still remember the time in the desert when she briefly lost her mother and little sister. It was the middle of the night, and she remembers pulling cactus spines out of the sides of her shoes and hearing coyotes howling in the distance. She was 8.

That was in 2001, when Esperanza, her sister and mother finally crossed the border after several tries to reunite with her father in New York. He had arrived earlier in search of work and better circumstances for his family.

Esperanza, now 27, has spent most of her life in New York and is the mother of two U.S.-born children, 7 and 2.

Because Esperanza and her younger sister Malena — both of whom did not give their real names to protect their identities — were under 16 when they entered the U.S., they were eligible years later for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, the Obama-era program that allowed around 700,000 young immigrants known as “Dreamers” to study and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case that challenges the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA in 2017. Court watchers say questions from justices who are part of the court’s conservative majority indicate they may allow the administration to go ahead and end the program.