A Dream Deferred

LANSING, Mich.-- Ask any college student, and they will tell you that the old saying about the journey being better than the destination is not applicable to this part of their lives.

The destination is what they are focused on. This is why students who take longer to complete their degree than what the societal “norm” allows are met with side eye glances and follow up questions as to why.

With so many students trying to reach their own destinations, the population of every single community college and university in the U.S. is constantly refreshing and ever changing.

Students graduate. They transfer. They drop out. And, in the case of 23-year-old Viviana Alamillo, a student at Lansing Community College, they may even be deported.

Alamillo is a local Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program recipient.

On the heels of President Trump’s decision to rescind the program, instead of a degree framed on the wall, or a long list of career prospects after graduation, the destination Alamillo faces now is a country that has been foreign to her since she was 3 years old.  It was at this age that her parents brought her to the U.S. from Veracruz, Mexico.

DACA allowed individuals who had entered the country as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit.

Though DACA allowed renewable periods of protection from deportation, it did not provide legal status in the U.S.

Trump’s announcement means the Department of Homeland Security will immediately stop accepting applications to the DACA program. Current permits, like the one confirmed by U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be held by Alamillo, will also not be renewed unless Congress takes action.

“My mom and grandfather came here first,” said Alamillo. “They worked, saved, and went back for the rest of the family.”

Alamillo also explained that her parents left Mexico because there were no jobs available to them. “The only way they could feed our family was by growing what they could, but that was not enough.”

Upon arrival to the U.S, Alamillo’s parents separated, and she has been with her mother ever since.  “We have always been moving,” Alamillo said.  “My mom has always wanted to move to give us a better life.”

This is a far cry from the statement made by Trump on the campaign trail earlier this year, which, for many DACA recipients, was seen as a foreshadowing event of what was to come:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Perhaps “good” is simply measured by compassion. Or the desire to bring more positivity and light to a world turned bleak. Some may say strong family bonds of love and loyalty, or even love of country measure it.

Alamillo, “sent by Mexico,” meets each listed example.

So what does she want the world to know about DACA recipients and immigrants in general?

“We are not here to hurt the economy or take jobs,” she said. “We are here making jobs and boosting the economy. We are not strangers to this land but part of it. We grew up here and our lives are here. We deserve to be here just as much as the other person.”

Alamillo’s younger sister Esmeralda added that she wants the world to know, “DACA changed thousands of lives for the better. It in no way is harming anyone; on the contrary it is helping the economy. The dreamers pay hundreds of dollars to renew their DACA (permit), they are employed, they are going to school, and it all goes back to our economy.”

“DACA has given me a taste of freedom, of what it is like to be somewhat normal in this country,” Alamillo said, “To not always be looking over your shoulder to see if a cop is there and then panic if it is driving behind you, hoping you will not be stopped and deported.  If no bill is passed to replace DACA, then I lose everything that I have built in this country.”

Though Alamillo’s siblings, including Esmeralda, are U.S citizens, their futures hang in the balance as well, as they are left to worry about their sister.

“I would see all her potential and ability to thrive go to waste,” said Esmeralda. She would lose her job, her possibility of finishing college and being able to use her degree for a job, as well as her hope for a better life.  That will not only hurt her immensely, but it will hurt me and my family because she has done nothing but try to be someone in this world with the opportunity given to her.”

Alamillo remains confident that policy reform will come soon, but admits that deportation is always a possibility. “What will we do, we don’t know, where will we go, we don’t know,” she said. If Congress does not act upon a DACA replacement bill, Alamillo adds that, “What will most likely happen is my permit will expire. I will lose my job, I will lose my apartment, lose my license so I won’t be able to drive legally, and then get deported back to a country that I have never been back to since I was three years old… there goes my life goals, career goals, family goals, and all my hopes that were set here in the U.S.”

Alamillo and her family try not to discuss the worst-case scenario just yet, however.

“Honestly Viviana and I have not talked about her potential of being deported,” said Esmeralda. “Possibly because it is not an easy topic to talk about. Although we know it's a possibility I don't see it as an option for her because she is strong and everything she's doing to inform people about DACA will pay off one way or another. I have hope all she is doing will catch people's attention and they will put themselves in her shoes at least to understand what DACA is about.”

Alamillo adds her mother is not concerned. “When I heard I was devastated but she has hope that we will figure something out. We always do,” Alamillo said. “She says we have blood of a warrior and that nothing will ever stop us and I believe her.”

Alamillo is a dreamer in every sense of the word.

Yes she is a DACA recipient, to all of whom the term has been used to describe, but she also dreams of saving up enough money to buy a house with her long-term boyfriend. She dreams of providing a better life for her family. She dreams of stability. She dreams of finishing college and getting a degree like anyone else her age.

The current administration’s rhetoric against her and thousands in this country like her has caused her to change her college dream from business, to education, to political science.

The current state of her status in the U.S. has given her plenty of practice exercising her political views. She will continue fighting for her right to be here, “The best way I know how; by protesting,” she said. “By attending rallies and using my freedom of speech. By sending letters to Congress and the Senate informing them of my situation and the thousand other DACA holders in Michigan, by putting the word out and speaking up about an issue that will impact the country as a whole. If I don’t do it for my people I don’t know who will.”