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Many downtown-area high school students face an uncertain future following President Donald Trump’s decision Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
The DACA program was enacted in 2012 via executive order by then-President Obama and grants legal protections and work permits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to America by their parents as children. College DACA students currently receive in-state tuition in Arizona.
Phoenix Union High School District (PUHSD) responded to the announcement Tuesday morning by mobilizing “crisis management teams on each campus,” according to a statement posted to the district’s Facebook page.
In a district where 82 percent of the student population is of Hispanic descent, it’s hard to determine what the immediate impact will be, said Craig Pletenik, communications director for PUHSD.
“All of our student support services are going to be dealing with the challenges that come with many individuals not knowing what’s next,” Pletenik said. “At this point, we’re concerned with the students’ social and emotional state…because of the stress that may be involved with either their status or their family’s status.”
Meagan Farney-Schamp, an English teacher at Bioscience High School, has seen first-hand the impact this is having on local students.
“What I’ve observed as an educator is a real feeling of hopelessness, and students being very frightened,” Farney-Schamp said. “It affects their academic performance, because they feel so uncertain of their livelihood moving forward.”
Linda Abril High School senior and DACA recipient Aida Penuelas is one of those students attempting to deal with the stress of uncertainty following Tuesday’s announcement.
“I was heartbroken, because I felt like my dreams were just being ripped out of my hands,” Penuelas said.
At a time when many high school seniors are preparing for college, Penuelas is worried about how her family will survive moving forward.
“I have two other sisters who are also DACA recipients,” Penuelas said. “We are the source of income for our family, and with DACA being taken away from us, we don’t know how we’re going to do it.”
Reyna Montoya is working to support and encourage students like Penuelas through her immigrant rights group Aliento. As a former educator and DACA recipient herself, Montoya can relate to the student’s fear and anxiety.
“Imagine if you grew up in a country…you have been integrated fully into society, you get to claim this as your home because this is where you grew up, and then now you know that your future is very uncertain,” Montoya said.
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DACA faces opposition from some Republicans because they believe the children should be held accountable for their parent’s actions while others objected to President Obama’s use of an executive order to implement it.
Farney-Schamp disagreed with these views and said this issue impacts “real young people who played no part in making these decisions,” and some of these students may not even remember any other life besides the one they’ve had in America.
“This is the only place that they know, and they want to be here and to give back,” Farney-Schamp said.
President Trump said Tuesday that he would delay rescinding the program for six months, giving many DACA recipients hope that Congress will pass immigration reform legislation in the coming months that will allow them to continue their lives here in the United States.
While the fate of DACA now rests in the hands of Congress, Pletenik wants students and parents to know the district will continue to provide a safe environment and educate students regardless of their immigration status.
“We have been very forthright in letting our parents and our students and our staff know that we are not going to allow any immigration enforcement on our campuses, and that includes our school resource officers,” Pletenik said. “Public schools are really a safe haven and always will be.”
Contact the reporter at DerekHall@asu.edu.
