Following the Trump administration’s controversial decision to scrap DACA, the program initiated under President Obama in 2012 which offers temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children, leaders and organizations across Mexico are making overtures of welcome to the nearly 600,000 people – so-called Dreamers – who potentially face deportation to Mexico.
Taking the lead, President Enrique Peña Nieto was quick to condemn the decision, calling on U.S. authorities to find “a swift, permanent solution that gives legal certainty to the young people of DACA.”
According to the U.S. Naturalization and Immigration Services, 77.8 percent of DACA’s 800,000 beneficiaries are from Mexico, out of which 90,000 are of Jalisciense origin.
Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval said Trump’s decision to scrap DACA “goes against the fundamental principles on which the United States is based as a nation.”
Expressing his solidarity with the Dreamers, Sandoval said Jalisco’s thriving economy would welcome them with open arms should they be deported by the U.S. government in the future. “They are not alone, and we won’t leave them alone,” he said.
Jalisco is widely known as the “Silicon Valley” of Mexico, sharing as it does with that famous industrial nexus a strong tech sector and a reputation for fostering entrepreneurship. As such, Dreamers who have received – or were in the midst of receiving before their untimely ouster from the country – tech and/or engineer-related education would be given preference when being considered for the more than 6,000 posts officials say will be vacant.
Another skill set which makes the dreamers highly attractive to Jalisco’s private sector is fluency in English, a somewhat bitter irony unlikely to be lost on those affected by the Trump Administration’s reversal of Obama’s landmark immigration policy.
Jalisco’s most august public institution of higher learning has also indicated its willingness to assist returnees finding their way in an unfamiliar environment.
Tonatiuh Bravo Padilla, rector the University of Guadalajara (UdG), has indicated that those enrolled in north-of-the-border universities at the time of DACA’s official cancellation will be automatically accepted at his school. UdG has already accepted six applications from students who decided to move back to their state of origin preemptively.
Under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), undocumented persons who arrived in the country before the age of 16 – and who were no older than 31 in 2012, the year the program began – are granted a two-year residency after vetting for criminal records. After the two-year period elapses, the participant applies for a renewal. A further stipulation is that the applicant either currently be a student, intend to enroll, or already have completed school or military service. After acceptance, inductees may avail themselves of college enrollment, driver’s licenses and work permits.
While no new applications for DACA will be accepted, the government will continue renewals for those whose permits expire within the next six months, at the end of which the program will be officially terminated unless Congress passes new legislation on the issue.