When I was a high school English teacher many of my students were undocumented. DACA was one of the things that kept their families together. The thing that gave my students a lifeline. The thing that gave them some sense of hope. I'm thinking of them today & I am so so relieved.
Creative Writing assignments were a big part of my classroom, and I'll always remember the pieces that some of my students wrote about their memories of coming to this country when they were young, how they were filled with hope, fear, uncertainty, and enormous unbridled dreams.
I also remember the pieces they wrote about what it meant to live in a country, and in a community in which you feared that at any moment, you or the people you love could be taken away and separated from your family and your community. It was the cloud that followed them around.
I think some take for granted how heavy that feeling can be. The weight of uncertainty hanging over your future, hanging over your every move. It became clearer to me through my students. DACA wasn't perfect, but it provided some sense of respite for so many ppl & their families.
I think it's also important not to inadvertently fall into a narrative that throws parents under the bus. It is not that the parents "committed a crime" that their kids had nothing to do with, it is that these parents were trying desperately to give their children a better life.
Shout out to all the organizers, activists, journalists, and scholars who have been working on this for so long. There is always more to be done, but this is worth celebrating.
