Michael A. Chihak: A holiday nightmare for 'Dreamer'

“I told them, ‘I might not see you at Christmas,’ and if that’s so, it will be the first time in my life,” said Diana, 23, a law student in Illinois.

Diana is undocumented. She worries about traveling home to Tucson because federal officers patrol airports under anti-immigrant administration policies. She asked that her surname not be published and her school not be identified.

She is a “Dreamer,” brought to Tucson from Sonora by her mother as a 4-year-old. Her mother overstayed a visa, and they joined her father, who was already here.

Diana is among 44,000 Arizonans eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Another 20,000 in state and 533,000 nationally already have DACA status, reports the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama signed DACA in 2012, giving temporary residency and deferring deportation for those brought undocumented to the country as children.

“When I was turning 15, I got my (DACA) paperwork together,” Diana said. “Then in September 2017, (President) Trump canceled it.” DACA was frozen, but the Supreme Court stopped its elimination.

Diana filed in 2021 after application acceptance resumed. A judge put applications on hold, leaving her and perhaps 1 million others in limbo.

Federal policy is muddled. “We have to do something about the Dreamers,” the president once said, implying protection. He ordered states to stop giving DACA recipients in-state tuition, including Arizona.

Immigration officers have detained about 20 DACA recipients since January, The Associated Press reported on Nov. 25.

“This administration might not be trying to end DACA altogether the way that they did the first time around, but they are chipping away at it,” Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, with pro-DACA United We Dream, told the AP.

Polls consistently show most Americans want Dreamers to eventually become citizens. People in Arizona agree, including three-quarters of Republicans.

Not the administration, though. One official, with characteristic gall, urged DACA recipients to self-deport. They lack “legal status in this country," she said, absent any compassion.

Diana attended Tucson public schools and earned her bachelor’s degree in state. “My home is Arizona,” she said. “It’s never been Mexico.”

Congressional action is the solution for her and others who, without volition, were brought here and know only the United States as home.

Such action is pending in the Dignity Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill in the House. It would give DACA recipients a chance at citizenship, among other provisions. Southern Arizona’s two representatives are not sponsors, although both say they want pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients.

Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who, like Dreamers, was brought as a child from Mexico with his parents, has called for a permanent solution. A spokesman last week said Ciscomani favors DACA recipients getting “a shot at the American dream.”

Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva said in her election campaign she wanted citizenship for DACA recipients. In her speech on the House floor Nov. 12, Grijalva said she will “fight for immigrant communities.” One presumes that includes Dreamers.

Diana and other DACA eligibles go to school or work, pay taxes and contribute to their communities. In all but citizenship, they are as American as Ciscomani, Grijalva, you and I.

Diana maintains her resolve.

“My whole life has been like this. I am prepared for the worst-case scenario,” she said. “I don’t take (delay) as a ‘no,’ because it’s how I am. It’s like a punch in the gut, but I’m going to keep fighting.”