San Ysidro is the busiest border crossing in the world. More than 30 million people cross every year from Mexico to the United States through that point, that connects Tijuana with San Diego. It is also the border crossing that receives the largest number of deportees in the opposite direction. They are taken in buses from a detention center, often in San Diego or Los Angeles, and enter Mexico through a revolving door with horizontal metal bars.
One in every five of the 1.8 million Mexicans that U.S. immigration authorities have deported in the last ten years, has returned to Mexico through that door. More than 350,000 people arrive to a place mostly unfamiliar to them, without knowing where they will stay that night or where will they find their next meal. Some are deported a few hours or a few days after crossing into the United States, while others have spent their entire life in the United States. These young adults, who arrived in the United States as undocumented immigrants when they were children, are known as dreamers.
Although technically dreamers are undocumented aliens in the United States, they can also be defined as young Americans without a document that recognizes that identity. They are Americans because of a family decision to migrate to that country, a decision in which in most cases they did not take part. They start a family, social, and academic life and adapt, like any other boy or girl their age. They spend their childhood in relative calm until the day they graduate from high school. When thinking about their future, they face a dilemma: they can go to college in the United States paying high tuition fees because they do not have the financial support granted to residents or citizens, and face the constant risk of being deported. When they finish their studies, they know that they will not be able to work legally, or they can return to their home country and try to study college there.
Those who choose the second option have to deal with bureaucracies that prevent them from moving on, and face many difficulties to fit in a system they know little or nothing about and sometimes deal with a society that rejects them for coming from another country. The lack of Spanish language skills, cultural references and slow adaptation process become even greater obstacles than those they faced in the country where they lived as undocumented immigrants. The feeling of not belonging creates an identity crisis and slows their personal and professional growth.
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Nancy Landa is an expert in immigration. In 2014 she completed a masters degree in Global Migration at the University of London, but her knowledge of the phenomenon goes beyond the academic field, because she herself is a dreamer. She went to America when she was a child, and was deported to Tijuana 20 years later.
Nancy's family migrated to United States when she was 9 years old and her brother 7. She hardly remembers her childhood in Mexico, just the poor conditions in which they lived and the fact that her father sent money from California. One day in April 1990, Nancy's mother told them then that they would join their father.
The family crossed through Tijuana and settled in Los Angeles. Despite not speaking English, the children quickly adapted and began attending school regularly, to rebuild their lives. Nancy studied college, chaired the Student Association and graduated with honors.
While this was happening their parents, aware of the situation that their undocumented children would face after graduating or when applying for a job, began to seek legal advice. They fell into the hands of a notary who teamed with a lawyer and they told them that if they filed a request for political asylum, the family could stay in the country legally. This resource, often used by unscrupulous lawyers who charge large amounts for the procedure, only works for those who arrived in the United States fleeing from death. At the beginning of the procedure the applicants are awarded a social security number and a temporary work permit while a judge decides their situation; but if it is not possible to prove the "credible fear" - a legal term used in the process - applicants are deported. Families learn about this until they receive a deportation order, and usually by that time they have lost contact with the lawyers.
This was the case of the Landas: for a few years Nancy was able to finish her studies and even get a job while the court resolved their case until the request was denied. The only hope for Nancy and her brother was that the Congress passed the DREAM Act, "frozen" since 2001, before being deported. But that did not happen: in 2009 immigration agents arrived first.
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In August 2001 the bill known as DREAM Act was presented to the U.S. Congress. The word DREAM is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM). This legislative proposal seeks to solve the immigration status of more than one million and a half youngsters who arrived in the United States as undocumented minors. Some of the eligibility requirements for this benefit are having arrived in the country before age 15, having stayed at least 5 years in the country, completing two years of college or military service and having no criminal record. The bill has been voted several times over the years, but without achieving the necessary consensus for its approval. In 2010, the time that it has been closer to becoming law, it fell short by five votes in the Senate.
Since the proposal failed to become law, the dreamers are still dealing with the threat of deportation, with the difficulty to continue studying in the United States and the prospect of a life without legal personality. Over 70% of them come from Mexico. For them, returning home to continue their studies should be an option.
Currently all children living in the United States, regardless of their immigration receive the first 12 years of education for free, but there is no law for students to legalize their immigration status or financial support to continue their education after high school. This legislative "gap" affects more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants over 18 years, and 900,000 children who will find themselves in a legal limbo once they reach adulthood.
On June 15, 2012 President Barack Obama announced a policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that protects Dreamers from possible deportation proceedings, gives them access to some funding to continue studying and allows them to work legally. However, it is far from resolving their immigration status because it does not grant them temporary or permanent residence or a path to citizenship. Moreover, the measure is reversible at any time.