8 Photos That Show How DREAMers Got Deportation Relief
A quick and easy look at how the deferred action program came about.
June 15, 2013— -- It's the one-year anniversary of an immigration program that allows young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the U.S. legally.
Watch the video above or scroll down for a quick replay of how the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program came to be.
1. For the past decade, young undocumented people, DREAMers, have been pushing for immigration policies that would help them and their families legalize.
2. Dream activists stepped up their organizing in the late-2000s, using tactics like sit-ins and hunger strikes to call attention to immigration policy and deportations.
3. The activism helped propel the DREAM Act forward in the Congress. But the bill, which would having created a path to citizenship for certain young immigrants, died in the Senate in 2010.
4. With the chances of getting a law passed looking bleak, they called on President Obama to use his executive authority to give them relief.
After initial resistance, the Obama administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program on June 15, 2012. It allowed DREAMers to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
5. When the program opened two months later, thousand flocked to apply.
6. To date, more than half a million people have applied and more than 365,000 have been approved, with lots of applicants still waiting for responses.
7. The program has given some people a chance to come out of shadows and contribute to their communities without fear of deportation. But the application numbers are still well below projections. That means there may be things stopping people from applying, like the cost or the uncertain future of program.
8. It's also empowered DREAMers to fight for a broader goal -- stopping deportations of their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. That's where we are today.
