Georgia Dreamers, plagued by college roadblocks, now face a legal threat to DACA status

Atlanta’s Jaime Rangel is traveling to New Orleans next week, where an appeals court will decide the fate of an Obama-era program that allows 600,000 young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States.

For Rangel, the Georgia director of immigration affairs at the immigration policy group FWD.us, it’s a business trip, but for him the case is personal. “I was brought to this country when I was about five months old,” Rangel told the Atlanta Civic Circle. “The first steps I took as a toddler were on American soil.”

The 31-year-old is one of 20,000 young immigrants – Latinx, African, Asian – in Georgia who have enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA. The Obama administration created the program, which celebrated its 10th year in June, to protect young people, called Dreamers, who came to this country as children – often as babies – from deportation and give them work permits so they can get jobs.

Last August, a federal judge in Houston ruled that the DACA program was unlawful, saying former President Barack Obama exceeded his powers in creating it. On Wednesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the Biden administration’s appeal of the Texas lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of DACA.

“In that one day, these three judges will have a huge impact on my life and family. Everything I’ve worked for is in the hands of three people,” said Rangel, who immigrated from Mexico with his family.

DACA recipients must renew their eligibility every two years (which can get costly), but the 5th District could freeze renewal of DACA status and work permits if it agrees with the lower court’s decision. “At worst, every DACA recipient in Georgia is at risk of losing their work permit, job and livelihood,” Rangel said, noting that the 5th Circuit has an “extremist” reputation.

“We are preparing for a fight in the Supreme Court next year,” he said. That’s likely to happen, whatever the 5th Circle decides.

discrimination in education

Back in Georgia, Rangel and other Dreamers already face hurdles that US citizens and green card holders don’t have to worry about, especially when it comes to getting a college degree.

Although they are graduates of Georgia high schools and pay state and federal taxes from work, a law in Georgia prohibits Dreamers from attending three of the state’s top public universities: the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Georgia College and State University. For the other schools in the state university system, these Georgia residents must pay out-of-state tuition.

“It created a lot of financial responsibility,” Karla Rivas, who came to Georgia with her family from Mexico as a toddler, told Atlanta Civic Circle.

Rivas dreams of becoming a primary school teacher. So far, she and her family have spent over $39,000, or about $13,000 per semester, to get her to attend Dalton State College, where she is a sophomore. State tuition at Dalton State is only about $2,000 per semester for 15 credit hours.

Life in DACA limbo isn’t easy, Rivas said. As a teenager, she avoided partying with friends for fear of being deported for offenses such as alcohol. She didn’t take a vacation because she feared she wouldn’t be able to return home to Georgia.

“It takes a toll on mental health,” she says.

State university system spokesman Lance Wallace told the Atlanta Civic Circle in an email that “DACA students may attend most institutions in the University System of Georgia.” However, Wallace added, “The USG has a duty under state law to ensure that only students who can demonstrate lawful attendance are eligible for certain public benefits, including state tuition or access to facilities that admit students on a competitive basis.”

Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, a harsh critic of Georgia’s anti-Dreamer law, told the Atlanta Civic Circle that 17 states allow DACA students to pay tuition in the state.

Meanwhile, Kuck said, students from neighboring states of Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and the Carolinas can pay state tuition to attend Georgia’s public colleges. “Which is even crazier because they will almost never stay here after they graduate,” Kuck said. “[DACA recipients] everyone grew up here. They all pay taxes. They all work. It’s outrageous.”

Georgia’s stubbornness boils down to one thing, Kuck said. “Racism. There’s certainly no logical explanation for it. There’s certainly no monetary explanation for it.”

Kuck, who has handled more than 100 DACA cases over the years, represented a group of Dreamers who challenged the discriminatory out-of-state tuition law in a case that went to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2015. They lost.

Meanwhile, Rangel, who is married with a young son, has spent the last six years earning a degree in finance and economics from Dalton State University – class after class. He said he’s been offered baseball scholarships from numerous colleges, but “unfortunately, they didn’t even affect tuition.” Because of his DACA status, he was not eligible for federal aid.

A dreamer’s path

Marisol Estrada Cruz, who has lived in Georgia since she was five, had to leave the state for New York to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer. She paid out-of-state tuition to earn a degree from Armstrong State University in Savannah, and when Syracuse University Law School offered her a full scholarship, she accepted.

“I wanted to stay in Georgia because Georgia is my home,” Estrada Cruz, now in her third year of law school, told Atlanta Civic Circle. “I grew up there. That’s where my family is.”

After completing the International Baccalaureate program at Sol C. Johnson High School in Savannah, she wasn’t sure she could afford college. “It was heartbreaking. All of my colleagues shared their college acceptance letters and I didn’t know if college would even be possible.”

While her friends went to UGA, Georgia State, and Georgia Tech, Estrada Cruz stayed in Savannah and went to Armstrong State, now part of Georgia Southern University, where she will graduate in three years. During college, she worked for an orientation program that helped students apply for fee waivers that “I could never apply for.” Instead, she babysat and worked in restaurants to support her college tuition.

Around this time, Brenda Lopez Romero became the first Latina elected to the Georgia legislature. Estrada Cruz got a job with the State House Representative, now a Gwinnett County District Attorney, and then worked for Kuck’s law firm, Kuck Baxter Immigration Partners. This inspired her to pursue a career in public interest and civil law. “It’s quite revealing to be under the Gold Dome,” she said.

“I would love to go back to Georgia,” said Estrada Cruz, who is beginning her third year of law school in Syracuse. “But it’s like an abusive relationship.”

“I love Georgia. I consider myself a Southern peach, but Georgia doesn’t love me,” she said. “It pushes people like me out.”

THE DREAMER

Carla Rivas

Carla Rivas

Age: 20

Profession: Daycare worker

Lives in: Dalton

Arrived in the US: As a toddler with her parents from Mexico City. As a teenager, Rivas avoided parties for fear of being deported for minor offenses such as alcohol. She didn’t take a vacation because she was worried about not being able to return to Georgia.

Became a DACA recipient: In 2016

University: Sophomore at Dalton State College, majoring in Education

Jaime Rangel

Jaime Rangel

Age: 31

Profession: Georgia Immigration Director at FWD.us, an immigration policy group.

Lives in: Atlanta after growing up in Northwest Georgia

Arrived in the US: At five months with his family from Mexico.

Became a DACA recipient: In 2012, three years after graduating from Murray County High School in Chatsworth.

University: Junior at Dalton State College with a major in Finance and Economics

Marisol Estrada Cruz

Marisol Estrada Cruz

Age: 28

Profession: A third-year law student at Syracuse University

Lives in: Syracuse, New York

Arrived in the US: From Mexico at age five with her family after crossing the desert. Raised in Savannah.

Become a DAC recipient: In 2014

University: Armstrong State University

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GEORGIA’S DREAMER AT A GLANCE:

DACA recipients in Georgia: 21,000

Eligible young Georgians who can no longer apply for DACA status: 15,000

Undocumented young adults in Georgia who could benefit from tuition fees: 30,000

States that allow tuition for undocumented students: 21

Average age of dreamers: 28

Oldest Dreamers: 41

Purchasing power of dreamers: $1.3 billion

Georgia State/Local Taxes Paid by DACA Recipients and DACA Eligible Persons: 100 million dollars

Georgia’s Public Universities Banning DACA Recipients: Georgia Tech, University of Georgia and Georgia College and State University.

Source: FWD.us., Charles Kuck of Kuck Baxter Immigration Partners, American Immigration Council.