蜜桃影视

When the public get surveyed on their 鈥渃onfidence鈥� in American institutions, the military usually ends up on top, newspapers and TV news below the halfway mark, and last place always 鈥� without fail 鈥� belongs to Congress.

That鈥檚 why my interviews with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) college students turned out so surprising. It appears that the biggest fans of Congress, the folks who believe members of the House and Senate will do the right thing, are children of undocumented parents brought to the United States when they were too young to have any idea what was happening.

My admittedly unscientific survey focused on graduates of Chicago鈥檚 Noble Network of Charter Schools, a network with 18 campuses around the region. Among those graduates are 168 recipients of Pritzker Access Scholarships, which help DACA students, who are usually denied college scholarships from traditional sources.

Aid茅 Acosta, who oversees alumni support for Noble and also manages the fellowship, offered to connect me with some of those students, all of whom agreed to be identified and speak on the record.

The fact that these students attend selective colleges means they were among the top graduates at Noble, which further biases my survey. But hearing from the top students, young people being prepared for elite professions, is worth a listen, especially for members of Congress to whom President Trump punted Sept. 5 when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration would rescind DACA, calling it the 鈥渃ompassionate鈥� thing to do.

That leaves everything in the hands of Congress, an institution most Americans distrust to do the right thing on pretty much everything. With one apparent exception: the DACA students 鈥� known as Dreamers 鈥� whom I talked with, who believe just the opposite.

鈥淚 think things are going to turn out for the better,鈥� said Albion College (Michigan) freshman Yennifer Reyes, 鈥渟omething that will give Dreamers papers and make us legal citizens.鈥�

Pomona College junior Yessica Arlen Orduno said she lives by the advice she receives from her mother: 鈥淲e鈥檙e just going to keep moving forward; that鈥檚 all we can do.鈥�

David Trujillo, a sophomore at the College of Wooster (Ohio), said that at first he was discouraged. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 want to be pessimistic. All I can do is hope for something better.鈥�

Most congressional insiders are considerably less optimistic, pointing to previous failures to deal with immigration issues, especially in the short, six-month time frame given to Congress by Trump.

The one person not surprised by the optimism is Acosta. 鈥淭heir lives have been defined by hope. They have to hold on to something. What else do you hold on to?鈥�

Should all legal protections evaporate, these students will have to fade into the shadows, taking off-the-books jobs that fall well short of what they鈥檝e worked all their lives to achieve. Returning to their country of origins seems unlikely. None of the students I talked to had visited their birth country since being brought here as children.

Their best fallback position: become part of a brain drain to Canada, a country that takes a different tack on immigrants, especially professionals with valuable skills.

Another conundrum: What these students may feel is necessary 鈥� protesting the peeling back of a contract they assumed was inviolable when they turned over all their personal information to the government in registering for DACA 鈥� may be impossible. As Pomona College student Diana Rodriguez pointed out, protesting could bring an arrest, and an arrest could lead to deportation.

Remaining positive may be the only option.

A brief profile of some of the students interviewed:

Yessica Arlen Orduno, a junior at California鈥檚 Pomona College, was brought to the United States from Mexico at the age of 1 by parents whose relatives already living here described better job opportunities. Although the family moved often in her early years, she spent six years living in Chicago鈥檚 North Side, a place she considers home.

Orduno鈥檚 father used to do factory work; now he works as a busboy at a downtown restaurant. Her mother (her parents are no longer together) has a landscaping job.

It wasn鈥檛 until Orduno was in eighth grade that her mother mentioned something about lacking papers, but she didn鈥檛 really understand. But in her sophomore year, when she applied to a Notre Dame summer program to study in Russia, it all became clear when her acceptance was rescinded. She lacked the proper paperwork to travel abroad.

Orduno considers herself lucky to have discovered DACA-friendly Pomona, which offers study abroad opportunities for undocumented students. At Pomona, she is studying psychology, hoping to attend graduate school and eventually become a clinical therapist treating children with trauma.

Graduate school, and admission into the profession, however, rest on resolving the immigration issues surrounding DACA. 鈥淚f you look too far into the future, it can be overwhelming,鈥� Orduno said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so scary to think about going into the real world without the safety network of DACA.鈥�

Trump鈥檚 election generated enormous stress for her, her mother, and her friends, she said. 鈥淭wo weeks ago, that got amplified all over again.鈥�

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Yennifer Reyes, a freshman at Albion College, was 7 when relatives brought her from Honduras to join her mother in the United States. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember much about it. There was a lot of walking. We walked through water. There was an airplane, and there was a truck. 鈥� My mother wanted a better life and thought coming to America would give her a stable job.鈥�

Her mother works in a factory. Her entry to Noble started when the network鈥檚 student recruiters put flyers on the door of their Chicago home.

Reyes, who attends Albion on full scholarship, says she adjusted quickly from life in the big city to small-town Michigan. 鈥淭he college campus is big, and most of the time everyone is very supportive.鈥�

The Sept. 5 news, however, rattled her. 鈥淎t first, I was a little bit scared. I don鈥檛 know what the future will be like over the next four years.鈥� On that first day, going to class was rough. How to concentrate? 鈥淎fter that, I had to pull myself together. You have to push through.鈥�

A quickly organized meeting of Albion鈥檚 DACA students was reassuring, especially as the college president attended and promised legal protections and continued financial support. Reyes is one of seven DACA students in the freshman class there. 鈥淚 know them all,鈥� she said.

Reyes is confident she will make it through college; she鈥檚 planning a political science major, with becoming a lawyer her career ambition. It鈥檚 the after-college part that concerns her.

鈥淚鈥檓 relying a lot on Congress to make something positive come out of this,鈥� she said.

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David Trujillo, a sophomore at the College of Wooster, is a chemistry major who hopes to work as a pharmacist or physician鈥檚 assistant. His parents brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was 1, eventually settling in Chicago鈥檚 South Side.

Prior to Trump鈥檚 announcement about phasing out DACA, Trujillo had hoped that Congress would come up with something better, a permanent solution. Thus, Sessions鈥檚 words came as a surprise.

鈥淎t first, it was depressing. I have worked really hard to be in the position I鈥檓 in now, to be in college. And then, to hear that it might all be taken away.鈥�

Wooster has about a dozen DACA students, all of whom were told by college officials that their education was financially guaranteed, regardless of what happened to the program. 鈥淭hat was very generous,鈥� Trujillo said.

Much like the other DACA students I interviewed, he retains hope. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be pessimistic about it. All I can do is hope for something better.鈥�

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Diana Rodriguez is a junior at Pomona College, hoping to attend law school. Born in Mexico, her parents brought her to the United States when she was 3. 鈥淢y parents had relatives here and told my dad there were jobs here, landscaping and factory work.鈥�

鈥淚n our house, the American dream was very prominent: If you study, you can be whatever you want to be. Our parents always told us, go to school so you don鈥檛 end up like us, with dead-end jobs.鈥�

Currently, her father works in construction and her mother holds down two jobs, working part time at a laundromat and full time in housekeeping at a hotel.

Rodriguez didn鈥檛 realize she was undocumented until after the 9/11 attacks, when there was heightened awareness of immigration issues. In eighth grade, when Noble arranged a trip to Washington, D.C., her parents were adamant that she not get on a plane, so she skipped the trip. That was also the first time she saw her passport 鈥� Mexican.

When she first heard about Sessions鈥檚 announcement, she refused to believe it. 鈥淚t was very discouraging. Our future is now uncertain. I feel like we鈥檝e taken three or four steps back.鈥�

Rodriguez was the most pessimistic of the students interviewed. She worries that the issue quickly disappeared from newspaper and TV coverage, and there鈥檚 little DACA recipients can do to push it back into the public eye.

鈥淲hen Obama was president, we could march and not worry about getting deported. But with Trump, we worry we would get arrested and that would be considered a criminal act and they could take away DACA.鈥�

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