News > Immigration In Minnesota
“I fear for my life right now”
Posted on Feb 12 2018
“I fear for my life right now,” Samuel* says. “We are in limbo, all the DACA applicants … People’s lives are at stake.”
Samuel started in the United States when he was 9 years old, brought across the border while he slept. He’s one of the young people called Dreamers, who came to the United States as children, without legal permission to stay.
“I was 16 years old when I started working,” he says. “I was still going to school. My summer times were spent in the fields, picking up potatoes, and doing lawn mowing. In the winter, I removed snow. I was always trying to get money somehow.”
Samuel worked all the way through high school, and volunteered as a tutor at the same time. He graduated with honors, “as a role model student for the accomplishments I already had.”
Despite those honors, he had no security. He was undocumented. That was something he could not change.
Then came DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—in 2012. He seized the chance.
“When they told me about the process it took to be approved for DACA, they said I had to prove I wasn’t a burden to the country. I was actually a role model. I had tons of proof. I had tons of letters—from even Republican candidates that sent me a letter when I graduated.
“I wanted to live in this country and I didn’t know anything outside of this country. I don’t know how to live in Mexico, I don’t know how things work down there.”
The DACA permit came, and with legal permission to work, Samuel “got a really good-paying job being an interpreter, translator, and contact specialist for a collection agency…. I finally bought my first car, which was another milestone in my life.”
Now he could work on another long-time dream: a home of his own.
“When I was 14, I looked at what the requirements were to have a house. Work for at least two years, credit had to be at a peak, best of the best. At a young age, I went to talk to a banker and asked how I could work on my credit score, so one day I could purchase a house. They suggested that I start a prepaid credit card.
“I put all my savings on the credit card. … That credit helped me to get a job, get a car, and ultimately I built it strong enough to get a house.”
Now Samuel fears that he may lose everything he has worked for, his American dream.
“If I were to lose my work permit, I lose my driver’s license,” he explains. “If I lose my work, I can’t pay my mortgage. I go back to zero. Back to where I started. Nobody wants to go back to where they started.”
The Trump administration has rescinded DACA, effective March 5, 2018. Congress has waffled and dithered and failed to pass any relief for Dreamers like Samuel.
When Samuel visited Congressman Tom Emmer’s office last year, he told his story, and asked Emmer to support legal status for Dreamers.
“If you guys don’t do something about this,” he told Emmer, “I’m going to end up on the streets. Not even here, but on the streets of Mexico, which is worse. You are basically giving me a death sentence, that’s how bad it is.”
* We have changed Samuel’s name in this story. As a matter of policy, we usually change the names of immigrants when telling their stories. While the stories are real, and while the individuals have agreed to let us use their stories, we choose to protect their privacy by not using their real names.