Thursday, October 5, is the deadline for DACA recipients to submit their application for renewal – their final renewal, as it happens, unless Congress takes action or President Trump rescinds his earlier executive order ending the program.

With 800,000 “DREAMers” in the US and about 50,000 here in North Carolina, this is an extremely important issue locally – and El Centro Hispano has teamed up with the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to offer as much help as possible to DACA recipients trying to navigate the long and complicated process. (It’s also a costly process: just the application fee alone coss $495.)

On Saturday, September 30, El Centro is hosting a free DACA renewal clinic from 1:30-6:00 pm in Carrboro Town Hall. Attorneys and advocates will be on hand to help with the procedure. (DACA recipients should bring all their necessary documentation.)

On Friday, WCHL’s Aaron Keck discussed the clinic and the larger issues with with Eliazar Posada, El Centro’s Community Engagement and Advocacy Manager, and immigration attorney Bridget Richards.

 

If you’re not a DACA recipient, how can you get involved? Posada and Richards say one of the most important things you can do is contact your legislators and urge them to prioritize legislation to help DREAMers – by giving them clear legal protections, allowing them to stay in the US legally, and offering a path to citizenship. (Currently, for most DACA recipients, the only path to citizenship now involves voluntarily leaving the country for 10 years.) Local elected officials can help out as well, by passing resolutions in support of DACA – and by sponsoring events like the ones El Centro has co-hosted with Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

Beyond that, Posada and Richards say it’s important for all of us to make sure our communities are inclusive, friendly, and welcoming.

“Show up,” says Posada. “We need to be present. Our immigrant communities, our DREAMers, need to know that you’re there. If there’s a DACA rally and you’re able to go, then go. If there is someone in your neighborhood that you know is a DREAMer, go up to that person and say ‘we stand by you.’

“And some of our community members have sponsored some of our youth to be able to afford this (DACA renewal), because not everyone can afford 495 dollars.”

For more information, visit ElCentroNC.org.