Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swept through the Triangle and 
snatched up more than two dozen Latinx residents suspected of being in the U.S. without proper documentation. An ICE spokesman claimed that the majority of those taken into custody had criminal convictions. But anecdotally, those in Chapel Hill were law-abiding, gainfully employed men, including one Chapel Hill restaurant owner.
The raid left many workers who had come from Mexico feeling panicked. Some were afraid to leave their homes, even to go to work.
Ironically, on Wednesday of that week, town staff presented to council a proposal to allocate up to $5,000 to reimburse El Centro Hispano clients from Chapel Hill who needed help covering the $500 fee to apply for or renew their Deferred Action Child Arrivals (DACA) status.
The DACA program began in 2012 as a way to assist those who had been brought to the U.S. as children by their parents and once they turned 18 were subject to deportation for being in the country illegally. Most DACA recipients are teens or young adults at this point, as they had to have arrived in the U.S. before June 15, 2007, before they had turned 16. Those who are accepted into DACA can obtain a legal driver’s license, work permit and Social Security number. They must renew their status every two years.
The application and documentation required are arduous. Applicants are strongly urged to hire an immigration lawyer, because even if an applicant meets all the requirements, the federal government decides on a case-by-case basis whether to grant DACA status. Those turned down are subject to immediate deportation. It’s the immigration version of Russian roulette, and the Trump administration has loaded more bullets in the chamber.
No wonder out of the estimated 3,000 people eligible for DACA in Orange County, only three from Chapel Hill have applied.
Town staff had found $5,000 in its Housing and Community Services budget, enough to cover 10 financially impoverished applicants, and El Centro Hispano said that would be sufficient. Fear deters more people from applying, not lack of money, El Centro Hispano said. A council member spoke eloquently to underscore that point, and I supported that with more stories of what I’d learned from people wrestling with whether to apply.
And yet, when we made the motion to approve the $5,000 allocation, a council member doubled it to $10,000, without specifying what program would be shorted its allocation to come up with the extra money.
I voted for the amended motion because I knew the council member meant well, and because I knew El Centro Hispano would not tap the additional $5,000.
Sometimes our compassionate hearts can work against us. While the council member made a generous gesture, my heart sank because it showed a lack of understanding and a mistaken belief that more money would help.
Some 3,000 residents and their families live in a heightened state of anxiety due to the Trump administration. No amount of money will make that go away.
— Nancy Oates
