Aiding Immigrants at the State Level
Maria Del Cielo Mendez came to New Jersey from Mexico when she was 3 years old to reunite with her parents. Her father emigrated in 2003, shortly before Maria was born; her mother followed a short time after.
“He said there was nothing here in Mexico,” and then worked multiple jobs in New Jersey to make ends meet.
“They were getting paid $6 an hour,” she told me recently, “but they still found it better than what they had.”
Maria attended school in Plainfield, taking English as a Second Language class until the first grade, doing well academically, and now with graduation from the Union County Magnet High Schools approaching, she is unsure what the future holds.
She is a DACA student — a childhood arrival protected under a 2012 Obama executive order, but still officially an unauthorized immigrant. DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is two-year renewable program created by President Barack Obama that allowed those who came as children to temporarily normalize their status and qualify for working papers. The Trump administration canceled the program, setting the last day for DACA recipients to file for extensions as March 5. But two federal district courts have issued injunctions against the Trump action, ordering it to continue accepting renewal applications.
