https://soundcloud.com/listenfrontier/listen-frontier-will-a-daca-deal-get-done-we-hear-from-a-legal-expert-and-a-daca-recipient
The Trump administration’s announcement this week that it was rescinding DACA sent hundreds of thousands of young people across the country scrambling to figure out how their lives will be affected by the decision.
On this week’s edition of the Listen Frontier podcast, we speak with one of those young people.
Jordan Mazariegos moved to Anaheim, Calif., with his mother when he was 2 years old. In 1996, his family moved to Tulsa. He is scheduled to graduate from Oklahoma State University’s Tulsa campus in the spring with a degree in accounting. He’s even got a job offer.
But now he is not so sure what his future holds. Trump’s plan to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals over six months puts an immediate end to the application process and gives DACA recipients whose status expires before March until Oct. 5 to reapply.
Trump is pressuring Congress to adopt legislation in the next six months to protect the program, which was established in 2012 through an executive order issued by then-President Barack Obama.
The program is intended to protect from deportation young people who were brought to the country illegally.
DACA allows qualified individuals without legal status to remain in the country and work. Individuals who have DACA status must reapply for it every two years at a cost of $500.
Approximately 900,000 young people are covered by the DACA program nationwide, including approximately 8,500 in Oklahoma, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
To help explain the legal ramifications of the decision — as well as to provide an historical perspective — we are also joined by Elizabeth McCormick, a professor of law at the University of Tulsa and founder of the Immigrant Rights Project.
