Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian, Sep 6, 2017; last modified on Jul 5, 2018
Young Mexicans speak out about what they lost by leaving the US before Daca, what they gained, and what faces those who may now lose their protection
Three years after she went back to Mexico, a country she barely knew, Maggie Loredo learned that Barack Obama had created temporary deportation relief for undocumented migrants brought to the US as children.
“I immediately wanted to go to the border with all of my things and go back to the US,” she said.
But because she had left, she did not qualify for relief from the threat of deportation under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), the temporary program that the Trump administration now says it will end.
On Tuesday, attorney general Jeff Sessions said the program was introduced unlawfully and the US could not admit everyone who wanted to enter. The US, Sessions said, was enforcing law that “saves lives, protects communities and taxpayers, and prevents human suffering”.
The government was acting with compassion, he said.
