A Long Island Woman On DACA Fears: 'It's Very Personal For Me — Something I Live'

President Donald's Trump's announcement of his plan to officially end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program — a plan that protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children — has sparked fierce debate on both sides of the issue.

But for one young Long Island woman now in her senior year at New York University, the issue isn't a political football, but instead, a deeply personal reality.

Mayra Gonzalez, 21, came with her parents from El Salvador to the North Fork when she was only four-and-a-half years old.

She's lived in Mattituck since, attending the Mattituck-Cutchogue School District from kindergarten through 12th grade. Today, she's studying media culture and communications at NYU.

A devoted student, Gonzalez said she's been on the high honor roll every quarter — "I missed one!" she laughs — through middle and high school, fiercely passionate about her education.

Reflecting on her childhood, it's a time as all-American and apple pie as that of any other young person from the North Fork, where she spent many happy nights watching movies at the Mattituck theater and mini golfing, creating idyllic memories with her friends.

And yet.

For Gonzalez, there was always the sense of walking a path different than that of her peers.

"Living in Mattituck and being one of three or four Latino kids in my class, at some point, you're aware that you'e the only Latino person in AP English. It's an awareness that you're different, in some way," she said.

And from her earliest memory, the possibility of deportation loomed.

"I’ve been invested in immigration policy since I was 5 years old. It's something I've always been very aware of," Gonzalez said.

When she was a small child, Gonzalez would watch the news with her parents. "Channel 6 has the news in Spanish and they would always cover immigration issues, because that affects the Latino community. I was learning about what immigration policies were. It's a very personal thing for me — something I live," she said.

The idea of moving back to El Salvador is something difficult to think about, she said.

Although she has family members, still, in El Salvador, the country is a "distant memory," now, she said. "I don’t really remember anyone, just family members, and I couldn’t tell you what they looked or sounded like. I haven’t seen them for 17 years now."

Former President Barack Obama advocated for the DACA immigration policy, which was established in 2012; the policy allows some young people who entered the United States as children to apply for a renewable two-year period of deferred action on deportation. In 2017, some 800,000 young adults could be impacted by Trump's decision to put the brakes on the program; Congress has six months to consider solutions for Dreamers before the DACA program comes to an end.

When she first heard about DACA, Gonzalez said, "It felt like a sigh of relief." While she understood the policy didn't provide as much security as the DREAM Act would — the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act would create a path to citizenship for young people brought to the United States as children —it did give her the chance to acquire a Social Security number, and a working permit, "so that I was able to make some sort of income" when she was a teenager growing up in Mattituck.

Like so many local teens before and after, Gonzalez got her first job scooping homemade flavors at Magic Fountain on Main Road; a driver's license gave her wings to fly. "Our town does not have the best public transportation system," she said.

And, DACA opened the door to college, to her bright future, which she intends to spend working in children's education media, possibly on a TV show such as "Sesame Street." She got experience at a summer camp job on the East End this year. "I love working with kids," she said.

Hearing Trump's DACA announcement sparked a sea of emotions, she said.

"It did scare me, but it's more frustrating than anything," Gonzalez said. "The average American doesn't know what DACA is, the provisions behind it or the process of applying. DACA doesn't give actual status, which is the thing people are confused about. It just defers deportation for two years. Basically, it's like having a 2-year visa, that you have to renew every year." She added, "And there's no path to citizenship yet."

With an eye toward educating and raising awareness, Gonzalez even wrote a research paper on DACA last year, including how attempts to expand the program failed after states commenced litigation.

The DACA debate on the public canvas has led to some feelings of frustration, Gonzalez said. "It's kind of hard to deal with the fact that there are people who feel you don't deserve what you have worked so hard for . . . it feels like it's perceived of as a handout, even though I've worked so hard, since kindergarten to get where I am today," she said.

And, a typical college student, the added anxiety over DACA has added a burden to the usual senior year concerns. "It is a bit difficult to deal with," Gonzalez said. "School is stressful enough. The whole DACA thing happened on my first day of classes. I was a bit shaken. But you've got to roll with the punches."

The idea of having to leave the country she calls home is too difficult to grasp, she admits. "I'm trying not to think about it," Gonzalez said. "I'm just focused on graduating, at this point."

Most of all, Gonzalez is thankful for the opportunity of her education, which her parents, who have a deep faith in God — the family faithfully attends church on the North Fork —have worked tirelessly to provide for their children. Her education, she said, is "the one thing" she's always focused on.

"I do appreciate America a lot. El Salvador isn't in the most stable state right now," Gonzalez said. "I know my parents did the best they could to raise me in a better situation than they could have in El Salvador."

On the positive side, the DACA debate has had a silver lining, in that many elected officials and people in positions of authority have galvanized to fight for the DREAM Act, "which is more comprehensive, with an actual path to citizenship, and would solve more problems," Gonzalez said.

While she has thought about the possibility of moving to another country if need be, Gonzalez said, "It's nothing realistic. I always thought I would make my life here, make a family here, my career here — in the United States."

Moving ahead, Gonzalez, who has been to protests and described her feelings about DACA on social media, hopes to become involved with NYU's Dream Team club.

DACA holds its own specter of fear for her younger sister, turning 15, born in the United States. "Her experience is slightly different. She is a citizen but she is still very aware that most of her family isn't, and doesn't have some of the same privileges, and it worries her," Gonzalez said.

Speaking from her heart, Gonzalez said if she had a chance to meet President Trump, she'd hand him a copy of the paper on DACA that she wrote. "I'd tell him that it's easy to just make laws and look at is as numbers on a page. But these are actual people, and he needs to remember that. We've lived our whole lives fighting hard to get to where we are today."

Some, she said, are soldiers who've fought for the United States.

"He needs to remember we're not just numbers. We're a big mass of people who have done things for our country," she said.

Locally, Gonzalez said she'd like to see Southold Town mirror Greenport's efforts to designate itself as a welcoming community and stand behind its immigrants.

Long Island community reacts

The President's DACA news left the community divided.

"Denying these 800,000 is denying our future as a nation. They represent all that we hope for from our children: they are working, going to college, planing a future in the only country many of them have known," said Minerva Perez, executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana on the East End.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-Shirley, also issued a statement on DACA.

"If the Obama administration wanted to implement the DACA program, it should have made the case to Congress and try to pass its proposal into law. The administration absolutely did not have the authority to write its own 'laws'," he said.

"I support legal immigration. I oppose illegal immigration," Zeldin said. "If you want to come to America and pursue the American dream, follow the rules. If you commit a crime and are deported, don't come back. Every nation's backbone is its rule of law. It is great to pursue the American dream and to consider yourself a 'dreamer' and everyone in the United States legally should consider themselves 'dreamers', but you have to follow our laws. Period. We should not reward or excuse criminal behavior."

The congressman said he is "completely open" to a debate in Congress and amongst Americans on how to strengthen immigration laws, a system he believes is "flawed."

"My priority will always unapologetically remain with fighting for the people following the laws, rather than the ones breaking them," Zeldin said.

He added: "As far as how to tackle this massive issue, when you have a leak, are you someone who turns off the faucet first or cleans up the leak first? I'm someone who believes that you should turn off the faucet first. We absolutely should attempt to completely resolve the challenges associated with all of the many millions of Americans who are in our country illegally, but not first without ensuring that the challenge doesn't multiply despite anyone's best of intentions to do what in their heart they truly believe is right. I can think of various circumstances where deportation won't be the solution, but a blanket rewarding and incentivizing of bad behavior is going to lead to even more abuse of our immigration system by others."

Meanwhile, Vivian Viloria Fisher, a Democrat who is challenging Zeldin for his seat, called on Zeldin to support passage of the DREAM Act in the aftermath of the Trump administration's announcement that the DACA program would be terminated after a six-month delay.

"These young people, in applying for DACA, sought to reaffirm what they already knew — that they are Americans," she said. "As children, they did not make the conscious decision to come to this country without authorization. These Dreamers have already been fully vetted by the federal government and are productive members of our society. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by sending these dreamers to a country that they have never known, while taking with them the educational investment that we have made in them.”

The DREAM Act, intended to legalize undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, passed the House of Representatives in 2010, but failed to overcome Republican opposition in the Senate. The Obama administration enacted DACA, protecting the same population as the DREAM Act, in 2012, due to Congress' failure to act, she said.

"To expose the Dreamers to deportation and to rob them of their legal status is a cruel trick to play on the young, who put their faith in our government by applying for DACA in the first place," Fisher said. "Any person who believes in the sanctity of life and the vulnerability of children should be outraged by this punitive act against innocents who played no role in the circumstances that led them to this country."