Rescinding DACA Will Shatter 'Dreamer' Amy Kele's Family

SEATTLE, WA - Like many Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Dreamers, Amy Kele's story of receiving DACA status is fraught. She came to the U.S. in 2001 at age 4 from Fiji with her parents and twin brothers. In 2003, Kele's sister was born in Washington, automatically becoming the first U.S. citizen in the family. In 2008, Kele's parents returned to Fiji to renew their U.S. visas, but they were turned down and were barred from returning to Washington. The family has been separated since.

"What was supposed to be a two week trip turned into a nine-year trip," Kele says of her separation from her parents. They are still in Fiji, and Kele, 20, and her siblings live with their grandmother, who is also undocumented, in Everett. Kele and her grandmother share paying the bills.

Kele and her brothers had valid visas until 2011. In June 2012, President Barack Obama created DACA through an executive order. Kele and her brothers applied and were accepted. For the moment, they felt secure to get jobs and apply to college. The program grants undocumented citizens who were brought to the U.S. as children legal protections so they can live without fear of deportation.

Watch: Obama Calls Trump's DACA Decision 'Cruel' And Contrary To Common Sense

On Tuesday, Kele's world was thrown back into chaos after the Trump administration announced it would wind-down DACA over the next six months. If Congress doesn't pass a law by March, Kele and her brothers will lose their DACA status and face several bad choices: go into hiding; return to Fiji and leave their now 12-year-old American sister at the mercy of the state's foster care system; or bring the whole family back to Fiji, depriving her sister of the job and education opportunities available to her as a U.S. citizen.

Kele told her story at a rally Tuesday in Seattle along with other local DACA Dreamers whose stories all share one commonality: an uncertain and virtually hopeless future. Their fate is in the hands of a Congress that hasn't been able to pass a major piece of immigration legislation in recent memory.

The rally - at El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill, the oldest Latino community center in the city - drew hundreds of Dreamer supporters, plus elected officials who pledged to fight the Trump administration. According to state officials, there are about 18,000 Washington residents protected by DACA.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson told the crowd to expect legal action from his office soon. Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib said that state officials would begin lobbying anyone and everyone in Washington, D.C., to fast-track Congressional action. Likewise, Seattle Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez, the daughter of once-undocumented Mexican immigrants, urged Congress to act quickly.

"For our opponents this is purely political; they stand to lose nothing," Gonzalez said. "We stand to lose everything we believe in and love."

For Kele, that means losing her job, her ongoing college education, and possibly her sister. Between now and March, she says she's going to keep busy as a pro-Dreamer activist, particularly for the Asian-Pacific community. She's only been to Fiji twice for quick visits to renew her visa. She says she could make it work, but it would be a major disruption - and that's an understatement.

"I feel like America is the only home I know," she said.

Image via Neal McNamara/Patch.com