A University of Massachusetts Boston student, Deyse Carvalho, shared her experience of what it means to be DACAmented with WGBH News in a new video. The Trump administration announced that it will officially revoke DACA as a policy and has plans to phase out the policy within the next six months. DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was made into a policy during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2012. The policy defers deportations for people who arrived in the United States illegally as children. The policy also provides childhood arrivals with temporary protection from deportations while giving them the opportunity to live and work lawfully in the country.
The video starts with Carvalho saying, “This is all I know. This is all I’m used to. Going back to Brazil would be taking ten steps backwards. When I’m almost at the finish line here.” Carvalho, 25 years old, is from São Paulo, Brazil. Carvalho first arrived in Boston at the tender age of six. Even though she was an innocent child, oblivious of what the future had in store for her, she was optimistic that this new place would provide her with better opportunities.
When Carvalho arrived in Boston with her parents, she did not know a lot of English, all she knew were a few phrases and the dream, perhaps shared by many. She thought that the United States would provide her with more opportunities than her native country, Brazil, could. Even though she was just a child, this she was certain of.
In the video, she expresses, “Ever since I came here as a six-year-old in 1998, my life has always been uncertain. I always knew I was undocumented, that my parents were undocumented, and I always knew that we were waiting for an opportunity to apply for a green card since there was no pathway for a green card, unless there was some sort of immigration reform.”
Carvalho is a resident of of Cambridge and is one of 800,000 DACA recipients. Carvalho is a graduate of the Boston Latin School and currently holds an associate’s degree in education. She is a current UMass Boston student and is working towards completing her Bachelor’s degree. She works at a restaurant in the downtown Boston area and tutors middle school children for a living.
Even though she has managed to accomplish a lot given her circumstance, it is clear that all she and others in her situation want is a chance to prove worthy enough to live and work lawfully in a country they consider home.
She notes, “Growing up undocumented dictated my life.” By this she means not having the same privileges or opportunities as her peers.
“I knew that on my sixteenth birthday that I could not apply for a driver’s license. I knew that, even if I had a college degree, my chances of being hired without a social [security number] were slim to none.”
What Carvalho proves in the video is that people like her, who were brought in the U.S. illegally as children, want only the opportunity to live their life without the fear of being uprooted and sent to a place they have little to no memory of.
Being DACAmented for Carvalho, and many like her, means not living in constant fear.
“I’m still building, I just want to be able to finally have the opportunity to enjoy what I’ve created. I love this country, I love its history, and I want to be part of it,” Carvalho said.