DACA should have protected Dany from detention and deportation.
We are asking you, Secretary Kelly, to release Daniela immediately, grant her DACA renewal, and declare to your agents in no uncertain terms that DACA will remain a strong protection from deportation.
Why is this important?
U.S. immigration agents detained 22-year-old Daniela Vargas just hours after she courageously spoke about her fear of deportation at a press conference. She was afraid because two weeks ago, ICE officers raided her home and detained both her brother and father while she hid, terrified, in her closet for four hours.
Dany came to the U.S. when she was seven years old and was a beneficiary of the DACA program, which grants a legal status to undocumented immigrants. She is a manager at a small store and dreams of becoming a math teacher.
Like many beneficiaries of the DACA program, Dany found that paying the nearly $500 in fees every two years was hard, and her DACA status expired. However, she saved up, got the money together, and her renewal application is now in the approval process.
But because of this technicality, ICE tracked her down and put her into the deportation pipeline—just hours after she courageously spoke out about this issue.
