Attorney Melissa Lujan At Full Circle Bookstore Event.
On the evening of June 12, 2018 a presentation was made at the Full Circle Bookstore as part of the Oklahoma Observer Newsmakers series. The Observer’s editor Arnold Hamilton and Oklahoma City immigration attorney Melissa Lujan, and two young DACA recipients addressed the issue of the DACA initiative that was put in place by former President Barak Obama that allowed young people who entered the U.S. without legal permission as children to remain here and to obtain work permits. That program has since been revoked by President Trump. The session was opened by Hamilton who told the attendees that his publication hosts a monthly program to discuss issues that are in contention in Oklahoma and the nation as a whole. He thanked the Full Circle Bookstore for allowing the event to take place, and said it was one of the last independent bookstores in the Oklahoma City area. He further told of how if anyone took out a subscription to the Oklahoma Observer they would receive a coupon that would allow them to take a book from the store of a value of $20.00 or less without cost.
The editor deplored the site of families being forcibly separated at the border and said that immigration and the status of DACA recipients are issues that needs to be addressed. He introduced Melissa Lujan, a prominent Oklahoma City immigration attorney, who told of how action on behalf of the dreamers began in 2007 with much support, but it could not get completed. “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival” which soon became known as “DACA,” was put in place by President Obama, who tailored a very narrow basis for the DACA program. A party had to be at least 15 year old to apply for it, and they had to have been in the U.S. on a certain date to be eligible, and they only received a work permit for a two year period. While President Trump has revoked DACA, renewals are being taken for ones previously issued Lujan reported, in accordance with a federal judge’s ruling in Washington D.C . But in Texas a federal court there stayed a program for adult DACA that was proposed by Obama, and Texas and several other states have filed suit challenging the legality of the DACA program initiated by Obama, and the issue of DACA will eventually be heard by U.S. Supreme Court.
DACA recipients Taznem and Suzette, who were also part of the program, told of how they were raised here, and now face the possibility of being forced to leave.
Suzette told of how she graduated at the top of her class, and applied for the program and felt great relief she felt when she received the DACA card, which allowed her to get her drivers license and apply to colleges in the U.S. She also told of the fear that gripped her and other DACA recipients when Trump announced his intention to end the program. She told that she has been in the U.S. since she was 6 years old. Her homeland in Juarez, Mexico, was overrun with gangs, and her parents brought her to the U.S. to give her and her siblings a chance at a better life. Melissa Lujan pointed out that there was no legal way for Suzette’s parents to bring their children to the U.S.
Taznem told the audience that he is a student at O.U . and was brought to the U.S. when he was 9 months old. His parents are still on student visas but his sister is now a U.S. citizen. He is from Bangladesh, and explained in unaccented English that he didn’t know he was undocumented until he was 14 years old, when he found out that he couldn’t take a class trip to New York City since he did not have any legal identification. His world changed when he got DACA status, he reported, and soon he obtained his drivers license and enrolled at O.U. and also took a position as a part time community organizer. Things were tense for him on election night and he worried about his future in the U.S. when Trump was elected president. Now he speaks on the need for immigration reform at a variety of locales. Lujan spoke with feeling about how her husband, who is a Mexican national, was deported after he received several traffic tickets, and that she hoped he would be able to return shortly, but the immigration authorities found that since she was a very successful attorney , he did not have to return to the U.S. to support her. She also detailed how the Trump Administration is now taking a hardline on all immigrants, even legal ones. Many of the attendees who filled the place where the event was held asked questions of Lujan and the two dreamers, and the vast majority of them indicated that they were sympathetic to the Dreamers cause and were critical of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. As the event concluded, Hamilton thanked everyone for their interest and said that another gathering will be held by the Oklahoma Observer on another issue at the same location next month.
Against the Grain 