One of the goals of the delegates to the national League of United Latin American Citizens convention in San Antonio this week is to protect the DACA, or Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young people who came to the U.S. along with their illegal immigrant parents, to be grated legal status, but not U.S. citizenship, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Texas is one of ten states which have given the Trump Administration notice--eliminate DACA by September 15, or face a lawsuit demanding that the Obama era program be scrapped.
Abagail Zapote, who was a so-called 'Dreamer,' says state and federal officials need to know that all immigrants are not the same.
"I don't think (President Trump) differentiates between a student who is a hard working individual that pays their taxes, that is someone who gives to the economy, he doesn't see the difference between that person and someone who is a criminal," she said.
DACA, which has grated legal status to some three milion people since it was approved by executive order by President Obama in 2012, operates on the assumption that children are not culpable for a parent's actions, any more than a child who is strapped into a car seat while a parent commits a robbery would face robbery charges.
Supporters also point out that DACA recipients have no memory of their native land, frequently don't speak the language, and have no place to go in their 'home country' were they deported.
Opponents say DACA is just a back door way to enable illegal immigration, pointing out that a companion program then allows the parents of DACA recipients, who made the conscious decision to enter the US illegally, to become legal residents.
Zapote says she used to work at a Social Security office, and most Americans have no idea how much in Social Security payroll taxes illegal immigrants pay...pay into a program which they cannot use.
"Undocumented individuals give billions and billions of dollars every year to Social Security," she said. "We are paying for Americans to retire. They are retiring off of our backs and our labor."