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(Courtesy Northern Arizona University Athletics)
Luis Grijalva the first known DACA recipient to qualify for the Olympics headed to Tokyo Friday to compete in next week s 5,000 meter-race, representing his native Guatemala.
At this time last week, the Northern Arizona University track star wasn’t sure if U.S. immigration authorities would grant him permission to travel, despite qualifying for the race last month at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where he ran an impressive 13:13.14. Only on Monday was Grijalva granted emergency permission to leave the country, after showing up in person with his attorney at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix.
Shane Bevel / NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Luis Grijalva was running against the clock but this time it wasn t on a track.
The Northern Arizona University track star qualified in June to run at the Tokyo Olympics representing his home country of Guatemala. But leaving the United States to compete abroad wasn t an option.
Grijalva is a DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipient. He was born in Guatemala but came to the U.S. at the age of one.
If he left the U.S. without a special permit from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Office, he would be self-deporting and would not be allowed back. But the process of obtaining a permit, known as advance parole, can take months.
When Luis Grijalva crossed the finish line at the NCAA track and field championships last month, he knew he could reach his Olympic dream.
But first, immigration officials would have to agree to let the 22-year-old runner travel outside the United States and come back to the country he calls home.
Grijalva is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who will travel to Japan on Friday to represent Guatemala in the 5,000-meter race at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He and his lawyer spent several weeks petitioning US Citizenship and Immigration Services for a special permit known as advance parole that allows DACA recipients to reenter the US after traveling abroad.
U.S. immigration policy collided with an Olympic dream this week.
It all began when Luis Grijalva placed second in the 5,000-meter race at the NCAA track and field championship in June. The track star ran his personal best of 13:13:14 for Northern Arizona University – narrowly beating the automatic qualifying Olympic Games standard of 13:13:50 – and beat the national record in his native country Guatemala, winning him a spot at the Tokyo Olympics.
But Grijalva’s status as a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, put his Olympic hopes in jeopardy. The program doesn’t allow him to leave the U.S. and return, so Grijalva and his immigration attorney Jessica Smith Bobadilla got to work and filed for special permission to travel.