arkansas, alabama. what do you make of the fact that texas, which has one of the largest daca populations is in the midst of what s going on with harvey and a part of this threat to sue over daca? thanks for the invitation, joy. and thank you and congratulations for this show with dreamers really at the front of this line. we re at a defining moment in this country, joy, where we re not operating even under a legal timeline. this is a completely manufactured timeline that paxton, the attorney general from texas, has decided in the most inhumane way to basically threaten the president along with now eight, not nine, state attorney generals because the tennessee attorney general courageously has pulled out. but attorney general paxton has basically threatened the trump administration with suing over daca despite the fact that the program has been in place for five years, it s been a successful program. this administration has allowed it to continue for the last seven months.
back on august 16, 2015. and chuck asks him specifically about the executive order that he wants to rescind which was the dream act and talking about daca. let s take a listen. the executive order gets rescinded, one good thing about it you ll rescind that one too? one good thing you re going to rescind that daca? you have to. we have to make a whole new set of standards. you re going to split up families, deport children? no, no, we re going to keep families together. but you re going to kick them out. but they have to go. what if they have no place to go? we will work with them. they have to go. maria, stick with you for a second, keeping families together you d have to deport the american born relatives. because if you re deporting the undocumented immigrant, that means if you keep the family together, that means you have to deport the american citizen family members. joy, i m really upset that i got so upset because now i can see everybody, oh, you kno
protected status protecting haitian migrants. haitians, somolians. i m also a young black man living in the city of baltimore and there are particular nuances and consequences of that. can you talk about that? one is policing. how does it complicate interacting with police when you add blackness, which is already, you know, an issue, when it comes to policing, but also undocumented status? i think with daca right now is a perfect example. i know statistically i m more likely to be picked up for anything, right? what does it mean to lose that protection that i have and i m more likely to have an interaction with the police. yeah. and, carla, you know, obviously the other issue is that you have young people who are already paying into the system, contributing, not only paying to have the daca status, but also contributing to the economy. the previous stat by the way center for american progress. i want to make sure i give them their credit for that.
and in may of this year i graduated with a bachelor s in mathematics. i now work for a bank in the fraud department and essentially i protect and monitor our citizens money from being stolen through financial crimes. i do believe that my work ethic is an asset to this nation. and i just don t understand how removing daca s beneficial for anyone at all. you know, the term american should not be defined with a document or the lack of one. it is more so the willingness to contribute to the country and help others out whenever possible. and that is exactly what i and thousands of others are willing to do. well, the future of daca hangs by a thread, dreamers like giovanni have bravely come forward, humanizing the conversation with their stories. joining me now are three recipients of daca, co-founder of undocu black and carla perez, community leader for united we
as of june 15, 2012, you have to continuously reside in the u.s. since june 15, 2007. you have to be in school, have a diploma or a g.e.d. or be a veteran, meaning some are already in the military, note that, you have to have no felonies or significant demeanor convictions, deemed not a threat to national security or public safety. so if you look at just who these folks are, maria, median age is 25 years old, median age of arrival was 6 years old. 91.4% of them are employed. and of those 56% were not employed before daca. meaning they got jobs because of daca. so basically they re american kids, right? you know, i m on the phone with and he s like oh, i get emotional because he s like what did i do, what did i do. i m like, look, i m an american citizen. why am i upset about this. and i can t believe i m getting emotional. but it s because in fact these kids represent the best, right?