Toms River Dreamer pushes for path to citizenship, legislative fix to DACA

TOMS RIVER - Adriana Gonzalez said her classmates at Toms River High School East knew her as a flute player, a student ambassador and a girl who would play soccer with special needs children.

They didn’t know she was living in town without legal status.

Gonzalez, who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age 2, joined a small protest Wednesday outside town hall and shared her story as a Dreamer to a representative of Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur. She delivered a letter urging MacArthur to support legislation that offers a path to citizenship for Dreamers like her.

“I think people need to recognize the fact that that (legal status) is a label that we have, because of one piece of paper it doesn't change our character or what we’re striving for,” Gonzalez, 24, told the Asbury Park Press Wednesday.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program created in a President Barack Obama-era executive order, offered protections and driving privileges for authorized immigrants who arrived in the U.S. at a young age. The administration of President Donald Trump rescinded the program in a Sept. 5 announcement, leaving it up to Congress to come up with a fix before DACA phases out on March 5.

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Nearly 800,000 people in the United States have DACA, including an estimated 22,000 in New Jersey.

Dreamers visited Republican congressmen across the state this week to push for a Dream Act that allows those who arrived in the U.S. as young children to stay, and without provisions for border security measures, such as increased deportation officers or funding for a border wall.

Seven Dreamers and supporters, including Gonzalez, have been on a hunger strike since their campaign began Sunday.

"I think especially given the holidays, I'm hoping that people really bring some humanity into this issue and realize that our daily struggle is the same as their daily struggle," Gonzales said. "Our hopes and dreams can be similar to theirs."

Finding a legislative fix

Members of Congress have introduced several legislative fixes for DACA, some offering a pathway to citizenship, others extending temporary protections. All of them require that recipients work or attend school and maintain a clean criminal record.

Since the rescission, the White House has made a series of demands in exchange for a DACA deal. They range from funding the border wall to stricter provisions for family-based migration.

"I would love to do a DACA deal, but we have to get something very substantial for it, including the wall, including security, including a strong border," Trump said during a news conference in October. "We have to be able to stop drugs from pouring into our nation."

Nedia Morsy of Make the Road New Jersey said immigration advocates are backing the Dream Act of 2017. The legislation offers a pathway to citizenship after 13 years as long as the recipient has no felonies, attends school or works.

Trump's demands: What the president wants in exchange for a DACA deal

VOICES OF DACA: NJ Dreamers want a chance to become citizens

MacArthur backed the Bridge Act, which was introduced in early this year, months before the DACA repeal was announced. The Bridge Act extends DACA, but unlike other bills, it does not offer a path to citizenship.

“Congressman MacArthur has always supported DACA and voted against eliminating the program during his first term in Congress,” his spokeswoman, Camille Gallo, wrote in a statement. “He believes that many DACA recipients came to the U.S as children, and in the eyes of their communities are just as American as his own kids and that fixing our immigration system should not start with harming them.”

Dreamers among us

Gonzalez doesn't remember life in Mexico City. She was 2 when she and her parents settled in Lakewood.

"Growing up in Lakewood, it was a very diverse community," she said. "All of my friends were immigrants or first generation, coming from other countries."

Gonzalez moved to Toms River at age 12, transferring to Toms River East Intermediate School. She recalls seeing few Latino students at the time. When classmates learned she was from Mexico, they asked if she jumped the border.

She didn't disclose her status at the time.

"They asked, 'are you illegal?' which was surprising because you were 12," she recalled. "It was interesting to see that at such a young age, people were adapting to that kind of rhetoric."

Nevertheless, Gonzalez became active in the school community. She played the flute in band, served as a student ambassador for the high school and volunteered to play soccer with children with disabilities.

She was 19 when Obama introduced DACA. She became a recipient later that year, finding full-time work and going to school when she could afford it. She enrolled in a five-year master's program in sociology and special education at the College of New Jersey.

Gonzalez kept quiet about having DACA until the repeal was announced.

"This is a country of immigrants, where it should be celebrated that we want to come here and make this country better," she said. "It's pushing out people that continually try to make it the best."

Daniela Velez, the director of undocuJersey, arrived here from Venezuela at age 9. She had graduated high school in Burlington County and was preparing to leave the country when Obama introduced DACA.

"My goal was to finish my career over there. I felt more that I belonged there because I'm a Venezuelan citizen," said Velez, 23, of Edgewater Park, at the protest Wednesday.

Instead, she filled the application and became a DACA recipient. She found full-time work and attended college part time. On the side, she launched a business selling lab kits for physics and astronomy courses.

Velez said she hopes to grow her business and mentor other women of color, but she won't know what her future holds until Congress weighs in on the recent DACA-related bills.

"I've come to the conclusion that I'll fight in the United States, and I'll have to fight in Venezuela," she said. "Continuing this fight and whether a Dream legislation passes or not leaves me hanging and if I was to be sent back, it would be another fight, another battle, fighting socialism, fighting hunger."

Steph Solis: @stephmsolis; 732-403-0074; ssolis@gannett.com