California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris joined a growing number in Congress calling on the Trump administration to allow DACA recipients to travel abroad – a campaign spearheaded by a Cal State Long Beach professor and Southern California immigrant youth.

In a letter sent Tuesday, Feb. 12, 36 legislators from both chambers asked for documents and information relating to the administration’s policy shift in 2017, when officials began denying requests from those with DACA status who want to travel abroad for work, study or to visit sick and elderly relatives.

Cal State Long Beach professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos stands in front of a mural at the California-Mexico Studies Center in Long Beach. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Lidieth Arevalo is a Chapman University graduate student who completed a short documentary featuring a Los Angeles DACA recipient denied permission to travel to Mexico after her father died. The documentary is titled “Advance Parole.” A scene from the documentary is on the monitor behind her. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

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Citlalli Ortiz, Mayra Garibo, CSULB professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos and Lidieth Arevalo pose at the California-Mexico Studies Center in Long Beach on December 26, 2018. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)



Lidieth Arevalo, Citlalli Ortiz, and CSULB professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos talk about their Washington DC trip plans at the California-Mexico Studies Center in Long Beach on December 26, 2018. (Photo by Ana P. Garcia, Contributing Photographer)

A provision in U.S. immigration law called advance parole allows non-citizens with legal status to travel internationally for humanitarian, educational and employment purposes. And until 2017, the government allowed DACA holders permission to leave and re-enter the country.

“We write to urge you to reconsider your harmful position and request that you provide us with detailed information on DACA recipients’ eligibility for advance parole,” reads the letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and L. Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The campaign to bring back advance parole for those who are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, has its roots in Southern California. Cal State Long Beach professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, founder of the non-profit California-Mexico Studies Center, took a delegation of some 20 DACA holders to Washington D.C. last month to host a seminar on the topic and meet with legislators.

“This is a huge step forward and a direct result derived by our campaign to restore advance parole,” Vazquez-Ramos said Tuesday.

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Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, is spearheading the effort in the House of Representatives to restore the travel rights for DACA recipients, and he has participated in “Advance Parole,” a documentary made by a Chapman University graduate student, Lidieth Arevalo. Her film includes stories like that of Mayra Garibo, a Cal State Dominguez Hills student who tried to visit her father in Mexico but was denied. Garibo’s father was unexpectedly killed in a car accident and she requested again advance parole on humanitarian grounds so she could go to his funeral. She was denied again.

Other California House members who signed the letter were: Nanette Barragan, D-San Pedro, Gil Cisneros, D-Yorba Linda, Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, Mike Levin, D-Dana Point, Linda Sanchez, D-Norwalk.