She and her sister were bullied by students in elementary
school because, of course, they had to learn English. They spoke with
an accent. She told me: ``My mother told me not to give up.'' That is
what she wrote me a couple of days after the President of the United
States announced that he would end the DACA Program. She wrote me 5
days after the Trump administration rescinded DACA, and her story has
stuck with me, haunted me over these months, just as when I have met
with Dreamers--as I did just this past Monday in Hartford, CT--to
reassure them that I was going to fight every day that we have
remaining in this session, their stories have haunted and moved and
inspired me. Alejandra was bullied, but even as she was bullied for speaking a
different language--her native language--and learning English, even as
her father was deported, even as her family was left without him and
with even less support, they persevered. She wrote to me: ``I made it my mission to prove that I was worthy of
being considered an American.'' How many of us, growing up, made it our
mission to prove ourselves worthy of being an American? I daresay few
of us considered that mission. Most of us take for granted that we are
Americans, that we are citizens of the greatest country in the history
of the world. Slowly but surely she learned English, and it became her primary
language. In 2012, she got a break: The Obama administration enacted
DACA. She could come out of the shadows. She could have a place, some
security.
Keywords matched
deported DACA