Effective January 21, 2022, Dreamers were eligible to apply for FHA-backed mortgage loans as a result of successful legislation called the Homeownership for Dreamers Act. The federal law was authored by local Congressmember Juan Vargas and colleagues Pete Aguilar and Sylvia Garcia, who were also members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. As of 2024, DACA “does not grant permanent legal status or a path to citizenship. DACA recipients are eligible to renew their grant, but renewal is not automatic,” according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. New legislation has failed numerous times to change this outcome.
Student Activism In the 1990s, Latino college and high school students in San Diego embraced the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and the growing Chicano Movement with a newfound fervor. They opposed budget cuts to SDSU’s Department of Mexican American Studies in 1991. MECha also founded the Association of Chicana Activists (AChA) at SDSU in 1991 and allied themselves with other regional and statewide supporters of growing Chicano advocacy and community-based organizations. Students found support in Marco Firebaugh who was elected to the California State Assembly in 1998. He was born in Tijuana and raised in Barrio Logan. Assembly member Firebaugh championed legislation that exempted undocumented immigrant students from paying nonresident college tuition. AB 540 was signed into law on October 12, 2001, by Governor Gray Davis, paving the way for increased access to higher education. DACA Undocumented youth joined with their peers across the nation to advocate for immigration reform that would prevent the deportation of undocumented youth who entered the United States as children. On June 15, 2012, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order that established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It provides temporary protection from deportation and enables youth to work. With this victory in hand, DACA students sustained their campaigns via new organizations such as the Immigrant Youth Collective, San Diego Dreamers and Education Without Borders.
Supporters for DACA listened to various guest speakers during a rally held on the steps of the County Administration Building. September 6, 2017 (Photo courtesy ©Nelvin C. Cepeda, San Diego Union-Tribune)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 6 – Perseverance
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