Jesus Contreras He arrives as tired from his 24 or even 32-hour hours as a paramedic in Houston, Texas, who confesses that there are days when the body does not give him to read news or verify if the Supreme Court revealed his decision on the DACA program that allows you to work from the front line of the battle against the coronavirus.
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The Deferred Action of 2012 not only brought him out of the shadows in a certain way, but also fulfilled his dream since he saw at his 6-year-old Laredo, Tamaulipas (Mexico), the then popular television program about the police incidents Cops: work in emergency tasks helping people.
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It did so when Hurricane Harvey struck a few years ago, and it has done so again as the covid-19 pandemic, the disease caused by the coronavirus, worsened. This is due to the fact that with DACA he was able to obtain a license to practice as a paramedic on the streets of his city, something that was initially impossible for him because he did not have a state identification despite having passed the exams when he was in high school.
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This is why, for him, DACA has meanings that touch many aspects of his life.
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“For me, DACA means being safe from deportation, being in a safe job, being able to work without fear of being deported, being able to work with the security of having social security, retirement benefits, being able to get a job that without DACA I would not have …”, he says dreamer 26-year-old in an interview with Univision Noticias on behalf of the nearly 700,000 covered by the program created by then-President Barack Obama through an executive order on June 15, 2012.
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Executive order that has been questioned by now President Donald Trump since he was campaigning. Fulfilling precisely one of his electoral promises, Trump eliminated it after coming to power because he considers that the amparo is unconstitutional because Obama changed a part of the immigration law without the authorization of the Congress.
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Anguish in the midst of a ‘double emergency’
The current president’s decision opened the door to legal battles that reached the highest court in the United States, whose ruling may change the future of thousands of dreamers like Jesus who see the country as their only home.
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And of which about 30,000 are fighting on the front line of battle against a disease that has left almost 90,000 deaths in the United States in just four months. A reason taken into consideration by the Supreme Court before its decision, since in April it accepted a motion by a dreamer on the contributions made by these young people who work in the health sector.
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“We arrive home tired and at the same time we must face that possibly the next day we will not have that peace of knowing that we will be able to work,” says Jesús.
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The days are usually so exhausting and long that the mind of Jesus can sometimes forget the Supreme Court ruling, where during all this long process he could be face to face with the judges with the power to seal his fate. And, although it is a latent decision, for Jesus it does not seem to mean the ‘final chapter’.
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“When I get home I don’t have room in my brain to think about the decision, I have faith in God that something will be positive for us. I hope that, whatever happens, we have the support of the people in the United States Even if the program is taken from us, I know that there are people who will continue to fight for us, “he says.
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“There are a lot of people who are working in the fields, at Uber, in other jobs that are essential, and I would like them to see all of us as essential workers and human beings, to understand that the benefits of giving us a permanent legislative solution it would help the government to get much more money and fill these missing jobs, “he notes after one of those draining workdays.
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