22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 7-13, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com America; Mexican immigrants lead with 77,935 deportation orders as of June. (ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.) “This administration’s deportation policy is beyond targeting violent criminals and now is sweeping up immigrants who contribute to our economy and communities,” says U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley. “Not just on the Central Coast of California, but also throughout the nation, there are many immigrants who have taken risks to come here, contribute here, do jobs here that few, if any, Americans will do in agriculture, construction, hospitality, nursing care and more, and help make our community.” The immigration court’s backlog consists of 3,461,637 cases as of June; of those, 2,209,097 have filed an asylum application and are awaiting a hearing. Pablo, a former student-athlete, works as a freelance photographer and is a DACA recipient (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). He’s been in the States since he was 4 years old and his memories from Mexico are of his grandma, who took care of him since he was a baby, and blurred images of his goodbye party before moving to California from the Mexican state of Hidalgo. He lives with his parents, both undocumented farmworkers, and his two siblings in a two-bedroom home in Salinas. Pablo was in high school when he applied for a work permit and first learned about his immigration status. “I knew I was born there [in Mexico], but I just didn’t know that I didn’t have that freedom as a citizen to work or to have all the benefits,” he says. Having a work permit motivated him to pursue higher education and study at a university out of state with a full-ride scholarship. It was his first time on a plane. Pablo has completed his DACA application paperwork multiple times. His most recent permit expired in July and his new permit hasn’t arrived yet; that means currently he is undocumented and more vulnerable to deportation. He applied two months prior to the expiration date, while U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends allowing four to five months. “I made a mistake there,” Pablo says of the timing. “This is how it feels with my parents. Now I’m afraid, so now I know what it feels like,” he adds. (If his DACA renewal application is still pending after 105 days, he can inquire about his application or request congressional intervention if it’s delayed.) After the raids in Southern California were followed by a scare about a possible ICE raid when multiple agencies served a search warrant on a cannabis farm near Pajaro (an investigation that turned out to be purely focused on alleged state crimes), Pablo is more attuned to risk. He now calls his parents every workday if they aren’t home by 6pm. His first language was Spanish but it’s no longer his primary language. Despite living in the U.S. most of his life and speaking primarily English, he says it doesn’t feel like home. “I don’t feel welcome because of the color of my skin,” he says. “I don’t know where I’m from, to be honest. If I go to Mexico, I have no clue. I haven’t been there since I was 4…I feel like I would feel more welcome, because I would be free to go out and not be detained by ICE or anyone. I don’t feel free.” On July 29, he drove to Southern California for unpaid photography gigs in San Diego and Los Angeles (both hot places for ICE activity). He hopes this assignment opens the door for paid work. “I am scared, but I did my research. Chat GPT is usually my lawyer,” Pablo says. He’s bringing his driver’s license, which expires in 2027, along with his receipt showing his DACA application is pending and letters showing he’s a good citizen. “I was about to say no to this opportunity that came. I feel like those opportunities are hard to get, and I don’t want to be that person who changes because of a fear of something. I still want to live my life.” Despite not being in Mexico since he was 4, Pablo isn’t too scared of potential deportation. He has family there and a bachelor’s degree. “I could probably get a job being an English teacher. I don’t know how hard it is,” he says. “I have experience with food photography. I can go to restaurants and maybe just ask for a few bucks.” Pablo has stopped paying attention to proposed legislation to provide pathways for citizenship and legal permanent residency. When he was younger, he used to check the news regularly, hoping for immigration reform and felt disappointed when nothing materialized. “When you’ve seen it so many times, it doesn’t even hurt anymore,” he says. The last comprehensive immigration reform happened nearly 40 years ago. Since then, lawmakers have introduced several bills for a path to legal status and citizenship, but none have moved forward. “People are surprised if you’re married to an American citizen, people just assume that you can get your legal residence. Not always the case. If you entered the United States without inspection at the land border, you never get your residency,” says U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who was previously an immigration lawyer. This year, lawmakers have introduced two options to obtain legal status: work permits for undocumented workers and a path to legal permanent residency, or a path to citizenship. The Dignity Act of 2025 is a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Florida, on July 15 and co-sponsored by Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. It seeks to increase border security and it would provide a path to legal permanent residency. It would give undocumented immigrants a work permit and protection from deportation. Dreamers/DACA recipients, who entered at 18 or younger by Jan. 1, 2021, could apply for a 10-year permit with a path to legal permanent residency; DACA is a two-year permit. It would benefit about 2.5 million Dreamers; 525,000 of them are DACA recipients. It also criminalizes illegal crossing with prison time of up to 10 years, and 20 years for individuals deported three or more times. The other option is to create a path to citizenship. On July 25 Lofgren, along with representatives Grace Meng, D-New York; Adriano Espaillat, D-New York; and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Illinois, reintroduced the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929, or H.R. 4696. It would update the Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the registry, by changing the cutoff date for permanent residency. Padilla also reintroduced a similar bill in the Senate. The registry provision would allow immigrants who have resided in the U.S. for several years to apply for residency if they have a clean record. The last time this provision was updated was in 1972. Then during the Reagan administration, nearly 2.7 million people obtained legal permanent residency through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. “It has not been updated since that time, which is very problematic for the United States,” Lofgren says. “We’re seeing armed, masked agents, refusing to identify themselves, tackling and disappearing people all over the United States. That’s having an impact on families, on communities…[on] the economy. “The Central Coast economy is rooted in agriculture. More than half the farmworkers are undocumented. If they are disappeared, the economy of this area will collapse.” The bill would provide a path to citizenship for people who have various immigration statuses and skill sets, from youth, farmworkers and professionals. U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, announced a proposal to create a pathway to citizenship on July 25. The bill, unveiled at the Watsonville Civic Plaza, aims not to reinvent the wheel, but rather to update existing legislation. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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