While Congress was drumming up support last Friday for the American Hope Act — a bill to protect and end the threat to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, aka DACA, or the Dream Act) — I was in Philadelphia meeting Cheska Mae Perez.
Perez isn’t a Latino name. She’s 19, a Filipino immigrant, whose example speaks to the power of DACA.
We were both among the six finalists at the Asian American Journalists Association’s first Story Slam, and her story caught my attention.
Perez is undocumented and not afraid to talk about it publicly.
“There’s nothing to hide,” said Perez, who came here with her parents on a legal visa that was not renewed when her family experienced a job loss. Understanding that has helped her overcome any fear or guilt about her status. Or any hesitation to talk about it. “There’s nothing to be guilty about,” Perez said. “It was not my fault. It was no one’s fault. We were stuck in a situation that became our reality. And that’s a lot of people’s reality as well.”
The silver lining in her situation? Perez will be starting college in August on a full ride at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, where tuition is more than $60,000 a year.
But it’s only because she was a DACA recipient that she was eligible for a new partnership the school had with the Golden Door Scholars program.
