G17
WEEKEND EDITION
8/9/17
10:51 AM
Page 1
A TASTE OF
ROUND-UP
HERMISTON HOME OPENER
SPORTS/1B
FOUR MORE DAYS
MAGAZINE
INSIDE
LIFESTYLES/1C
SEPTEMBER 9-10, 2017
141st Year, No. 235
Dems see
path to
carbon
‘cap and
invest’
in 2018
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM – Demo-
cratic lawmakers say
they may fi nally have
enough momentum to
enact a “cap and invest”
carbon dioxide-reduction
program in 2018.
Sen.
Michael
Dembrow, D-Portland,
and Rep. Ken Helm,
D-Beaverton,
are
convening work groups
Sept. 21 to help refi ne a
proposal that has evolved
over the past few years.
“I think there is a
path to get this done in
2018,” Dembrow said.
“The sooner we do it,
the sooner we can do the
work and get the invest-
ment going.”
House Speaker Tina
Kotek and Gov. Kate
Brown have both backed
the effort.
Similar to a program
in California, the Oregon
proposal would limit
the amount of carbon
dioxide
a
business
could emit each year.
After exceeding the cap,
the business would be
required to buy market-
priced allowances for
any additional emissions.
The payments would
encourage
businesses
to reduce their carbon
footprint.
Meanwhile,
proceeds
from
the
competitive auction of
those allowances could
yield an estimated $700
million per year to
invest in projects that
slow climate change,
supporters say.
At the end of the 2017
session July 7, Kotek
identifi ed the program as
an unfi nished priority.
And one week later, the
governor announced that
she would seek to pass
a state “cap and invest”
bill next year. She made
the announcement at a
screening of former Vice
President Al Gore’s “An
Inconvenient
Sequel”
hosted by environmental
See CARBON/13A
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
A DREAM
DISRUPTED
Contributed photo by Nolan Calisch
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
LEFT: Yessica Roman, who arrived in the United States at age fi ve and barely remembers her life in Mexico, graduated from
Hermiston High School and is studying to become a nurse. RIGHT: Heldáy de la Cruz is a Hermiston High School graduate who was
brought to the United States illegally at age 2. He is a graphic designer in Portland.
Young people shielded by DACA face uncertain future as
Trump administration announces plans to dismantle program
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Heldáy de la Cruz has no memory of Mexico.
The Hermiston High School graduate, 26,
was two years old when he left the country of
his birth. He hasn’t been back since. His friends
are American. So is his college degree and the
company where he works as a graphic designer.
None of that matters in the eyes of the
law now that the Trump Administration has
announced the end of
the Deferred Action
on Childhood Arrivals Inside:
program that has allowed Congress at fault
young, undocumented for DACA rescind
“Dreamers” like de la OPINION/4A
Cruz to work legally in
the United States. Unless
Congress acts, he will be vulnerable to deporta-
tion once his most recent work permit expires.
“It would be a total readjustment of my life,”
he said.
There is no path to citizenship for Dreamers,
and only some of the 787,000 registered for
DACA have a way to obtain a green card, if they
were brought into the United States by certain
methods and have a parent, spouse or child who
is a citizen and can sponsor them. Others are out
of luck unless laws change.
Although de la Cruz’s parents brought their
toddler son to Hermiston without going through
legal immigration channels, his childhood was
a fairly average one once he arrived in Eastern
Oregon.
“It was all pretty normal — it felt normal,
anyway — up until I was 14 and started thinking
about getting my driver’s permit at 15,” he said.
“I realized that was not a possibility for me.”
Contributed photo by Kiana McCune
Heldáy de la Cruz, a Hermiston High graduate, speaks at a Dreamer rally in Portland.
Soon he started missing
out on other rites of passage
that his friends were
experiencing. He couldn’t
apply for a summer job at
McDonald’s, or get fi nancial
aid to help cover tuition at a
university. His good grades
drew a sizable scholarship
offer from one school, but
it wasn’t enough to make
up for the loss of federal
fi nancial aid, and in end he
turned it down in order to
get a transfer degree from
Blue Mountain Community
College.
He considered moving
to Mexico, because it was
hard to imagine a graphic
design company ignoring his
undocumented status to hire
him. But then his mom was
diagnosed with cancer, and
he didn’t want to leave her.
When
then-President
Barack Obama announced
the DACA program 2012,
See DACA/13A
“It’s really discouraging so many people are against it.
They don’t see the good, they only see us leeching off the United States.”
— Yessica Roman, nursing student and DACA recipient