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DACA: Applicants do not have a criminal record, must pay $495 fee every two years
Saturday, September 9, 2017
“I was incredibly
lucky to be able to
get my application
in on time and
buy myself two
more years, but
there are people
who are home-
owners, people
who have chil-
dren, people who
have loved ones
here who are
too sick to travel
and now they are
having to make
plans to leave the
country.”
Continued from 1A
de la Cruz was scared that
giving the government his
information would backfire.
His parents convinced him
to apply.
“It’s changed my life
drastically,” he said, “espe-
cially work-wise, because
I’ve been able to have a job
in the field I want to work
in.”
DACA covers undoc-
umented immigrants who
arrived in the country before
2007 and before their 16th
birthday, were under the age
of 31 in 2012, did not have
a criminal record and are
either currently in school
or a high school graduate.
Young people who apply for
DACA and pay a $495 fee
every two years are issued
a permit that allows them
to legally work, drive, pay
taxes and attend college, but
does not allow them to get
benefits like food stamps,
Pell Grants or subsidized
health insurance.
On Tuesday President
Donald Trump announced
his administration will
begin phasing out DACA
by no longer renewing
the program’s two-year
work permits. Trump said
Congress could come up
with legislation to replace
the program, but many
Dreamers are skeptical the
votes will be there, consid-
ering similar legislation has
failed in years past.
De la Cruz, who lives
in Portland but still makes
frequent trips to Hermiston
to visit his parents, said he
just renewed his application,
but he knows Dreamers
whose work permits expire
within a few weeks.
“I was incredibly lucky to
be able to get my application
in on time and buy myself
two more years, but there
are people who are home-
owners, people who have
children, people who have
loved ones here who are too
sick to travel and now they
are having to make plans to
leave the country,” he said.
He said he has been
frustrated that his plight has
been met with everything
from outright racism to
ignorant assumptions that
he can choose to become
a citizen if he just hires the
right attorney. He also gets
frustrated by well-meaning
allies who say “Everything
will be OK” even though
they don’t actually know
that. He said it’s better for
allies to ask what they can do
to help, just like his friends
who will accompany him to
the federal courthouse when
his DACA renewal is done
being processed.
“I don’t want to go alone,
because I have this fear that
I won’t come back,” he said.
— Heldáy de la Cruz
Contributed photo by Heldáy de la Cruz
Heldáy de la Cruz took this profile picture for his Facebook page after hearing the
news that President Donald Trump is ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Yessica Roman
When Yessica Roman was
a little kid, she dreamed of
joining the Air Force. Now,
she is studying to become a
nurse.
Neither career will be
possible in the United States
when her DACA work
permit expires in early 2019.
She was already turned away
by a National Guard recruiter
when he found out her immi-
gration status.
“There are so many
people willing to fight for
this country but can’t,” she
said. “This is our home.”
Roman was brought to
the U.S. by her parents when
she was five, when someone
offered her dad an oppor-
tunity to work construction
for them in Los Angeles.
The family never returned
to Mexico and she graduated
from Hermiston High School
in 2015.
Registering for DACA
in 2012 has allowed her
to work, go to college at
BMCC, purchase a car and
drive.
Now that the Trump
administration
has
announced its intentions
to do away with DACA,
she and her siblings worry
about the consequences of
providing the government
with their names, addresses
and an admission that their
parents didn’t bring them
here through legal immigra-
tion channels.
“I don’t want people to
come to my house and say,
Immigrants face job authorization loss
With President Donald Trump’s phase-out of the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, hundreds of
thousands of immigrants stand to lose their work authoriza-
tions in the next few years.
Employment authorizations set to expire
Have submitted requests to renew status
201,678
Aug.-
Dec. 2017
Jan.-
Dec. 2018
Jan.-
Aug. 2019
55,258
275,344
7,271
321,920
8
SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security
‘Hey you’re coming with
us,’” she said.
Roman barely remembers
Mexico. If her family got
deported, she worries her
teenage brother would be
unable to avoid joining a
gang, and her grandmother
in Mexico has said she fears
the family would be a target
for violence if they returned.
“People think that because
you’ve lived in the United
States you’re super rich, and
so they kidnap you,” Roman
said.
The family is not “super
rich.” Roman said it frus-
trates her to hear that undoc-
umented immigrants must
be living on welfare, when
that’s not legally possible
with a specially marked
DACA Social Security card.
She can’t even get health
insurance subsidies through
the Affordable Care Act or
CARBON: Opponents also say costs would
eventually trickle down to consumers
Continued from 1A
group Renew Oregon in Portland.
A reporter from the New Yorker,
who attended the screening, quoted
Brown as saying: “I think the rest of
the world needs to see Americans, and
Oregonians, standing up. We must
participate, and we must be part of the
solution.”
About 100 businesses, including fuel
suppliers, electricity providers, landfills
and manufacturers — which emit at
least 25,000 tons of CO2 per year —
would have to buy allowances.
A price on carbon could then be
used to invest in projects such as solar
panel installations or construction of
affordable housing near light rail lines,
said Brad Reed of Renew Oregon.
Helm and Dembrow are reaching
out to Republicans and members of
industry to join the “cap and invest”
work groups. The invitations came as a
memo to the Governor’s Office Aug. 2
identified only Democratic lawmakers
as members of the groups.
“Based on the memo released by the
Governor’s Office, it doesn’t appear the
Governor’s Office has much intention
of working with Republicans on that
issue,” said Preston Mann, a spokesman
for House Minority Leader Mike
McLane, R-Powell Butte.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Powell Butte,
said he plans to decline an invitation to
join the work groups.
“I don’t want to be brought along as
window dressing for outcome already
determined by the Democrats,” Bentz
said.
He said discussions should center
on whether “cap and invest” is right for
Oregon.
State lawmakers have yet to assess
how much existing policies have already
reduced CO2, Bentz said.
“In its place in the world, has Oregon
done its part or not?” he said. “Those
are justifiable questions to ask because
we are a small state.”
Deciding whether to adopt “cap and
invest” should wait until 2019, when
the Legislature will have a session of
more than five months, Mann said. The
session in 2018 lasts only 35 days.
“We are talking about out an
extremely complicated issue and a
35-day session we do not think that is
appropriate,” Mann said.
Opponents also say costs of the
program would eventually trickle down
to consumers.
“We would have a lot of concerns
about the way the program is presented
so far because the individuals affected
by this are in rural and low-income
communities who already have taken
the brunt of policy changes recently and
in the last decades,” Mann said.
A study by the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality indicated the
costs could have an inordinate effect on
people in low-income and rural commu-
nities because they already spend a
larger percent of their income on fuel.
But another study out of California
shows record economic growth and
carbon reductions came in tandem with
that state’s participation in a “cap and
invest” program.
Oregon is modeling its program after
California’s, so the state can learn from
its southern neighbor’s mistakes and
successes, Dembrow said.
The California report “busts the old
myth that reducing emissions comes
with reduced economic activity, even as
their population is growing, pollution is
falling and the economy is booming,”
said Reed of Renew Oregon.
“Opponents of the policies in Cali-
fornia … said the same bad things.
History has proven them wrong.”
AP
sign up for the Oregon Health
Plan despite making only
$8,000 per year. When she
had an unexplained seizure
at work last year she ended
up with a $13,000 medical
bill, only part of which
ended up being covered by a
charitable donation.
She couldn’t get federal
financial aid or find private
scholarships that allowed
undocumented applications,
so instead of pursuing a
nursing degree full-time at
a university she is balancing
classes at BMCC with a full-
time job at an area food-pro-
cessing plant.
She hopes Congress is
willing let people like her
stay, but she fears it won’t
happen.
“It’s really discouraging
so many people are against
it,” she said. “They don’t
see the good, they only see
us leeching off the United
States.”
Reactions from others
After the announcement
that young undocumented
immigrants will no longer be
protected from deportation
by DACA, many schools
hastened to assure students
that they would still be
welcome to come and learn.
Hermiston School District
communications
officer
Maria Duron said the district
does not ask for immigration
status and therefore does
not know how many of
its students are enrolled in
DACA. However, in a letter
to parents and staff, super-
intendent Tricia Mooney
affirmed that the district
stands against all forms of
discrimination and “every
student has an equal oppor-
tunity to be served in our
public system and supported
to reach their potential.”
“Our thoughts and prayers
go out to the Dreamer
students and families that
might be affected by today’s
federal decision,” the letter
stated. “We will monitor the
well-being of our students
while they are under our care
and will provide support if
necessary to make sure that
all our students are able
to maintain focus on their
learning.”
She thanked parents for
discussing hard topics with
their children at home and
encouraged them to tell
their students to report any
bullying, harassment or
discrimination they witness.
Cam Preus, president of
Blue Mountain Community
College, said citizenship or
permanent residency isn’t
a requirement for attending
a community college, and
some non-federal programs
like Oregon Promise are
available to undocumented
students as well.
“We take students as they
come to us,” she said.
Preus said these students
know no other country,
and if they are trying to
better themselves through
education they deserve the
opportunity to do so.
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity has already been
supporting its Dreamers
through the Multicultural
Center and the United
Undocumented
Students
club.
Multicultural
Center
director Bennie Moses-Me-
subed said the center provides
services such as peer mento-
ring, personal guidance,
referrals, information about
scholarships,
inclusivity
trainings and guest speakers.
The club for undocumented
students and their allies often
draws 30 to 50 people to their
larger events, she said.
For those who want to
support Dreamers but don’t
know how, she said being a
good ally means being vocal
in supporting human rights,
acting with intentions that are
genuine and not self-serving,
being aware of privileges
and biases, using language
that promotes inclusivity,
seeking understanding of
different cultures and not
reducing Dreamers’ identity
to just their immigration
status.
“Being
undocumented
isn’t the only thing that
makes people who they are,”
she said.
Jose Garcia, chair of
the Hispanic Advisory
Committee in Hermiston,
said that the repeal of DACA
is a scary time for members
of the Latino community. He
said he knows a mother who
is working on a master’s
degree who is now living in
fear of what the loss of her
DACA work permit will do.
“The community is
freaked out about this,” he
said. “Everywhere you go,
people are talking about it.”
Garcia backed Trump
during the election based
on the president’s prom-
ises about improving the
economy. He said the deci-
sion on DACA is worrisome,
but he feels optimistic that
Trump’s decision to throw
immigration reform “in
the pressure cooker” could
result in a more permanent
solution from Congress.
He said the adminis-
tration should allow hard-
working Latinos to stay,
while focusing on going
after criminals instead.
“Aim to take out felons,
not families,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Oregon team develops engine
to keep drones aloft longer
By JOSEPH DITZLER
The (Bend) Bulletin
BEND — A team led by
an engineering professor at
Oregon State University-Cas-
cades has developed a proto-
type hybrid engine for small,
unmanned aerial vehicles, in
what could be a significant
development in drone tech-
nology.
Unmanned aerial vehi-
cles, known as drones, and
particularly small drones, are
often limited by the amount
of battery power. A hybrid
engine, using a gasoline-pow-
ered engine to re-charge an
onboard battery, allows the
vehicle to stay aloft longer.
Chris Hagen, OSU-Cas-
cades assistant professor of
energy systems engineering,
and his team managed to scale
down the concept, opening the
possibility of a viable hybrid
engine for “smalls” — drones
that weigh less than 55 pounds
— said Mark Peters, research
compliance coordinator with
OSU in Corvallis.
“Dr. Hagen brings a concept
proven in hybrid vehicles and
larger aircraft and miniaturizes
it,” Peters said Wednesday. “It
opens up the door to extending
and enhancing the usability
of small rotorcaft in research,
search and rescue and all those
different applications that are
restrained by a battery pack.”
Previously,
Hagen
conceived of and developed
at OSU a natural-gas-powered
engine that also compresses
natural gas, an advance that
led to creation of a company,
Onboard Dynamics, in Bend,
to commercialize the project.
Onboard Dynamics partnered
with Southern California Gas
Co. in January to demonstrate
the engine as a more efficient
means of refueling natu-
ral-gas-fueled school buses.
As for the hybrid engine
for small drones, that work
began two years ago, Hagen
said. The technology existed
in its component parts; the
challenge lay in bringing them
together to work as a system,
he said.
“The integration ended
up being a lot more difficult
than I expected,” Hagen said
Aug. 17. “Although all the
stuff exists, you have to basi-
cally tailor each one of these
components so they consume
the right amount (of energy)
and they send off the right
amount of energy.”
Hagen and his team,
which included Sean Brown,
formerly an OSU engineering
graduate student and now an
associate engineer at SpaceX,
and Shyam Menon, formerly
an OSU engineering professor
who now teaches at Louisiana
State
University,
pulled
components off the shelf,
starting with a Tarot-brand
quadcopter. The team today
includes a group of undergrad-
uates at OSU-Cascades, Hagen
said.
For power, Hagen’s team
purchased a small, one-cyl-
inder, two-stroke engine that
produces 2.75 horsepower.
The German-made engine, a
3W28i, is commonly used in
radio-controlled aircraft, said
Gerhard Stejskal, owner of
Aircraft International LLC,
the Florida-based importer that
supplied the engine.
Hagen’s team used its
engine to power a generator
that charges the batteries that
run the electric motors attached
to the drone propellers.
Although simple in concept,
attempts to bring it to reality
proved elusive, Hagen said.
“We’ve flown for over an
hour, and documented that —
an hour and 3 minutes,” he
said. “Other people have made
these claims but we haven’t
seen them do it.”
Actually flying the craft is
a sometimes thing, he said. It
typically “flies” while attached
to a set of rails that allows it to
rise and fall in a relatively safe
environment. The otherwise
modest looking craft has more
than $230,000 invested in it, in
terms of equipment, a NASA
fellowship for Brown and
the work of at least six other
people, Hagen said. A qual-
ified commercial pilot from
Corvallis sometimes crosses
the mountains to fly the drone,
he said.
“We’ve been at it a couple
of years, and we flew five or
six times longer than the best
battery system,” Hagen said.
“We did it just the other day.”