The California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) team wishes you a happy and prosperous new year. This year has been a memorable year for the CMSC full of accomplishments, new collaborations and projects, events, and challenges that have helped us grow as an organization and as professionals.
Furthermore, the CMSC stands committed to continue to work with binational communities, and to research, develop, promote, and establish policies and programs between higher educational institutions and cultural organizations that will enhance the teaching, mobility and exchange of faculty, students, and professionals between California and the U.S. with Mexico and other nations in the Western Hemisphere, despite the new challenges 2017 may bring us.
We thank you for your continuous support and readership.
With love,
The CMSC Team,
Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, President & CEO
Lidieth Arevalo, CEO Executive Assistant & Multimedia Director
Sheila Salinas, Administrative Director
Luz Vazquez-Ramos, Special Programs Director
Sandra Lopez, Fund Development & Evaluation Coordinator
 |
Read our last newsletter of the year: http://conta.cc/2ijbb5K
The Final Voyage? California-Mexico Dreamers Travel to Mexico Before Trump Becomes President
By ROXANA KOPETMAN and ALEJANDRA MOLINA, The OC Register ~ Dec. 23, 2016
COSTA MESA – Concerned their legal status in the United States could be upended by Donald Trump, 25 college students and recent graduates who initially arrived here illegally left John Wayne Airport for Mexico on Thursday December 22, 2016 and will return 5 days before he becomes president.
The students, most from California, saw the study-travel trip as a way to reconnect with their cultures and their families before Trump takes office and possibly eliminates the program that allows them to travel.
“There’s so much uncertainty,” said Raquel Zamora Gonzalez, 25, a Cal State Fullerton student. “I’m going to grab this opportunity while I can.”
She and her fellow travelers have temporary legal status thanks to a 2012 program created by President Obama, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, more commonly known as DACA.
Under a little-known provision of the law, these “DACAmented” individuals – as they call themselves – can get the U.S. government’s permission to travel abroad and return.
A huge added bonus: The legal re-entry into the U.S. can boost the chance to win permanent legal status.
“I didn’t realize it would change my status until I was already in the process of applying,” said the Garden Grove resident whose parents brought her to Orange County when she was 1 year old. She raised $5,000 for the trip with the help of others. “It was a plus, but not the main reason I wanted to go.
“I want to go back and meet my family and where I came from,” she said.
The students and recent graduates are participating in an intense three-week program designed by Cal State Long Beach professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, who began arranging language and cultural travel-study programs with DACA students two years ago.
What began as an experiment with two Cal State Long Beach students has grown to trips with as many as 35. In all, he’s taken 107 young to visit their homeland.
“This is the last one that we can plan on, because right now, with the election of the unmentionable president-elect, it’s unforeseeable what’s going to happen,” Vazquez-Ramos said.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to deport all 11-plus million immigrants living in the country illegally and abolish DACA. He has since appeared to have softened his stand on DACA recipients, but it’s unclear what he intends to do.
The president-elect’s words have moved leaders at universities across the country to urge their students in study-abroad programs to return to the U.S. before Jan. 20, when Trump becomes president… Read Full Article
|
|
Check out this news report from Estrella TV about our California-Mexico Dreamers Winter 2016 Program:
Follow the California-Mexico Dreamers Winter 2016 group on Social Media, search for the following hashtags on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter:
#DreamersStudyAbroad
#CMDWinter2016
|
|
|
Quick Facts About DACA:
1.3 million: Undocumented people ages 15 and older are eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2016.
713,300: Granted DACA by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as of December 2015.
22,340: DACA immigrants granted Advance Parole as of December 2015.
5,068: Of those granted advance parole, applied to adjust their immigration status.
2,994: Of those who applied to adjust their immigration status, were granted adjusted status as of December 21, 2015.
|
