NBC 7 first shared Beth\u2019s story in July<\/a>. That caught the attention on Rep. Scott Peters, who represents her, and his office took on her case.<\/p>\n\u201cWe wrote a lot of letters, and we advocated, and we finally got that turned back on,\u201d Peters said. \u201cBut it shouldn’t be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three weeks after Beth\u2019s story aired, she checked her case status online and discovered her DACA renewal had been approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so happy,\u201d she said, laughing as she recalled the moment she found out. \u201cI was so happy because I’m so ready to get back to work. I’m so ready to kind of restart my life. I’m so ready to not have as much anxiety, worry about everything. I’m ready to kind of just, not say pick up where I left off, because that’s not really possible in general, but just kind of start something new again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beth said she\u2019s now looking for a job.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix months of not working, that’s a huge time frame in the design world. Things move so fast, trends move so quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, I feel so behind, right? Like I’m trying to catch up, when there should have been no reason for me to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n
After her status lapsed, Beth had been avoiding large events and even being in public out of fear of being detained. But now, she said her husband is a huge baseball fan and they’re excited to be able to go to a Padres game again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I do happen to encounter any immigration agent, I can show them my valid work permit, and I’m hoping that that is enough proof that I don’t get questioned anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the same time, I know that that might not be enough proof. There\u2019s still a little bit of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beth\u2019s husband is a U.S. citizen and they\u2019ve been in the process of adjusting her status, planning to apply for a green card. But she said even that is a strange feeling, in part because DACA itself provides no pathway to citizenship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve put all this effort into this country, so why can’t I do it myself? Why do I have to wait to be married to somebody?\u201d she said through tears. \u201cI put all the time, money, effort into my studies, into my career, so there should be a way for me to do it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it’s heartbreaking,” Peters said, growing emotional himself. “It\u2019s really, really tough to see these kids go through this.” <\/p>\n
\u201cNothing affects me like this really, in this job,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause you feel kind of like they deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to live normal, happy lives with our families and just be allowed to be here,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n
For now, Peters said her victory in a sea of delays reminded him of an old story about a beach full of washed-up starfish.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see a young girl throwing them in the ocean,\u201d he recounted, \u201cAnd people say, \u2018Why are you wasting your time? You’ll never do it all, it doesn’t matter.’ And she says, \u2018It mattered to that one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As delays in processing for DACA renewals cause some recipients to lose their jobs and protection from deportation…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1026884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,75716,409,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1026883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-daca","tag-immigration","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117166030255853430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}