Alex Brandon / Associated Press
Astrid Silva, founder of the nonprofit Dream Big Nevada and DREAMer, is interviewed by the Associated Press on Capitol Hill in Washington on February 28, 2017. President Joe Biden’s June 18, 2024, executive order allowing some noncitizen spouses and children of a U.S. citizen to apply for permanent residency in the U.S. without leaving the country is “incredible” news, Silva said.
Sunday, June 23, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Astrid Silva was 4 years old when she emigrated from Mexico to the USA in 1992, settled in Las Vegas a year later and stayed here.
Silva said that even at that age she knew she was different from the other children, but she didn’t fully understand why.
All that changed after high school, when she realized her immigration status could limit her ability to pursue a college degree in the U.S. That knowledge led Silva to become involved in advocacy and eventually come out publicly as an illegal immigrant, she says.
“It became a way to organize other Dreamers,” she said, referring to the term commonly used for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. “When I told my story, others told me their stories, and I realized I wasn’t the only one in that situation.”
Silva later founded the nonprofit Dream Big Nevada, which supports and advocates for immigrant families across the state. She also serves as director of UNIFY Success Services in the Clark County School District.
President Joe Biden’s executive order last week allowing some spouses and children of non-citizen U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency in the U.S. without leaving the country was “incredible” news, Silva said.
“It’s really important to us that this is obviously a big step that the government is taking and it’s the right thing to do – bottom line,” she said. “There’s no getting around it. It’s the right thing to do. It’s definitely a really happy moment for me just to be there for the announcement.”
Those eligible for the procedure have, on average, lived in the U.S. for more than two decades, according to the White House. Biden’s announcement on Tuesday will protect an estimated half a million spouses of U.S. citizens and about 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parents are married to a U.S. citizen, a White House fact sheet said.
According to the Higher Ed Immigration portal, there are about 15,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) eligible immigrants in Nevada. Immigrants with DACA status live and work temporarily in the United States, but the status does not provide a path to permanent legal residency or citizenship.
For some, this is now changing.
“These couples have raised families, sent their children to church and school, paid taxes and contributed to our country – and have done so for ten or more years … but all the while they live in fear and uncertainty in the United States,” Biden said. “We can change that, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do today: change it.”
The Biden administration will also ease the process of obtaining a work visa for individuals who have earned a degree from a U.S. institution of higher education and have received a job offer for that degree from a U.S. employer, which will benefit DACA recipients.
The immigrants could eventually apply for permanent, legal residency through their employers.
“I want those who have been educated at U.S. colleges and universities to put their skills and knowledge to work here in America,” Biden said Tuesday at an event marking the 12th anniversary of DACA, an Obama-era immigration policy. “I want to continue to build the strongest economy in the world with the best workforce in the world.”
Silva, a dedicated DACA recipient, and others have pushed for such changes in the immigration process and will continue to do so, she said. While Biden’s announcement last week was significant, Congress still needs to take its own action, she said. No matter what happens, Silva stressed, work permits will always be temporary.
She pointed to past examples, such as former President Barack Obama’s introduction of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) law, which caused outrage in the immigrant community but was later overturned by the courts.
“There’s definitely no denying that there’s always a fear that this won’t be fully implemented,” she said. “But at the same time, I think our families needed that hope that there’s still work being done for us. And ultimately, we’ve always asked for the immigration process to be fixed — to be made so that families don’t have to spend years navigating a system that’s built against them.”
Progress
The next step for Silva is to inform families about the changes and make sure they know nothing has officially gone into effect yet, she said.
There will be a lot of misinformation, Silva warned, and recommends that people get information from official sources and ask questions if necessary.
“There is no application at the moment – there is no process that has been underlined yet,” she said. “But now the announcement has been made and we will continue to work with it.”
So many DACA recipients are an asset to their state or the United States as a whole, whether as teachers, lawyers or nurses, Silva said.
“During the pandemic, so many of my DACA recipients were out there saving lives and – no matter what – went home, knowing that the patient they may have just saved was someone they didn’t want in this country,” she said. “And so we contributed to our state. We did whatever was necessary.”
There is more documentation about them than most American citizens ever will, Silva joked, because of the amount of information DACA recipients must provide and the background checks that are conducted every two years, if not annually.
“And despite all of that, people still say, ‘Oh, I thought you were already a citizen,'” she said. “And then when you tell them, ‘No, I’m not a citizen yet,’ they say, ‘See, you didn’t care.’ And so unfortunately, it’s a shame that so many Americans don’t know how the immigration process works. But we’re going to keep moving forward because announcements like the one (on Tuesday) are really what we need to see more of.”
Nevada leaders’ reaction
State Senator Fabian Donate (D-Las Vegas) said during a press conference Tuesday that Biden’s announcement would provide spouses and “Dreamers” with an easier path to citizenship by protecting family units and allowing eligible spouses to obtain work permits so they can get well-paying jobs.
About one in 10 Nevadans, or 200,000 Nevadans, are undocumented, Donate said.
“Ultimately, President Biden has enabled families to stay together, and that is fundamentally important,” he said. “But let’s be clear that there are many undocumented residents who are not affected by this presidential action today. And it is up to Congress to do its job and ensure that our families are continually protected and that undocumented residents have a path to citizenship.”
Democratic U.S. Representative Steven Horsford of Nevada praised the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration in a virtual press conference hosted by the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) and American Families United (AFU).
“The new measures to provide work permits and citizenship to undocumented spouses and children are important steps forward, and we must continue to work together in a bipartisan and balanced manner on future immigration and border policy,” he said.
Democratic U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada called Biden’s actions the biggest victory for immigrant families since DACA over a decade ago.
“There is still a lot of work to be done to fix our broken immigration system – but President Biden understands that you can invest in border security and stand by immigrant families,” she said at the press conference hosted by ABIC and AFU. “This is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.”
U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, called the U.S. immigration system “broken” on social media and responsible for leaving Nevada families in “limbo.” She said Biden’s announcement was critical to keeping families together and supporting the “Dreamers” by allowing them to live and work legally in the U.S.
“But there is still much work to be done, and Congress must come together in a bipartisan manner and pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border and provides safety and lasting relief to families,” Rosen said on X.
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