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September 3, 2017

Los Angeles Times: Trump’s decision on the ‘Dreamers’ is personal for some Californians in Congress

BY Sarah D. Wire

After President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012, a cousin approached Nanette Barragán and asked her if it was safe to apply.

Barragán remembers telling the young woman, “When the government tells you that your information is not going to be used against you, you take the government at their word.”

Her answer to that relative five years ago weighs heavily on the freshman congresswoman today as the nation awaits President Trump’s decision on whether he’ll allow the program to continue.

“Before the message was: If you are good, if you are under the radar, you are paying your taxes … if you are a good person, they are not going to come after you,” Barragán told The Times. “Who would have imagined that you would have Donald Trump be the president.” … 

In parts of her southern Los Angeles congressional district, Barragán is introduced just as congresista. The district, which includes parts of Carson, Compton and San Pedro, is 68% Latino. Her own mother, now a U.S. citizen, has asked the congresswoman if she should carry her paperwork when she leaves the house.

Using the U.S. census’ count, all congressional districts are drawn every 10 years so that they’ll include roughly the same number of people: 700,000. The census doesn’t ask about legal status. That means that in some districts, especially in the Los Angeles area, a sizable population of constituents are in the country illegally. READ MORE