SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Volunteers gathered at the Springdale Civic Center on Dec. 1 to help DACA recipients renew their permits and help ease the stress of an uncertain future.
Christhian Saavedra, a soccer coach at Rogers Heritage High School, said organizers reached out to him to help at Sunday's clinic. Not only did he feel inclined to help because of how the permit impacts his students, but he said that's what his community does.
"Like Hispanic people do, we got here, and we're working together," Saavedra said.
According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, there are nearly 4,000 active DACA recipients in the state of Arkansas. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program allows people who were brought to the United States as children to stay, study, and work in the country. Every two years, they must renew their permits.
In his first term, President-elect Donald Trump tried to end the program. With a second Trump term on the horizon, DACA recipients across the country — including in Arkansas — are bracing for uncertainty and rushing to renew their permits.
"We're doing this clinic just to ensure that everyone that is currently on DACA has the opportunity to be able to renew that status for another two years," Samantha Vital, a volunteer attorney at the DACA clinic in Springdale, said. "With the new administration coming in, we just don't know where DACA really stands. There's a lot of fear in the community right now."
Saavedra hopes the clinic eases the minds of recipients by giving them the resources they need.
"I think one of the biggest difficulties, which we're trying to address here, is just the misinformation," he said. "I think finding a good attorney, finding the right timing, getting all the documents together ... A lot of times people might be afraid to even start that conversation because they don't know where it's going to lead them."
Vital and Saavedra said another purpose of these kinds of events is to let people know they're not alone.
"There's a sense of community, a sense of like, 'Hey, we're in this together,'" Vital said.
"There's a lot of people that are scared, and so my hope is that people see this, and they see that they're not alone"
Organizers will be hosting another DACA clinic in Fort Smith on Saturday, Dec. 7. It will be held at Antioch for Youth & Family at 1420 N 32nd St. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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