Article by: Lucy Turner & Photos by: Maeve Donohue
DACA, also known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that protects immigrants who were moved to the US as a minor whose parents' visas have been revoked. DACA members will lose their status starting March 5, 2018; after which, the next step is deportation. Although illegal immigrants won't be individually targeted, incarceration and deportation is a risk if approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
One of NSA's own theatre students is now at risk of losing DACA and deportation doesn't seem implausible. David Torres-Fuentes, a current senior, spoke to me about growing up in Mexico, what DACA means to him, and what's at risk.
"I grew up maybe twenty minutes from the border," he recounts, "the drug cartels started getting really bad. Like killing and hanging people from their ankles outside of kindergartens." Mexico as always been a country with an extremely high crime rate, and although the rate has began to decrease since 2011, David's parents knew it was no place for their kid to grow up. "My father's family didn't it was the last time they were going to see him, and it's been about eleven years." He continued his story on, recounting his time on his way to America. Despite border control, illegal immigrant still face natural threats for a new life including the Texas' Rio Grande and Arizona's sweltering deserts. According to an article by the New York Times, a study found that " three of Arizona’s four border counties — received 49 sets of remains from Jan. 1 to May 9,2013".
The Torres' escape continues on a bus from Houston to Nashville, "...it turns out that somebody had cocaine on the bus. So in Memphis we got stopped. The police rushed in and my brother and I stood straight up and put our hands in the air," David was six at the time, his brother four. "I mean, it was freaky, but they gave us stuffed animals which made up for it," he says while smiling.
Jump to today, and David is now sixteen and graduation is approaching. When he's not working and supporting his family, he's helping his school's theatre department by creating puppets and props for one of its upcoming shows while still leading another show that's currently in rehearsals. He continued to busy himself with things that make him happy and is a big part of his school's theatre community. Through hardships, one thing has never changed: his love for entertaining.
"I'm a clown, as most everyone at school knows." A diehard Charlie Chaplin fan and magic-lover, David is always putting a smile on people's faces, "I just like entertaining. Maybe it's some kind of deep-seeded lack of attention, I don't know. I just like seeing the amazement in people's face; whether it's a magic trick or balancing a 12 foot ladder on my face
One of NSA's own theatre students is now at risk of losing DACA and deportation doesn't seem implausible. David Torres-Fuentes, a current senior, spoke to me about growing up in Mexico, what DACA means to him, and what's at risk.
"I grew up maybe twenty minutes from the border," he recounts, "the drug cartels started getting really bad. Like killing and hanging people from their ankles outside of kindergartens." Mexico as always been a country with an extremely high crime rate, and although the rate has began to decrease since 2011, David's parents knew it was no place for their kid to grow up. "My father's family didn't it was the last time they were going to see him, and it's been about eleven years." He continued his story on, recounting his time on his way to America. Despite border control, illegal immigrant still face natural threats for a new life including the Texas' Rio Grande and Arizona's sweltering deserts. According to an article by the New York Times, a study found that " three of Arizona’s four border counties — received 49 sets of remains from Jan. 1 to May 9,2013".
The Torres' escape continues on a bus from Houston to Nashville, "...it turns out that somebody had cocaine on the bus. So in Memphis we got stopped. The police rushed in and my brother and I stood straight up and put our hands in the air," David was six at the time, his brother four. "I mean, it was freaky, but they gave us stuffed animals which made up for it," he says while smiling.
Jump to today, and David is now sixteen and graduation is approaching. When he's not working and supporting his family, he's helping his school's theatre department by creating puppets and props for one of its upcoming shows while still leading another show that's currently in rehearsals. He continued to busy himself with things that make him happy and is a big part of his school's theatre community. Through hardships, one thing has never changed: his love for entertaining.
"I'm a clown, as most everyone at school knows." A diehard Charlie Chaplin fan and magic-lover, David is always putting a smile on people's faces, "I just like entertaining. Maybe it's some kind of deep-seeded lack of attention, I don't know. I just like seeing the amazement in people's face; whether it's a magic trick or balancing a 12 foot ladder on my face