DACA Mini-Conference: An opportunity to exchange your views

Photo: Ashley Nudd

Last Thursday, October 26th, Barry University hosted the DACA Mini-Conference to inform and discuss with students the consequences if President Trump ends this immigration policy. Let's remember this act gives temporary protection to immigrants that arrived illegally to the US as children. It was created by former president Barack Obama, and now, Donald Trump wants to get rid of it. Trump' intention is that the Congress fixes this Obama's executive order. He wants to find a legislative way to adjust it. At the Barry University's David Brinkley TV Studio, four panelists exposed their views about this controversial topic with students.

The Mini-Conference was organized and hosted by students Swany Fernandez and Kahelia Smellie. The first panelist to arrive to the event was Dr. Sean Foreman, who is a Political Science professor at Barry. Then, Smith Joseph, Michelle Ortiz and Farrah Larrieux joined Foreman to complete the group of panelists that would be giving excitement to this wonderful event. As the performance started, five foreign students, including myself, talked about our dreams we have in this country. We basically explained why we were here and why we saw this country as the dream country. Each of us had one minute to expose all that! Very challenging, right?

Photo: Ashley Nudd

After we finished talking, the panelists started their function. They were all sitting in a table. When I saw the names that were in that table, I thought: "What a great amount of political knowledge in a same table! This discussion is going to be beautiful!". Sean Foreman, as we said, teaches Political Science. Smith Joseph is the North Miami mayor. Michelle Ortiz is an immigration attorney and Farrah Larrieux is a TV Host that is involved in helping the Haitian community in Florida. Some of my favorite remarks of the panelists were from Joseph and Larrieux.

Joseph said: "Don't let anybody call you dreamer, because we all are", and: "Immigration is the business of this country". I couldn't agree more. Everybody here is a dreamer, because basically we all are immigrants in this country and we all came with a different dream. That makes us all dreamers that want progress for themselves and for this country.

Farrah Larrieux said: "Only native Americans can say they're not immigrants". Besides that, I really liked an example she gave about how the removal of DACA might directly affect the U.S. "Walt Disney has 5,000 TPS Recipient workers. There could be 5,000 vacant positions in Disney next year. How will this affect Florida and the country's economy?", explained Larrieux. TPS recipients are those that come from countries that are in a violent conflict or that have suffered a national disaster. These people get a permit to work legally for a specific period of time. If the government changes the DACA policy, they all might be deported.

The panelists' discussion was followed-up by a round of questions by the students and it ended with a speech of Tiffani Knowles, a professor in the Communications Department at Barry and the author of the book HOLA AMERICA: Guts, Grit, Grind and Further Traits in the Successful American Immigrant. Not only has the event helped students to become more aware of the dangers that Trump's order may bring, but they also have now acquired new learnings in one of the hottest recent political news in the United States of America.