Central Coast Dreamer attends State of the Union address at the Capitol

SANTA CRUZ >> Adriana Gonzalez, 25, was nervous about her invitation to President Donald Trump's inaugural State of the Union address Tuesday in Washington.

The Salinas college student who came to the U.S. illegally as a child was among dozens of so-called Dreamers — former child immigrants with temporary protected status — brought to the Capitol by lawmakers who believe the roughly 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deserve the continued right to live, work and study in the U.S.

The Trump Administration last week pitched four immigration reforms to strengthen border security, protect up to 1.8 million DACA recipients, promote nuclear family migration — with protections for spouses and minor children only — and eliminate backlogged lottery visas for citizens moving from countries with historically low rates of immigration, according to the White House.

Legal uncertainty has been the norm for Gonzalez, whose mother brought her to the U.S. from Michoacán in southwest Mexico. Gonzalez, now studying at Hartnell College in Salinas, was invited to Tuesday's address by Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel.

"Salinas is all I've known," Gonzalez said Tuesday. "It's where I grew up."

Gonzalez represents more than 20,000 Dreamers in the Central Coast, Panetta said.

The Trump Administration in September sought a two-year phase out of DACA starting in March 2018. But U.S. District Judge William Alsup in a Jan. 9 federal court order, ruled "irreparable harm" would result from stopping the program. On Jan. 13, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resumed processing DACA renewals.

"It has always been a fear of mine to not have immigration status," Gonzalez said. She has been enrolled in DACA since 2012. The protections allow her to seek financial aid for studies at Hartnell College while working. She aspires to become a lawyer and a U.S. citizen.

"I would love to stay here in my country and contribute," Gonzalez said. "I work. I pay taxes. I volunteer. I'm going to school to essentially have a career to better my community and the economy."

Her single mother inspired her to tell her story, Gonzalez said.

"We have to keep the momentum. We have to keep fighting," Gonzalez said. "There are Dreamers who came before us who have careers. If they can do it, why can't we?"

NEGOTIATIONS

Panetta said a "DACA solution" is the clearest part of Trump's proposed immigration reforms.

"It's the second, third and fourth pillars where we need more serious negotiations," Panetta said, referring to proposed border security, nuclear family protections and eliminations of lottery visas. "We just have some guidelines now."

Panetta raised questions about Trump's plans to bolster border security, saying it is not feasible to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S.

The Trump Administration had planned to judge case-by-case DACA renewal requests for recipients whose status would expire before March 5, Alsup wrote. That defunct deadline has become a looming source of uncertainty in the immigrant community in the Central Coast, Panetta said.

"That level of uncertainty is going to rise the closer March 5 gets," Panetta said. He said his office has reached out to ICE and Homeland Security Investigations to ask whether there would be an uptick of San Francisco Bay Area immigration raids. ICE declined to comment on future investigations, Panetta said.

It is unclear how the reform will affect Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, permits offered to countries stricken by armed conflict or natural hazards, Panetta said. Those hazards include the earthquakes of 2001 in El Salvador.

Panetta said he is working with the Problem Solvers Caucus, nearly 50 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, to negotiate protections for TPS recipients under Trump's pillar regarding lottery visas through the Diversity Visa Program. That program offers limited annual visas for citizens of countries with historically low numbers of immigrants to the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department. He said about 50,000 lottery visas are being allocated. Panetta said he is working to include TPS recipients for about 25,000 of those visas. Many Salvadorans are protected by TPS in the Central Coast.