By a narrow majority, the Garden Grove City Council voted Tuesday night to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs–a.k.a. Obama's Incite Donald Trump, Orly Taitz and Temeculans to Lose Their Shit Acts.
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Under DACA, certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. They are also eligible for work authorization. With DAPA, undocumented-immigrant parents can request deferred action from deportation and obtain employment authorization if they lived in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2010, and are a parent of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident born on or before Nov. 20, 2014.
Of the estimated 175,000 Garden Grove residents, more than 2,000 are undocumented Asian American and Pacific Islanders and more than 500 of those are eligible for DAPA or DACA, according to the Korean Resource Center.
More than 20 members of the center and groups like SEIU-USWW, Unite Here and World Relief shared their reasons for supporting the measures with the Garden Grove City Council, which ultimately voted 3-2 in favor of the non-binding resolution.
“I am grateful because I have opportunities that I would not have without DACA,” said Ana Jara. “I am able to work in a job I love and further my education beyond college and it taken away the fear that dominated my life.”
Jenny Seon, interim executive director of the Korean Resource Center, said her membership is “encouraged” by Mayor Bao Nguyen and council members who supported the resolution amid so much “anti-immigrant sentiment.”
“We hope to see a chain reaction of other cities in California taking initiative to move forward like the City of Garden Grove,” Seon said. “It is time for our leaders to step up and show support for the community they represent.”
Meanwhile, on Facebook, a bunch of loser Garden Grover residents are railing about recalling Mayor Nguyen and Chris Phan for supporting this–details to come, but at this point, we can easily call them losers…
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.