Jersey ‘dreamers’ make plea for their future as Supreme Court debates DACA – NJ.com

WASHINGTON — Monica Urena stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court building Tuesday as her future was being debated inside.

Urena, 23, of Red Bank, was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 10 years old. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University and now works in supply chain management.

And she is one of 16,830 undocumented immigrants in the Garden State who were brought to the U.S. as children and were temporarily protected from deportation under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

But President Donald Trump ended the program in 2017, removing the protections for Urena and others. His decision was the subject of debate before the Supreme Court on Tuesday as thousands of undocumented immigrants known as dreamers rallied outside.

“It’s an indescribable feeling not being able to plan ahead,” Urena said. “It’s scary, It makes you angry.”

Angry enough to travel to Washington along with others like Deye Aldana, 24, of Edison, who came to the U.S. at age 4 from Mexico. After she graduated from Essex County College, Aldana became an organizer for Make the Road New Jersey, an Elizabeth-based group that helps unauthorized immigrants.

“It was out of necessity,” she said, after graduating from high school and realizing that she might not be able to remain in the country she grew up in to go college. “I’m the kind of person who is proactive.”

Trump has argued that the program was unconstitutional, even as he imposed his own policies concerning immigrants from Muslim countries.

While Trump has expressed a willingness to work out a deal to let the dreamers remain in the U.S., he has rejected all efforts at compromise, saying he did not want immigrants from “s—hole countries.”

He promised again Tuesday to work out a deal with Democrats, even as he falsely called some of the dreamers “hardened criminals.” To qualify for the program, called DACA after its initials, a person cannot have been convicted of a felony or a significant misdemeanor.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who attended the court hearing and later met with some of some of the New Jersey dreamers, said the justices seemed divided, 4-4, on the question, with Chief Justice John Roberts holding the deciding vote.

“I’m hopeful they will provide justice here,” he said.

Manuel Sanchez, 20, of Red Bank, arrived from Mexico when he was 3 months old. This is the only country he really knows, he said.

“I wouldn’t know Mexico,” said Sanchez, who is attending Brookdale Community College in Middletown and wants to study nursing. “I wouldn’t know what to do, where to go what my future would be like.”

“This is really my home.”

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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