Fernanda Banuelos | 2024 I.S. Symposium

Name: Fernanda Banuelos
Title: Cycle of History Repeated: The Dreamers’ Waiting Game
Major: Spanish; Early Childhood Education
Advisors: Brian Cope; Rebecca Garonzik

My independent study aims to shed light on the trend in the United States of using the talents of immigrants from the 1950s to today. No matter how much undocumented immigrants contribute and have contributed to the country, they will always be instruments and seen as “foreigners” and “criminals”. Since the beginning of history, they have used immigrants as labor machines, deporting them when it suits the United States and taking advantage of their skills without recognition. Discrimination against immigrants has always been present in the United States. I will consider the effect of the DACA program and the general effort of immigrants to be part of the “American dream.” For this study I conducted two interviews with DACA recipients to see how the program has affected their lives and to assess its effectiveness. Dreamers live in a waiting game where they do not know if at any moment this program could be taken away from them and the life they built in the United States goes away. Without any immigration reform for people whose parents and ancestors built and lived in this country, they will always live in fear. The contributions and experiences of immigrants in the United States are an essential part of this nation’s history and culture.

Posted in Symposium 2024 on May 2, 2024.