Uncertain Future: Austin teachers under DACA program await Supreme Court’s decision

AUSTIN, Texas - In Yehimi Saquiche's class fall comes in many colors and many languages looking around the room she reflected on the first day she walked into her classroom.

 "When I came I brought my whole family, I remember when my assistant principal gave me my key,” Saquiche said. “I opened my classroom and we were all in tears I was finally, finally able to become a teacher."

Becoming a teacher was no easy feat for Saquiche. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s degree, she couldn’t go after her dream of becoming a teacher.

Saquiche was brought to the US when she was ten years old with her brothers from Guatemala. Grateful to be in the US, Saquiche said she understood the painful brave decision her parents made to come to the United States.

With a teaching degree in hand, Saquiche she went on to work at McDonald's. Months passed, she became an assistant manager, and then owned her own store. Until June 15, 2012, when former President Barrack Obama announced DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Saquiche applied at AISD and was able to make her dream a reality.

"I want to support children; I want to help my kid’s parents. I've always loved working with kids and it is a very rewarding career,” Saquiche said. “Now especially working here at Padron I understand their struggles even at 4-years-old I understand their struggles because their struggles were my parent’s struggles."

June 15, 2012 was also an important day for Karen Reyes. Reyes said she was driving when her mom gave her the news. She asked her if she was driving and then told her to pull over. She pulled into a parking lot of a Taco Cabana and then received the news that would forever change her life.

"She tells me President Obama just announced DACA, this is what it means and I already got you a lawyer,” Reyes said. “There I am in my car crying and my mom she's crying and it was this immediate sense of relief."

For Reyes being a teacher meant helping families communicate with one another.

"Through a lot of self-reflection I kind of realized that it is just because I want to help children communicate and as an immigrant that's what we want to be able to do we want to communicate with our families," Reyes said.

Both women join close to 700,000 immigrants who are stuck in limbo awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on the Trump administration's move to wind down the Obama-era program and see if it complies with federal law. If DACA is shut down there are no next steps for Reyes and Saquiche.

"I've lived here my whole life, I remember a couple of things from Guatemala but I have my family here, I have my job here, I have my friends here, I have everything here,” Saquiche said. “Going back is just not an option. There is no plan B because here this is our home."

Reyes said she renewed her DACA application so it will end in December 2021 during winter, a time Reyes felt could be appropriate for her students. 

"It's heartbreaking, you know, we are living our lives two years at a time teaching is already a profession that is undervalued, understaffed and overworked and then you add in that there are so many educators in this field that have DACA,” Reyes said. "If the Supreme Court rules that the Trump Administration had the legal right to end DACA this will mean there will be classrooms without teachers, there's going to be even more overworked teachers to take up that load and this is our home and we are here to stay we are here to teach."

A decision on DACA isn't expected to come until next summer ahead of the 2020 election.