Juan Escalante, the persistent Dreamer
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Juan Escalante is not yet 30, but he’s already a decade-long veteran in the fight for immigrant rights. It was a movement he found himself thrust into at just 17, when he began applying to colleges in his home state of Florida and found out that he was undoJuan Escalante, the persistent Dreamer
Juan Escalante is not yet 30, but he’s already a decade-long veteran in the fight for immigrant rights. It was a movement he found himself thrust into at just 17, when he began applying to colleges in his home state of Florida and found out that he was undocumented because an unscrupulous lawyer had screwed up his family’s paperwork. Having come from Venezuela to the United States on a valid work visa, Escalante, his two brothers, and parents were suddenly left out in the cold. “We got into a so-called ‘line,’” Escalante told ThinkProgress in 2014. “A lot of people jump to the conclusion that my parents were at fault. My parents had no fault in getting me where I am. The immigration system is broken.” The fear of deportation understandably forces many immigrant families into the shadows to live, work, and above all else, be invisible as a form of self-preservation. But Escalante didn’t just step forward out of the shadows: he spoke out. By 2009, two years after he found out about his status, Escalante had both traveled to Washington to advocate for an incarnation of the DREAM Act and enrolled at Florida State University, eventually graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science and then a master’s in public administration. At FSU, he was elected to the Student Senate and advocated for pro-immigrant policies to help others. But it was an action from Barack Obama in 2012—the announcement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—that helped him. For Escalante, DACA didn’t just mean a chance to work legally and protection from deportation. It meant a chance to continue thriving, eventually landing his dream job as director of digital campaigns for America’s Voice, a D.C.-based immigration reform advocacy group. Around 800,000 young immigrants enrolled in the program before the Trump administration announced its rescission last September, a decision that has now left Escalante and program recipients in limbo. “Am I worried? A bit, but then again who wouldn't be when the threat of deportation hangs over their head,” Escalante told Daily Kos this past week, the six-month mark that Congress was given to act on permanent protections. They haven’t. “That is why I continue to advocate, because I refuse to sit by as this administration threatens and destroys the livelihood of millions of hard-working immigrants.” Read more