'Ray of Hope' For Some DACA Recipients Pursuing Professions

Lately, CUNY Law School professor Janet Calvo has been getting some tough questions from undocumented students worried about what will happen if DACA expires.

She said their questions include, "I’m studying to be a doctor, I’m studying to be a nurse, I’m studying to be a social worker. Should I even bother?"

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) gave immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — either illegally or with visas that expired — protection from deportation and the authorization to work legally. As a result, many of these so-called Dreamers had the confidence to enroll in higher education.

President Trump's pledge to rescind DACA means those benefits will end, unless Congress acts by March. But even if DACA disappears, Calvo said the young immigrants might have other ways of working in their chosen professions.

"Not in the way we would really like it to be, with you having full work authorization and full status," she said she tells them.

"But even if [DACA's] rescinded, you still can be licensed and you still can pursue your education. It’s a ray of hope."

This ray of hope was created by the New York State Board of Regents last year. Members voted to let all qualified applicants, regardless of immigration status, obtain about 50 different professional licenses granted by the state's education department. The professions include psychoanalysts, nurses, veterinarians, acupuncturists, chiropractors, engineers and massage therapists.

There's a big catch. They'd still be deportable if the federal government decided to find them. And without DACA, employers aren't allowed to hire these immigrants because they won't have work authorization. So a certified teacher couldn't get a job in a school district. But Calvo said others could work for themselves and pay taxes with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.

"Accountants run their own businesses, physical therapists run their own businesses," she said. "Lawyers run their own businesses."

Cesar Vargas is one of those lawyers. "I am working for myself, I am employing myself, I'm paying taxes," he said, referring to his law practice and advocacy work. 

Vargas, 33, came to the U.S. at the age of five from Mexico. He's the DACA recipient who won the right to obtain a law license in 2015 after going to court. That decision paved the way for last year's vote by the Board of Regents, which feared limitations based on citizenship or immigration status could be found in violation of the state's constitution.

Without DACA, Calvo said former recipients could still get professional licenses because they'd be considered Permanently Residing Under the Color of Law, legal lingo for immigrants who are known to the government but aren't being actively deported. But the fear of detention might dissuade them from advertising.

New York isn't the only state that's taken steps to remove immigration status from the requirements for certain professional licenses. California opened all professions to its residents. But Michael Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston, studied the requirements in other states and found little consistency.

"A number of states simply never anticipated there would be this whole reserve pool of labor," he said, referring to President Obama's creation of DACA in 2012.

He said some states require applicants to have a Social Security number or prove they are lawfully present. Others never mention immigration status. And even within the same state, professional licenses can be granted by several different agencies (New York's include the Department of Labor and the Department of State, along with the Education Department, and the language isn't entirely consistent).

Vargas said he worked and paid taxes before DACA and that his law practice would stay the same if the program's rescinded (his own work authorization expires in 2019). He said he's been open about his immigration status, so his clients know he'd be at risk of deportation. But he's determined to fulfill his potential regardless of what the government does.

"What they cannot take away is our education," he explained. "It’s our license and it's our ability to contribute to the country we call home."