This year Sakhi has taken on a new project supporting undocumented South Asian youth in New York City, by creating opportunities to access President Obama’s executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
DACA is an executive order signed by President Obama in 2012 that supports America’s 1.9 million undocumented youth. Without proper identification or the ability to work legally, their potential to succeed is severely stunted; and, even though they have grown up here and culturally identify as Americans, the threat of deportation back to a country that they were born in but barely know looms constantly.
DACA provides potential beneficiaries with protection from deportation and the authorization to work legally. New Yorkers who qualify would able to get a work permit, Social Security number, driver’s license, and in-state tuition. These are life-changing benefits with ripple effects (e.g., the ability to open a bank account, economic empowerment, eliminates need to get married in order to become documented).
Leading this project is newly hired Caritas Doha, who herself is undocumented and undergoing the DACA application process. Caritas documents her story and her experiences as a DACA applicant through a series of blog posts she will write over the course of the project.