Prisma Herrera ’18 is personalizing the debate over President Obama’s immigrant amnesty order. In a recent editorial penned for xoJane – and later picked up by TIME Magazine – the Scripps College first year student from New York writes about the opportunities Obama’s plans would afford her parents, who live in the United States as undocumented workers.
The author (far right) with mother Isabel and sister Genesis.
“If my parents apply for President Obama’s program, they will be able to come to visit me at school and eventually come to my graduation,” she says. “It will alleviate my fears of them being deported, since they will have temporary protection from that. My mom will be able to see her siblings who live in North Carolina and Florida. The last time she saw them was a decade ago.”
While Herrera recognizes the financial cost involved with the program may delay things – applications run around $500 per person – she is nonetheless thankful for the opportunity presented.
“In 2015, I hope my parents won’t fear walking by a police station or going through security at the airport anymore,” she says. “I hope my mom will be able to reunite with her loved ones. And no more nightmares for me and my si
blings of my parents being taken away!”
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