Source: HoustonPublicMedia.org

Texas ‘dreamers’ expressed their disappointment that the U.S. Congress will start its winter recess without addressing the situation of beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but they vowed to keep pressuring lawmakers in 2018 and demanding they provide a solution for their uncertain future in America. Congress approved this Continuing Resolution that averts a government shutdown, but the lawmakers didn’t include any fix for the expiring DACA program. For the past few months, the so-called “dreamer” movement has conducted a nationwide campaign urging lawmakers to take action before the end of the year by passing what they call a “clean DREAM Act.” César Espinosa, founder and executive director of Houston-based “dreamer” group FIEL, a Spanish acronym that stands for Immigrant Families and Students in the Struggle, feels frustration because lawmakers are ending 2017 without addressing the DACA situation. In 2018, the group will continue to pressure legislatures to protect DACA beneficiaries from deportation and grant them a possibility to become U.S. citizens.