President Biden planned to meet with six Deferred Acton for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients at the Oval Office on Friday.
The meeting comes as Biden pushes to secure DACA, an Obama-era program that protects certain young people from deportation who came to the country illegally as children. Biden has made immigration reform a top priority, unveiling an expansive agenda soon after taking office, including proposing a path to citizenship for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The DACA recipients meeting with Biden on Friday are all essential workers, meaning they “have been on the frontlines throughout this pandemic keeping our communities safe, educated, and fed,” said Julia Rodriguez, the White House director for intergovernmental affairs, in a tweet.
Those invited, according to the Associated Press:
— Maria Praeli, an immigration advocate who came to the United States from Peru when she was 5 in order for her sister to receive medical treatment.
— Astou Thiane, who moved to the United States from Senegal when she was 7, and only find out she was undocumented when she applied for college. She is now an educator and DACA advocate.
— Esmeralda Tovar-Mora, who came to Kansas from Mexico when she was 18 months old. She is currently working in healthcare while attending college. Her husband serves in the Kansas National Guard.
— Karen Reyes, a kindergarten teacher for children who are deaf, was brought to the United States from Mexico when she was 2.
— Leydy Rangel is an immigration advocate for farm workers and Latinos in California, and is the daughter of migrant farm workers.
— Jrayut “New” Latthivongskorn, a medical resident in San Francisco, came to the United States from Thailand when he was 9.
Learn more about DACA and how to apply for the program.