DACA Entrepreneur Still at Risk of Deportation Despite Business Success
*By Bridgette Webb*
It's been a year since President Trump moved to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly known as DACA. The program is still afloat, but remains on shaky ground, leaving roughly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants in limbo.
It's an issue that weighs heavy on "Dreamer" Victor Santos, a CEO and co-Founder of Boston-based start-up Airfox.
"Since the Trump administration, it's not quite clear on what will come of DACA in the next few years," Santos said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
DACA allows certain individuals who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children to receive permits to avoid deportation on a two-year, renewable basis and eventually become eligible for a work permit.
Reneging on this policy ultimately precludes these people from contributing to the economy, which could have a big effect on the country, Santos said.
"As an entrepreneur, having Trump cancel the start-up visa and making it harder and harder for H-1B entrepreneurs \[to come\] into the U.S., it's been an impactful experience for myself, but also for engineers that we bring on from other countries," he said.
"DACA is creating billions in terms of output for the economy, these kids are doctors and entrepreneurs; they are people that considers themselves American."
Airfox, a mobile bank, has 20 employees and provides financial services for emerging industries like mobile microloans to "unbanked" users in Brazil, where interest rates chart upwards of 200 percent.
The immigration debate will inevitably rage on, and may very well head to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Texas, there was a surprise ruling in which a judge kept the DACA program in place, a decision that may undergo federal scrutiny.
The future is further in question as the U.S. awaits confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
The conservative judge, who faced four days of Senate hearings last week, will most likely vote with right-leaning colleagues to squash DACA.
The confirmation process, Santos said, is detracting from the real-life ramifications of killing the program.
"This whole thing is purely political and quite frankly, racist, to say the least," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/daca-uncertainty-leaves-dreamers-in-limbo).
This episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Cheddar takes a deep dive into how offices in Silicon Valley are handling return-to-office policies with Jesse Levinson, Cofounder and CTO of Zoox; Bob Lockett, Chief Diversity & Talent Officer at ADP breaks down the importance of flexibility at work and how to approach compensation in order to improve retention; Pamela Rucker, CIO Advisor and Instructor for Harvard Professional Development, explains how A.I. can play a role in sustainability efforts and what business leaders need to know about ESG.
Jeremy Kim and Wootak Kim, content creators and the stars of the ‘Under the Influence’ podcast and YouTube series, joined Cheddar News to talk about using their platform to help other Asian American creators. "When we were kind of like coming up with the show idea, there's like so many other people that we really respect or look up to or that interesting stories that will never get the chance to be seen by anybody else," said Jeremy Kim. "And so that's the kind of the platform that we wanted to create."
Chantel Powell, Co-Founder and CEO of Play Pits, joins Cheddar News to discuss how she's grown her business from making it in her very own home to being sold on the shelves in Target stores across the nation, and break down how her business remained resilient throughout the pandemic.
Coming off of their face masks endeavor, Jill Zarin of "The Real Housewives of New York City," and her daughter Ally Shapiro, CMO of JIll & Ally, join Cheddar News to discuss their latest product: crystal manifestation candles. "We have tigers eye, we have amethyst, we have lapis, and alone those could be almost the price of the candle," said Zarin. "We were really able to do it in an affordable way, and if you don't know how to manifest or what that even means, we do it for you on the candle." Zarin also dished on the new season of "Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip."
Catching you up on the entertainment headlines of the day with the new "Thor: Love and Thunder" trailer, Tom Cruise saying that he sees every movie that's in theaters, Lucasfilm warning Black actor Moses Ingram starring in "Obi-Wan Kenobi" about a potential racist backlash, and more.
Liana Guzmán, CEO of FOLX Health, joins Cheddar News to discuss the company launching billboards across the country in response to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
