Speaker 1: Carlos Agilad always loved movies. Growing up in Mexico City,
Speaker 1: Carlos and his family didn't have much in terms of
Speaker 1: material wealth, but he, his mom, and his brother had
Speaker 1: a ritual of going to the theater every Wednesday when
Speaker 1: the tickets were discounted, and they would venture into distant
Speaker 1: Hollywood lands. His family couldn't afford expensive vacations. Watching films
Speaker 1: together was the closest thing Carlos had and he cherished it.
Speaker 1: His mom was one of eight siblings, and although she
Speaker 1: never finished school, she always had a curious and hungry
Speaker 1: mind for knowledge. She read everything she could get her
Speaker 1: hands on. She loved to learn and especially enjoyed watching films.
Speaker 1: She carried on that tradition with her two children. Hollywood
Speaker 1: became Carlos's escape. When he got good grades, he would
Speaker 1: get rewarded by going to the theaters. At an early age,
Speaker 1: Carlos knew he wanted to do something in the film
Speaker 1: industry one day. He hoped he would be a filmmaker.
Speaker 1: When he was a teenager, his family couldn't afford to
Speaker 1: send him to high school, so he went to live
Speaker 1: with an aunt in the US. Those Hollywood dreams were
Speaker 1: put on ice because now Carlos was undocumented, and it
Speaker 1: terrified him. By twenty twelve, he was about to finish
Speaker 1: community college and felt stuck at a fast food job.
Speaker 1: A career in film seemed unattainable, but a part of
Speaker 1: him still kept that desire alive. He remembered his mother's
Speaker 1: words of encouragement. She told him no dream was impossible. Then,
Speaker 1: right when he needed it, DOCCA was announced.
Speaker 2: I'm Patti Rodriguez and I'm Marik Glindo.
Speaker 1: This is Out of the Shadows, a podcast about America's
Speaker 1: tangled history of immigration. Last season, we tackled Ronald Reagan's
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six Amnesty Act. This season, we're tracing the
Speaker 1: origins of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a
Speaker 1: contentious executive order to protect undocumented young people from being.
Speaker 2: Deported issued by former President Barack Obama in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: DACA was meant to be a temporary stop gap on
Speaker 2: a broken immigration system. It was like putting a bucket
Speaker 2: under a leaky roof, But with multiple Supreme Court challenges
Speaker 2: and looming presidential elections, the roof feels like may collapse
Speaker 2: at any moment. Impacting the US economy and American culture
Speaker 2: as we know it. Meanwhile, the future of millions of
Speaker 2: lives hangs in the balance.
Speaker 1: Welcome to out of the shadows Dreamers.
Speaker 2: With the quick stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama
Speaker 2: created DACA, but the application process wasn't easy and it
Speaker 2: didn't include everyone. That created a lot of issues for
Speaker 2: the Dreamers, like what happened to families who had members
Speaker 2: that met the criteria but others who didn't and were
Speaker 2: some of the Dreamers parents targeted by ICE for their activism.
Speaker 2: In August twenty twelve, only about sixty one percent of
Speaker 2: people who were eligible for DACA applied. The government approved
Speaker 2: over ninety eight percent of processed applications. California had the
Speaker 2: highest number of applicants, followed by Texas, Illinois, New York,
Speaker 2: and Florida. These five states accounted for half of the
Speaker 2: DACA applications. The majority of the applicants were brought here
Speaker 2: by their parents from Mexico, El Salvador, Watemala, and Anddurras.
Speaker 2: There were a good number of Asian and Caribbean applicants too.
Speaker 2: That's the sixty one percent who applied, but that leaves
Speaker 2: thirty nine percent of Dreamers who were eligible but didn't
Speaker 2: sign up. One reason that thirty nine percent might have
Speaker 2: been hesitant to apply the idea of having to be
Speaker 2: a perfect citizen. Part of the application process required you
Speaker 2: to submit everything on your record, even a traffic stop.
Speaker 2: Here's Maria Inosa, host of Latino USA.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have to be a perfect person, are
Speaker 3: you kidding me? Adolescence again, You're an adolescent brain until
Speaker 3: you're twenty six, twenty seven. We make mistakes. That's what
Speaker 3: adolescence is known for. So having to be the perfect
Speaker 3: person it was going to divide our communities because the
Speaker 3: bigger issue is that they see all of us as
Speaker 3: a threat instead of what we are, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: bringing the best to this country. But the narrative is
Speaker 3: that we are a threat. I mean, it was heartbreaking.
Speaker 3: I understood Los babas, you know, imam us that were like, yes,
Speaker 3: you know, make this happen for my kid, that's what
Speaker 3: it's all about. At least make it happen for my kid.
Speaker 3: I get that. But those kids, all they do is
Speaker 3: worry about their parents. We haven't really dug deep into
Speaker 3: the psychological impact of families that have been divided because
Speaker 3: of immigration.
Speaker 1: Another challenge that came up for those eligible for DHAKA
Speaker 1: was money. Let's say you met every single criteria on
Speaker 1: the list, every applicant still had to pay a five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars fee to apply.
Speaker 4: The other thing I should mention is the fee itself
Speaker 4: was important because it was high enough that people didn't
Speaker 4: have the money.
Speaker 1: That's UCLA professor of law, Hiroshima Tamura.
Speaker 4: And so that was a problem. People wanted to apply
Speaker 4: to get the work permit, but they hadn't been able
Speaker 4: to work, so they didn't have the money to apply
Speaker 4: to get the work permit.
Speaker 1: Organizer Eric Werta was one of those people caught in
Speaker 1: that catch twenty two.
Speaker 5: So many people struggled to come up with the payment,
Speaker 5: the initial payment for the application to get it, and
Speaker 5: to keep paying it every two years, because I mean,
Speaker 5: shit is hard. Even though sometimes you have a work permit,
Speaker 5: work isn't there. Maybe you're going to school, you're balancing life.
Speaker 5: So many things happen in our lifetimes between those two
Speaker 5: years that a couple of people lost their permits. So
Speaker 5: you always saw you know, like go fundmes and fundraisers
Speaker 5: and pakisas and stuff like that going around to support
Speaker 5: people I myself have benefited from down as supporters and
Speaker 5: folks in solidarity who are like, you know, hey, Eric,
Speaker 5: like I saw your doca's coming up.
Speaker 6: I got you.
Speaker 5: Like, here's a check, five hundred bucks. Don't even trip
Speaker 5: about it, dude, Like I know what you've done, I
Speaker 5: know how much of a struggle it is, Like I
Speaker 5: got you. And even this last application that I filled out,
Speaker 5: I was actually able to get a legal aid clinic
Speaker 5: to not only support me and renewing the application with
Speaker 5: the support of a lawyer, but they also covered the
Speaker 5: bill for the application too, So it's like five hundred
Speaker 5: dollars it didn't have to come out of my pocket.
Speaker 1: More tomorrows. Is a good amount of applicants raised money
Speaker 1: through legal clinics or religious, civic, immigrant, and educational groups
Speaker 1: that helped young folks apply for DACA.
Speaker 4: The DOCTA process is intended to be pretty straightforward, but
Speaker 4: of course that's not always true. There were clinics from
Speaker 4: the very beginning to help people apply. You know, I
Speaker 4: worked a few of these clinics, and some of the
Speaker 4: forums are mysterious and you won't sure what the process was.
Speaker 4: And I think that it really helped them to have excluding.
Speaker 2: Once we got DAKA, there was a sigh of relief.
Speaker 2: A work permit meant he could finally make some money.
Speaker 5: There was a genuine sense of like, I'm done with this,
Speaker 5: Like I'm done struggling, I'm done working all these under
Speaker 5: the table jobs, Like I don't want to do that anymore.
Speaker 5: Like my parents brought here here to do better than
Speaker 5: they could and to prosper and getting this work permit
Speaker 5: was going to be, you know, a stepping stone to
Speaker 5: be able to accomplish that. So for me, it was like, okay,
Speaker 5: let's go like that. Everyone wants to find me. I'm
Speaker 5: already telling them where I am, like on Sports Square,
Speaker 5: checking in like an idiot everywhere I go. So now's
Speaker 5: just make it officially, give me my papers so I
Speaker 5: can get a job and get paid.
Speaker 2: Either along with the work permit, you could apply for
Speaker 2: a Social Security card and a driver's license that opened
Speaker 2: up doors for pursuing higher education. The recipients could also
Speaker 2: open up bank accounts and travel.
Speaker 7: I'm trying to remember the exact day.
Speaker 6: I remember the envelope.
Speaker 1: That'sid Aie Munos, a DOCA applicant. She's talking about the
Speaker 1: day she got the envelope with her permit.
Speaker 7: Every time after that, every time I came in, I
Speaker 7: would be like in tiers every time, I'm God, there's
Speaker 7: that Manila envelope. It's like a little heavier envelope and
Speaker 7: you can feel the the work permit inside. And so
Speaker 7: it was a very emotional moment, of course, just to
Speaker 7: know that this this piece of paper really will change
Speaker 7: your life.
Speaker 1: For activists Erica and Diola, getting DOCA was a big
Speaker 1: level up moment for her entire family.
Speaker 8: I would say just more generally, you know, I think
Speaker 8: a lot of our families as immigrants, we were very
Speaker 8: close and we depend on each other, right because either
Speaker 8: because of our culture, because we're forced to, and you know,
Speaker 8: as people.
Speaker 6: Who come here as families.
Speaker 8: And I was able to help my family a lot,
Speaker 8: as someone who already had a Social Security number, who
Speaker 8: was able to work, you know.
Speaker 6: Things like being able to get my mama house with
Speaker 6: a loan. Uh now she has.
Speaker 8: She's been living there for seven years. And it was
Speaker 8: just an amazing feeling because we had been moving so.
Speaker 6: Much, you know, since we came here.
Speaker 8: It was like one apartment to the other getting kicked
Speaker 8: out of one place because we didn't have enough money to.
Speaker 6: Pay or whatever the case might be.
Speaker 8: To finally being able to get alone in a mortgage,
Speaker 8: you know, to give my mom, which she deserves someone
Speaker 8: who works so hard.
Speaker 6: For us, you know.
Speaker 8: Also just just having that ability to you know, travel
Speaker 8: outside the US. I was able to have more opportunities
Speaker 8: with my work, and so, you know, I can't go on.
Speaker 6: I mean, I know, oh, there's there's there's.
Speaker 8: So much more that that we need for the undocumented
Speaker 8: community in general.
Speaker 6: But I would say that there was a lot, a
Speaker 6: lot that was done that.
Speaker 8: Has helped not just individuals who have DAKA, but their families.
Speaker 6: I can assure you that it has helped.
Speaker 1: But the fighting never stopped. She kept fighting for people
Speaker 1: like her, serving as a Press Secretary of Latino Outreach
Speaker 1: for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and even working on Capitol
Speaker 1: Hill for members of Congress.
Speaker 8: One of the wake up calls for me, or a
Speaker 8: reminder that we weren't done, was literally the same day
Speaker 8: that I got the job in Congress. I came back
Speaker 8: from my interview and you know, talking to my former
Speaker 8: boss and telling me that I got the job.
Speaker 6: I came back to the House and that same night.
Speaker 8: We get a knock on the door and I took
Speaker 8: my mom and my brother. It's still unclear whether it
Speaker 8: was any type of retaliation or if it was something
Speaker 8: that happened because of other reasons.
Speaker 6: Because you know, they were.
Speaker 8: Departing a lot of people at that time under President Obama,
Speaker 8: so she might have been one of those folks who
Speaker 8: was targeted.
Speaker 1: Was she targeted or was this just another random deportation
Speaker 1: by the Obama administration. Ultimately it didn't really matter. Erica
Speaker 1: knew she had to fight to save her mom. More
Speaker 1: on that after the break Erica and your LA's mom,
Speaker 1: Lupita recalls the night immigration knocked on her door. It's
Speaker 1: a moment in her life she will never forget.
Speaker 6: And aner Milresa Yo policy.
Speaker 1: It was a night in January of twenty thirteen. Erica
Speaker 1: was home and answered the door. Everything happened so fast.
Speaker 1: Before Lupita knew it, her and her son were being
Speaker 1: taken away. Erica had learned a lot from fighting for
Speaker 1: her own status, so when her mom got arrested and
Speaker 1: was on the verge of being deported, she knew exactly
Speaker 1: lead what to do.
Speaker 8: I was able to use the skills and the knowledge
Speaker 8: that I acquired through stopping deportations of dreamers. To stop
Speaker 8: my mom's deportation, I mean I did, like, I literally
Speaker 8: went into sort of auto pilot.
Speaker 6: From like case after case that I had been working
Speaker 6: on with.
Speaker 8: Youth to create a whole campaign in less than twenty
Speaker 8: four hours to stop my mom's reportation. And they raided
Speaker 8: my house like at nine maybe like nine pm.
Speaker 6: By the next day, like around nine am.
Speaker 8: Because of all that work, they turned the bus around
Speaker 8: that were already reaching the border with my mom on board,
Speaker 8: and because of the pressure, somebody called the bus driver.
Speaker 6: I mean she recalls this because she was in there.
Speaker 8: He answered the phone and as someone as hung up,
Speaker 8: he turned the bus around and they dropped her off
Speaker 8: at a detention center. They returned her to Phoenix that
Speaker 8: same day.
Speaker 1: It's been over ten years, but Lupita still gets emotional
Speaker 1: when she recalls the moment they told her Erica had
Speaker 1: moved heaven and Earth to keep her from being deported.
Speaker 8: Is that movie in The.
Speaker 1: Fight just never stops.
Speaker 2: But Daca did offer some relief for film stand Carlos Aguila.
Speaker 2: From the start of the show, Doca came right when
Speaker 2: he needed it.
Speaker 9: After I got doc at the work permit and whatnot,
Speaker 9: I was able to quit my job at the fast
Speaker 9: food place. I think I stayed there for a couple
Speaker 9: more months, but I was able to get a film
Speaker 9: related internship because now I had the work permit and
Speaker 9: I could apply for that and it paid. And so
Speaker 9: once that happened, I decided to quit that job and
Speaker 9: finally sort of like start trying to transition into something
Speaker 9: that I was interested in, you know, which is writing
Speaker 9: about movies or being involved in the film world. And
Speaker 9: so that was the most immediate clear thing that I
Speaker 9: could now the possibilities of having a job that I
Speaker 9: enjoy more that aligned more with what I wanted to
Speaker 9: do with my life.
Speaker 2: There were simple things that DOCA granted, like being able
Speaker 2: to go out without carrying a passport. Carlos just wanted
Speaker 2: to hit the club.
Speaker 9: For example, having a California ID, you know, which is
Speaker 9: is something that people don't think about, but like when
Speaker 9: you're on documented and you know, when I was younger,
Speaker 9: in my twenties, I wanted to go club and I
Speaker 9: wanted to go to a bar, and I had to
Speaker 9: carry around my Mexican passport or Matricola CONSULARI. You know,
Speaker 9: some places didn't accept it, so then you had to
Speaker 9: get a passport. And like, especially when I started going
Speaker 9: to college and met you know, white Americans or who
Speaker 9: were you know, just we just didn't understand the experience
Speaker 9: and the shame and the sort of like hesitancy that
Speaker 9: I felt pulling up a Mexican passport to get into
Speaker 9: a club, to go to a bar, to get a drink,
Speaker 9: you know, having to have been able to get a
Speaker 9: California idea, and like just showing the idea, not having
Speaker 9: to explain or justifying my existence was something so simple
Speaker 9: that I think I didn't really realize until I was
Speaker 9: able to do it.
Speaker 2: You know, even though he was still struggling financially, with
Speaker 2: an ID and a work permit, Carlos felt like he
Speaker 2: could pursue a career he was passionate about.
Speaker 9: I always, you know, kept on watching movies, and eventually
Speaker 9: I started, while I was still working at the fast
Speaker 9: food place. I started like a blog to write reviews
Speaker 9: of movies, just the movies that I will go watch
Speaker 9: at the movie theater by myself. And it was mostly
Speaker 9: for myself, like, you know, like I don't think no
Speaker 9: one ever read them worth it was like a block
Speaker 9: sput blog, and I started writing little reviews there and
Speaker 9: to sort of like, you know, keep my mind invested
Speaker 9: in movies, not knowing if I could ever, you know,
Speaker 9: actually do anything related to the film industry. Because again,
Speaker 9: you know, going from a fast food place in Huntington
Speaker 9: Park to think that you're going to be able to
Speaker 9: work in film, that the world just feels so you
Speaker 9: know far apart in you know, kind of impossible to breach.
Speaker 2: On a fast food job salary. He couldn't afford the
Speaker 2: ridiculously expensive film school tuition, but as newly obtained work
Speaker 2: permit meant he could apply for a film internship.
Speaker 9: And so when I was able to get an internship
Speaker 9: at the Sundon's Institute, once I got DAKA, that's sort
Speaker 9: of like, you know, really open the door for me
Speaker 9: to think that, you know, maybe I won't do film production,
Speaker 9: but you know, if I enjoy writing about movies, and
Speaker 9: it seems like there could be something here. But but honestly,
Speaker 9: I never really thought that it would be like a career.
Speaker 9: Like I didn't know how do you make money as
Speaker 9: a film critic, Like I just had no connections, and
Speaker 9: no experience or no one that I knew even you know,
Speaker 9: had any sort of like yeah close connections to that world.
Speaker 9: And so the fact that they took a chance and
Speaker 9: someone like me has always meant a lot, you know,
Speaker 9: the fact that they saw something beyond you know, beyond
Speaker 9: the academics. You know that they gave me that internship
Speaker 9: and allow me to sort of start, you know, building
Speaker 9: connections and meeting people in that world.
Speaker 2: Today, Carlos is one of the leading film critics whose
Speaker 2: work has been published by huge publications like The La Times,
Speaker 2: New York Times, and Indie Wire's I Mean Proof. Like
Speaker 2: his mom said, no dream is impossible. Stay with us,
Speaker 2: Warren Carlos after the break. Even after fighting for DACA
Speaker 2: and going through all the hoops of the DACA application process,
Speaker 2: dreamers still have to work twice as hard. Here's Carlos
Speaker 2: Aguilar again.
Speaker 9: So sometimes when I feel down or where I feel like,
Speaker 9: you know, that I don't deserve whatever is happening, I
Speaker 9: try to take a look back and be like, Wow,
Speaker 9: you know, you've you've gotten to do all these things,
Speaker 9: if you've achieved all these things that you know, ten
Speaker 9: years ago when I was flipping burgers. I could have
Speaker 9: never even dreamed of the beautiful moments that feel, you know,
Speaker 9: kind of impossible.
Speaker 2: Thanks to DACA, Carlos's work exists to amplify Latino voices
Speaker 2: in big publications.
Speaker 9: When I'm able to, you know, profile or write about
Speaker 9: someone who's Mexican or Latino or who is someone that
Speaker 9: maybe if I hadn't pitched the idea, wouldn't be getting
Speaker 9: the coverage, those kind of things, when I'm able to
Speaker 9: sort of like, you know, convince an editor about the
Speaker 9: importance of why should we be writing about this person
Speaker 9: instead of like make it happen, I think those are
Speaker 9: some of the most the best moments for me.
Speaker 2: But Carlos never forgets how he got here and where
Speaker 2: he started.
Speaker 9: I started, you know, watching international movies on like bootleg DVDs,
Speaker 9: you know, and you know that you buy for a
Speaker 9: few pestls in Mexico and so like that that was
Speaker 9: my you know, it wasn't the video story. It was
Speaker 9: really like that the Yankees, you know, going to the Yankees.
Speaker 9: I'm buying the bootleg movies and watching them at home,
Speaker 9: and that's how I started watching other movies, which I
Speaker 9: think is very funny now that I've I've got into
Speaker 9: interview a lot of directors that I've admired and like
Speaker 9: whose work I first discovered on like Bootleg Coppies in Mexico.
Speaker 2: Although we had to put in the work and is
Speaker 2: still constantly fighting battles in a notoriously murky industry, Daca
Speaker 2: made his path tangible.
Speaker 9: At first. I wanted to make films, you know, I
Speaker 9: wanted to be a film director, or I wanted to
Speaker 9: work in animation, but again, you know, not not knowing
Speaker 9: what that would mean over how those things even work.
Speaker 2: Although Carlos had a lot of questions about how his
Speaker 2: career in Hollywood would all work out, his mother, who
Speaker 2: passed on her love of movies to him all those
Speaker 2: years ago, never had a doubt.
Speaker 9: I think the best thing that my mom did for
Speaker 9: me was that she never said no in the sense
Speaker 9: that even you know, as a kid grow up in
Speaker 9: Mexico City, we were very poor, and you know, it
Speaker 9: was kind of ridiculous to even things that I could
Speaker 9: work in the film industry. She never said, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 9: you can't do it. She never said you know, that's impossible.
Speaker 9: She just said, you know, we'll see you know, or
Speaker 9: you still said, you know, we'll find a way. And
Speaker 9: so I feel like I think that the greatest gift
Speaker 9: that she ever gave me was to allow me to dream,
Speaker 9: even if those dreams felt ridiculous and impossible.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. Carlos started as a kid watching bootlegs with
Speaker 2: his mom and brother in Mexico City. Now he writes
Speaker 2: about films professionally, all because of Dacca and a simple
Speaker 2: piece of paper.
Speaker 1: Though we've heard from some of the folks whose lives
Speaker 1: changed with DACA, many people didn't qualify. Here's Araka and
Speaker 1: Diola again recalling the day Doca was announced.
Speaker 8: And at the same time, it was better sweet because
Speaker 8: I also found out that sorry, I also found out
Speaker 8: that day that my sister wasn't wasn't going to qualify
Speaker 8: by one year, and I called my family. I was really, really,
Speaker 8: really happy. And when I got asked that question of
Speaker 8: you know, of course my little brother would qualified.
Speaker 6: Then when I got asked the question and my sister
Speaker 6: wasn't qualified, we had to tell her that she was.
Speaker 8: She was one year over the automn So, you know,
Speaker 8: just give me a reminder that it wasn't wasn't over we.
Speaker 6: Had a lot more to do.
Speaker 1: One of Carlos's friends also didn't qualify for different action.
Speaker 9: One of my one of my closest, dearest friends in life,
Speaker 9: who I met at Cruenschat High when I had just
Speaker 9: come she's also on locker meant that she didn't qualify
Speaker 9: for DACCA because she was one year older than me,
Speaker 9: and so she had missed the deadline. And so we've
Speaker 9: remained friends for like now twenty years or so. When
Speaker 9: the negative was sort of like realizing so directly that
Speaker 9: someone that you know was essentially in the same situation
Speaker 9: as me, just was one year older didn't qualify it,
Speaker 9: and sort of like seeing the trajectory of her life
Speaker 9: that was so different than mine because she didn't have
Speaker 9: a work permit.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of people left out. Again, DOCA
Speaker 1: wasn't is just a stop gap measure. But just because
Speaker 1: the Obama administration had to first some actions, it didn't
Speaker 1: stop the Dreamers from continuing to fight. And in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: less than a year after DOCCA began, a much bigger
Speaker 1: fight was brewing.
Speaker 10: Our goal was in power, educate, escalate. Our focus was
Speaker 10: undocumented folks, those directly affected by the issue. The goal
Speaker 10: was all these like anti immigrant laws and legislations that
Speaker 10: were passing. If those members in the state houses or
Speaker 10: wherever actually had a population of a documented folks that
Speaker 10: were not afraid of them, that would confront them, that
Speaker 10: would be in their office, this type of legislation would
Speaker 10: not exist.
Speaker 1: That's next time on Out of the Shadows. Out of
Speaker 1: the Shadows Dreamers is a Seen Medo production in partnership
Speaker 1: with Iheartsmichael Dura podcast Network. It's created, hosted, and executive
Speaker 1: produced by me, Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. This show
Speaker 1: was written by Sisa Hernandez an executive produced by Jaselle Bansis.
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Arlene Santana. It's produced and edited
Speaker 1: by Brianna Flores. Our associate producer is Claudia Marti Gorena
Speaker 1: down Design, mixed and mastering by Jessica Cranechitch and a
Speaker 1: special thanks to all our Dreamers. Remember to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the podcast and share it For more Michael Duda podcast
Speaker 1: listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.