(upbeat Latin music) - Good evening and welcome to "Horizonte," a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host, Catherine Anaya.

Tonight we take a look at the status of undocumented students who are attending school in what is being called a post-DACA period.

DACA is the Obama-era program that gave young people, brought here illegally as children, protection from deportation.

But DACA applications have not been accepted for nearly three years, and the average age of the DACA recipient is in the late 20s.

I will talk to a member of Aliento, a Phoenix-based advocacy group, that fights for undocumented students and families.

But, first, the group recently held an education day where undocumented students went to the State Capitol to fight for their rights.

Cronkite reporter RipLey-Simone Kennebrew tells us more.

- [RipLey] Dozens of students arrived at the Capitol, professionally dressed, to meet with lawmakers to plead their causes.

There were three main goals of Aliento at the legislature this year.

The first: revising state law to make undocumented and DACA students eligible for occupational and professional licenses - Are their ability to get occupational licenses, especially for Dreamers and undocumented students that want to go into nursing, want to go into construction, or want to go into engineering.

Right now, they cannot get a license to pull forward with their profession.

So we're getting them to school already.

Why not allow them to get that professional license if they meet all the criteria.

- [RipLey] Another goal: making college more affordable.

Jose Patino says it's heartbreaking when motivated students can't get ahead.

- 'Cause you spend 16 years of your life in public education but also in college.

And you do all-nighters, and you do all this stuff, and then you see your friends on social media and Instagram, and they're doing internships, and they're working here, but you can't because you don't have that nine-digit number.

- [RipLey] And the last: they want young people to have access to driver's licenses.

- Biggest issue is driver's license because either they have students who are undocumented or they have parents who they themselves are undocumented, and that's something that they're worried about every day.

- Joining me now is Mario Montoya, a research analyst and coalition consultant for Aliento.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate you being here.

- Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

- Good to see you.

So, the legality of the program, the DACA program, has been challenged in the courts recently, especially the last couple of years.

Can you bring us up to speed on where it stands in the courts?

- Yeah, so there's currently a lawsuit in Texas that they filed, and what occurred, they're challenging the legality of the program.

When Biden came into the presidency, what he did, he tried to address some of those concerns, some legal concerns, by fixing some of the administrative issues that it was having or being challenged in the courts, right?

And when he did that, the Fifth Court of Appeals decided to send it back to the Texas federal judge, and he recently decided on it, saying that the program still remains unlawful.

So we're waiting for it to continue the process, go back to the Fifth Court of Appeals and possibly the Supreme Court as well.

Throughout this time, the program received an injunction, meaning that no new applicants would be able to receive the protections and the work authorization granted by DACA since about 2021.

- So that's where it stands right now.

The US Supreme Court could ultimately decide its fate.

What does this standstill, so to speak, mean for undocumented students, especially high schoolers who are going to be graduating?

- Yeah, so the decision of DACA affects us here at the state level in many ways.

To begin with, we have about 22,000 DACA recipients here in our state.

About 85% of those DACA recipients are currently in our labor force.

So, if this program would be coming to an end, these are a lot of your coworkers that you're gonna be losing, right, people that are gonna be left without jobs.

The average age of DACA recipients right now in our state, it's 30 years of age.

So they're not children anymore.

They're people that have built their lives, have bought homes, maybe even have US citizen children themselves.

So it would greatly affect our communities.

And as far as the students that are graduating high school, these students are not able to have access to this program.

So they don't have the work authorization, and they don't have the protection from deportation that DACA recipients get just 'cause they were not the required 15 years of age before the program shut down.

- I want to remind our viewers about Proposition 308 here in Arizona.

It passed in November of 2022, giving undocumented students access to in-state tuition and scholarships.

But what about the part that allows them to get tuition and financial aid from state universities and community colleges?

Has that been implemented yet?

- Yeah, we've been working with colleges and universities here in our state.

Rolling out a change of procedures comes with its issues, correct.

So it's been some challenges in the road.

I remain hopeful that we'll be able to address all those challenges and ensure that these students that are part of our Arizona community that are now eligible for the in-state tuition and the state-funded aid, to go to college, 'cause at the end of the day, having a educated population in our state benefits all of us.

- Absolutely, and just to be clear, under Prop 308, you don't have to be a DACA recipient to be entitled to access, correct?

- That is correct.

So the requirements for Prop 308 eligibility is as long as you graduated from an Arizona high school and attended that school for a minimum of two years or received its equivalent, you should have access to Prop 308 in-state tuition.

- So going back to what you were talking about, this situation that the students find themselves in, can you go into a little in depth about the challenges and the barriers and the uncertainty that these students face right now?

- Yeah.

So, for myself, I'm a DACA recipient.

So, currently there's about 10,000 DACA-eligible individuals here in Arizona that can't apply to the program.

Where that puts those individuals, it puts them in a place of uncertainty.

Having to drive to work, to school, or church, it's something that gives you anxiety 'cause you don't have that protection from deportation, correct?

And it makes it harder as well to be able to work in the field that maybe you went to school to do.

Like, if you graduated to be a nurse, you don't necessarily have the work authorization to be able to live out those dreams and get back to your community.

- While you're in this limbo phase, and you mentioned that you are a DACA recipient, and you also are an ASU graduate, congratulations, talk to me a little bit about the kind of emotional toll that this takes when you are in a situation like this, the fear that sometimes arises with just not knowing, you know, from two years to the next two years, what your situation is going to be.

- It's very challenging.

It's like having to renew a subscription each two years just to be able to be here and be able to work, right?

It comes with anxieties of not knowing if maybe my application's gonna take longer than usual, and I might be in the place where I don't have work authorization, or I can't work.

So, it's hard to live like that, and it's more challenging to see all the students that should be eligible but unfortunately don't have access to it 'cause for them, they don't have the opportunity of that work authorization, and they don't have the opportunity of that protection from deportations as well.

- So what's next as far as community advocacy and support from the community?

How can people get involved?

- Yeah, so I suggest everyone to check out our website.

Go to alientoaz.org.

We offer a bunch of opportunities to volunteer.

If you know any students that need the resources, there's resources for undocumented or documented students as well.

Please, if you can volunteer your time as well, greatly appreciate that, and, if you have the means, donating is how we do our work.

So that would also be greatly appreciated.

- And just to wrap up this conversation, if you could just explain to people, in the big picture, what kind of an impact this has on Arizona's economy and workforce.

- Yeah, these people have built their life here.

Like I mentioned before, they're our coworkers, they're our neighbors.

To remove their work authorization or not allow them to work or just try to like remove them from our community will have a huge impact.

These are people that are giving back to the community, that are paying their taxes, and that are helping us out.

So, it'll be noticeable if we try to push these people away.

- Absolutely.

Mario, thank you so much for joining me.

And the work that Aliento is doing is so critical, and I appreciate you sharing that with our viewers as well.

And I want to remind folks they can go to alientoaz.org if they want to support or get involved in what you're doing.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- Appreciate it.

That's our show for tonight.

For "Horizonte" and Arizona PBS, I'm Catherine Anaya.

Thanks for joining us.

Have a great night.

(upbeat Latin music)