This is Out of the Shadows, a podcast about America's tangled history of immigration. I'm Patti Rodriguez America LINDO. Last season, we tackled Ronald Reagan's nineteen eighty six Amnesty Act. This season, we're tracing the origins of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a contentious executive order to protect on documentary young people from being.
Deported issued by former President Barack Obama in twenty twelve. DACA was meant to be a temporary stop gap on a broken immigration system. It was like putting a bucket under a leaky roof, But with multiple Supreme Court challenges and looming presidential elections, the roof feels like it may collapse at any moment, impacting the US economy and American culture as we know it.
Meanwhile, the future.
Of millions of lives aims in the balance.
Welcome to Out of the Shadows, Dreamers. In twenty thirteen, a year after DOCA was announced, many people, including those who fought to get President Obama to issue the DOCA executive order, felt the administration wasn't doing enough to stop deportations. Enter Lisabet Matteo, Lulu Martinez, Marcos of Adra, and Mohammed mo Abdullahi. After months of planning and years of organizing, this daring group of undocumented organizers embarked on their biggest and most dangerous demonstration yet.
The mission bring home six undocumented dreamers who are now living in Mexico and could not benefit from DACA, Adrea Navias, Sefreno Santiago Gladiamao, Luis Leone, and Maria Yes Venice. The campaign was called hashtag bring Them Home and was designed to accomplish its goals using the pressures of the press, social media, and some good old fashioned do the right thing.
Mohammed stayed back in the US to coordinate the mission, and the rest of the group met at the Tomales, Mexico border dressed in cap and gowns to bring attention to the immigration crisis and those who were left out by DACA. They were all arrested and held in captivity for seventeen days. This is their story.
Told by them.
My name is Mohammed, usually just go by Mo only.
My name is Claudia Amado. I am from Tijuana, Mexico and I lived in Wichita, Kansas.
My name is lisped Matteo. I was born and raised in Wahaka, Mexico, in a small town called Fantomaslant. I lived there until I was fourteen. Ever since I can remember, I will always tell my parents I want to be some an attorney. And even though we grew up in a small, you know, ural community, and I had never met an attorney in my life, my parents always said, yes, you're going to be someone attorney. They never said no.
They never encouraged me. But of course I grew up and they realized it's going to be impossible for us to pay for this. I knew it was a document. I mean, I knew how that I have papers. I crossed the border and it was an as pleasant experience, right, But I didn't understand how difficult life was going to be being an adostmenter person. I mean I became an
dostment at Agel fourteen. What led to the dream nine, I think was years and years of organizing and trying different things and being, you know, playing the game of I'm going to tell you my story and hopefully that's going to make you feel something, and I'm going to beg and I'm going to really show how American I am so Dream nine is or was a project that was organized by the National Thing within us alives. So the National Resuth Alliance was an organization that came out
of United with Dreams. I was at that first meeting when United Dream was performed of an organization. That's where I met Muhammad and other adoption medium people.
Our goal was in power, educate, escalate. Our focus was undocumented folks, those directly affected by the issue. The goal was all these like anti immigrant laws and legislations that were passing. If those members in the state houses or wherever actually had a population of undocumented folks that were not afraid of.
Them, that would confront them, that would be in their office, this type of legislation would not exist. Maybe that was our goal around that time, was to get more folks on actually fighting making everyone undeportable.
Dreams ended up sailing in twenty ten, so a month later we formed the National MOVEMTIC Alliance. We had done a student or actually several students. We're undocumenting young people essentially force the government to arrest us. We knew that then documenting young people, the community that we have formed was ready to fight and could actually stop our own duputation. So as a result of that, we continue to do more more and more people will call it radical. I
don't necessarily like that works. Other people will be anything radical about it. We were just kind of dramatizing, but was already happening in our community. Young people were being detained and deported, parents will betained and reported in families. The entire time was was being destroyed. So we wanted to use the privilege that we had as undocumingly young
people and share our stories. There were a lot of promises and different presidents and lected officials that will come and talk to us about immigration about how they wanted to pack the dreamas and all kinds of things, and then really nothing happening except thousands of thousands of repretations that some of them touched us personally, including my family. So I think we just said, Okay, we're going to we're going to go and stuff support and bring back
other Dreamers. So I wanted to come home because this is their home and we're going to prove a point and we're going to pressure the government and getting warning.
Yeah.
So Dream nine. The way that we operated was every action that we did sort of led to the next action, And so the concept of asylum became something that we started becoming more familiar with, like the different like levers within requesting asylum that acted sort of as discretion or
stay of removal sort of in that same concept. And then through doing that work, we also started having we were very like angry people, I got to say that of like, we had some cases that got deported that we were really fucking pissed off about of how dare the Obama administration deport X y Z person? And so those personal grudges really is what drove us to find solutions.
And so we fell on this sort of concept after doing like three or four infiltrations of different detention centers of like what happens to someone when they are deported
from the US. And so yeah, we set up this campaign where we could find dreamers in Mexico or other parts of the world that wanted to come back to the US and we would sort of do this public action traditional caps and gowns, and in order to make this action successful, we would have to send some of our folks from the US to self deport essentially, because we very much believed and we can't ask anybody else to do something that we're not willing to do ourselves
and take those risks personally ourselves.
In twenty thirteen, they reach out to me and they asked me if I wanted to join us Emble disobedience, which I immediately say yes. They called me one Thursday and a Friday morning, I was already on a plane with my son, who is a US citizen, flying to Nogalist, Arizona or Mexico. First, even though my identity is one of those like the Dreamers, because of my age, politically didn't fit into it. So nobody expected my case to be successful when DAKA came up, even some of my
sisters are worked the US by one year. They instead part of that action was inspired on like why are many of us left out? I mean that the goal was directed to President Obama right where at the time that he was saying like we're only deporting criminals, and then we were just like bringing the fact that that wasn't true.
I mean at that time, like looking back, yeah, we were some brave kids.
When we come back, the dream nine arrive in Nogles, Mexico to stage one of the most dangerous demonstrations in the history of the immigration rights movement. That's after the break.
It's late July and twenty thirteen, and the dream Nine are preparing to launch one of the riskiest acts of civil disobedience and immigration rights history. They walk arm in arm to the US point of entry in Nogales, Mexico. They wore the graduation caps and gowns, an un official symbol of the Dreamer movement meant to expose the flaws in the current immigration system. Here's Lizabeth Matteo again.
They were taking a successity right away. So when we present ourselves, you know, we were actually had a pie style. We had something to obviously legally entry to the US, and so we said no, we have this letter basically saying hey, like we're here to speak humanitarian role, we have family in the US, we want to go back to homes, blah blah blah. As soon as each one of us arrived at the gates, they officed their role taper tapping down in pancfes. So we were basically changed
and put in a an a van. The events are ready to wait for us, right, so we didn't really have to stand there and see what. You know, see, the guards tried to figure out what was going on. They were prepared, you know, we kind of gave their heads up by doing a press release and then media also reach out to them asking for comment. So it was it was super fast, It was super quick. They didn't they didn't really say anything. They didn't they didn't
really question us. They didn't. I don't want to say they went along with it, but I think they wanted just to remove us from the from all the media attention and all that you know, supporters as quickly as possible. So we just put up an event and drove us another place.
We spent several hours at the processing center at the border, and then probably close to midnight, I want to say, they took us out and to the icebox or they called the peretta very uncomfortable kind of like a minivan with no seats. The girls were taken in one of those and the boys were taking in a different one, and we were handcaffed, super cold. And then they will like drive like crazy. They will like we need the tracks, so we were moving very uncomfortable. We bumped our heads.
We will ask them to please turn off the AC and they will just start laughing or like turn the music up. It was a really bad experience. It felt like it was an eternity. Then later we found out that it was a couple hours. First night they took us to Florence in Arizona and that detention center where we only spent that night. What we heard is that the ladies they were not allowed to talk to us, so they blocked communications. So the Dream of nine we
declared hunger strike. And then I think some of the women in other parts they hear that in the TV and they decided they were going to join us. And that was hard for the for the detention center, like they were not happy at all, So most of us were placed in isolation. Unfortunately, some of us just couldn't handle it that long. I think some of us started like little by little leaving that hunger strike. In my case,
my sugar. They had to take me to the nurse because my sugar levels went pretty low and I had to quit that. And the only one that really was for like five days in hunger strike was.
This that so I refused to eat. So we did a hunger strike because we didn't have asked to our phone or to the phone. Every time we try to place a phone call. It wouldn't go through, and I wanted to talk to my family. I wanted to talk to you know, to someone outside, and no, I'm okay, because I was worried about my parents. I was worried about,
you know, my family. Eventually I was able to see them on TV because then my parents became very public and started organizing and then going around and doing an interviews. Is talking about their daughter and why she should bring me, she should come home, which is not something that we planned or that I asked them to do. I actually told them not to do any effect, but they said, no,
we're gonna fight. We're gonna fight for you. So because I did the hunger strike, I refused to eat for like five days, so I was I was placed in solitary confinements and the guards will come and bring me food. And then we started making popcorns, which is not something they do, but they will, you know, they will bring like a little car and make popcorns so that I would smell the food and they will, you know, make
me eat, but I refused. I only ate ut because I had to do an interview with emmigration the next day. So many attorneys said, you have to leave. You have to be losing, you have to be strong, And I said, okay, I'll eat.
I think she lost like ten percent of her body mass or something.
She was.
I mean, she's little by mighty. I totally admire her. And I remember things were getting like so out of control that I am. I used to see her. We couldn't talk, so I used to see her and I just make sience like cut the hunger straight. We need you.
So how long were you entertaining?
For seventeen days?
We were talking to a lot of folks, young people that had been deported or had self deported, and in Mexico or in other countries, they were not treated as equals. They couldn't go to school because they had lived in the US, they couldn't get a job, their accent, they were targeted by cartels, and so this sort of like concept of being American was what was creating a target on their backs. We came up with this idea of there's an asylum. There's five essentially race, religion, sexual orientation,
particular social group. If you're a part of sort of these categories, you can claim asylum. And so we wanted to create Dreamer as a particular social group. The fact that people living in Mexico get affiliated with being American, therefore they get targeted for cartel violence other things.
So what our Atturney West ask and it was humanitarian for all, and they didn't move in that direction, so they started the attorney decided that we asked for asylum, and like you know, my father was killed, my husband's brother was killed by police officers in Mexico, and my husband was kidnapped. My husband's last name is never in common in Mexico, so we were like a target for them.
So we had a lot of brands, so that we moved into the asylum case and then we were taking one day to Florence to those interviews that they do, the credible fear interviews, and apparently all of us past those credible fear interviews and that's when they order our release.
After the break, the Dream Nine is released from the tension. But what happened after and was it worth it stay with us? After spending seventeen days in a detention center, the Dream Nine were finally released. Here's Claudia Amado, the oldest member in the group and the only mother, remembering what it was like to be reunited with her family and reflecting on her life as an organizer.
We were released and they took us into the Greyhound bus station and some family members my mom, my son definitely was the war there. And then after that, I remember we were received, They took us to a restaurant, they fed us, and then I remember was split. I don't remember all the details, but I remember a group went to a place and we were still working on
the organizing side. My perspective from organizing is just like just by sharing my story right and being like even when I still talk to people and they asked me about detention, immigration attention is like, it's just giving them my perspective that not even an immigration attorney's going to keep like what happened inside. I didn't detain two times by immigration, so I know exactly like you know that
they give you a three second, three minute call. I know that you have to have your ain numbers, so all those things that you have to know. And how different it was the first time that the detainment detained me, even though it was only one night, it was like a nightmer for me than when I was already prepared personally. Like I said, my son's life is totally different. Now he's married. I'm going to be a grandma, and he had to go through a lot of therapy in Mexico.
His healthier here. He has a good social life and normal life that I don't think he would have it in Mexico. And again, I love Mexico, but it just wasn't for us anymore. And then I had been able to move from just being an activist or being seen as an activist as a respected woman of business here and which in our community and people know my story, people know I'm still undocumented in a way. People will call me all the time, Hey, my husband was arrested,
What should I do? And just being able to help them, giving them the calm and some tools for them to fight for their cases, that just huge for me. And again all of that I learned through the action that we didn't jord Night.
This incredible action by the Dream nine highlighted the urgency of addressing their legal status and demonstrated their power, contributing to the national conversation, which was covered up close and personal by two legendary journalists. One of those was Mariaino Hosa Hostel Latino USA.
I just remember hearing about the Dream Nine at the very beginning and again just thinking like, wow, what kind of extraordinary human being an activist does it take to risk everything? What they did is really extraordinary. I don't like to make comparisons in terms of civil rights actions because each one of them is so important. But to me, the Dream nine have not been recognized yet. I know they will be. But they are like the people who
participated in the Montgomery bus boycott. They are people who crossed the bridge in Selma, Alabama. They are the people who you know, protested the murders of the little girls in Little Rock. So we are all part of a country that says it believes in democracy. And so the dream that I just simply were carrying on that tradition.
The other was Ramo's renowned journalist.
I think that's incredibly important because when you were born in a house, in a family in which your parents and your grandparentsslitos, it was papass when they tell you, mikho miha, be silent, Please be silent, because that's the only way to survive. And you know something, they were right, because back then you needed to be silent in order to survive. In this country, because if you didn't, then
you would be detained and you would be deported. So the idea of being silent and being invisible was very important. But the big change was to realize that the political momentum had changed, that there was the possibility to present themselves to the country in a different way, and that
that strategy wasn't going to work anymore. I mean, for how long can you sustain a policy of being invisible and being silent and succeed And so being unafraid and being openly undocumented I think was incredibly important because it gave them a sense of identity. So the fact that they were out and they could tell the world I'm undocumented and I need your help and this has to change, I think was incredibly important just to be out there.
Well.
The Dream nine demonstration brought a lot of attention. It was also a double edged sword for this Beth, who I dreamt of being a lawyer. Her participation in the Dream nine meant that she was banned from applying for DHAKA.
So I did qualify for data, and I you know, I still say that I qualify for that, but I didn't apply for it because I knew I was going to end up being at a point, so I I just said, I'm going to wait, I'm not going to apply for DATA. I'm going to go do this thing. And that would be basically that's it. Because I had been trying to stay away from organizing for a while,
but I just couldn't. And then I decided to apply to law school, and I said, Okay, well this is going to be it because I have to go to lawsuit now I have to concentrate on myself in my dream. So I didn't apply to DOCTA because I knew I was going to be leaving and doing the whole, the whole dream nine experience. So when I came back, I was facing a more proceeding then my remote proceedings for that nature week close. And then I applied for DACA.
Finally was for that one. Was in law school and I waited over a year to hear I think over a year to hear from USCIS, and I heard from us AS the week after I graduated from law school, as I was studying for the bar, As I was starting my bar press, I just this letter from UCAS saying that they hadn't intend to denye. That's that because I left, but that I could explain why I should still be granted that. Spent about eight months after that, up until January twelfth, trying to trying to fight to
get that guy. At some point I heard that it got denied, and then the end of her mind it wasn't denied. While we have here's another letter and of more evidence of why you should be granted that. So I was working with several members of Congress in the conclusion that they came to was that it was a
political decision. That is telarly came to on on that they would probably give me back up, but if that Trump wanted it would deny me dacka because they didn't want to put Baca on jeopardy, which I mean now we know that would have made no difference, I think. But yeah, that's that's why I was denied that by the Environment Administration eight days before Trump before So for the past ten almost ten years, I've been just working to first like finished boschol Rite, passed the bar, became
an attorney. I'm not gonna sit here and lie and say that it's been easy. I had a really, really difficult time after I was told that I could, I would likely not be granted back up because I had job offers, and I had a plan for my life, and I knew what I wanted to do, so I was very excited for taking the bar as favor as that sounds, I was super happy about that. I was excited,
I knew what was going to come after. And then all of that just disappeared the minute I was told that they had been intensively ninety back up.
Despite heroic actions and sacrifices of Lisped in the Dream nine, this country's immigration system remains broken and seemingly random to those who are stuck between the US and the countries where they came from, between documented and undocumented, and between the cracks.
He'd served to be here.
He came here when he was about one or two, but unfortunately the data requirements didn't match his criteria because he was too old, even though he had been here for like his whole lifetime.
That's next time on Out of the Shadows. Out of the Shadows Dreamers is a Cemeto production in partnership with Iheart'smichael Duda podcast network. It's created, hosted, and executive produced by me Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. This show was written by Sessa Hernandez and executive produced by Jiselle Vancis. Our supervising producer is Arlene Santana. It's produced and edited by Brianna Flores. Our associate producer is Claudia Marti Gorena
Down the Sign. Mixing and mastering by Jessica Crain Chitch and a special thanks to all Our Dreamers. Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share it. For more Michael Duda Podcast, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.