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