5 December 12 - 18, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents DACA, Trumped Dallas dreamers may face grim future in the U.S. BY GREGORIO OLIVARES GUTIERREZ W hen Daniel Gallegos Banda began his college experience, he never dreamed of working with legal advocacy groups like Legal Aid D.C. in the nation’s capital. When Gallegos Banda started work- ing full time after high school, higher educa- tion was for him an almost idealistic dream. He started off by paying for community college courses, at around $200 each. He loved learning and was initially there for the self-improvement vibe that came with higher education, but that quickly changed. He soon enrolled in his first criminal justice course, which set him on the track to obtain his asso- ciates degree in criminal justice. Then, he en- rolled at University of Texas at Dallas, where he became a fellow of the prestigious UT sys- tem Archer program in Washington, D.C. “I am proud that today I am able to achieve things I would have never dreamed of,” Gallegos Banda told the Observer. Gallegos Banda is one of the over 500,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in the U.S., about 90,000 of whom live in Texas. DACA began in 2012 under President Barack Obama as an immi- gration policy that deferred the deportation of people who came to the U.S. without docu- mentation as children: DACA allowed its re- cipients to receive legal work permits. The program has faced continuous legal chal- lenges since 2017, when the first Donald Trump administration announced its goal to end this policy. Trump’s reelection likely serves as the death knell of the program. Trump has vowed to utilize the military to conduct mass deportations of undocu- mented immigrants, and the Heritage Foun- dation’s Project 2025 guide outlines a process to phase out DACA for its 500,000 recipients by eliminating the staff time used to process their application renewals. The League of United Latin American Citizens says this would make it next to impossible for recipients to renew their status if staff simply aren’t available. No DACA means no legal work permit. “I try not to think about it too much, but if I can’t continue working then I won’t ever be able to finish my education,” Gallegos Banda said. DACA recipients are unable to receive most of the financial support or loans offered to college students because of their undocu- mented status; Gallegos Banda said that he does receive support from the state of Texas in the form of TASFA (Texas Application for State Financial Aid), but the money isn’t enough to cover his needs. To pursue his dreams, Gallegos Banda has had to work tire- lessly while also attending his classes. He sees the work and debt he takes on now as an in- vestment in the future contributions he could make, but the phasing out of DACA would make the already difficult application process simply nonexistent, and with that his aca- demic goals and progress would be gone. “A lot of younger dreamers don’t even consider applying for university because if they can’t legally work after graduation, then they would have just spent tens of thousands of dollars on a piece of paper they can’t even use,” Gallegos Banda said. Advocacy groups say that hundreds of thousands of DACA dreamers would be re- moved from the U.S. workforce under the Trump presidency and Project 2025, with as many as 168,000 DACA-owned businesses at risk of disappearing. Gallegos Banda said that people never even notice that he is undocumented or on DACA until he brings it up because his doc- umentation status doesn’t affect how he acts or lets others treat him. He has the same dreams and aspirations as his peers, and seeks to give back to his community in any way he can by interning at Legal Aid D.C. and with the Mexican Embassy. “I really want to make sure I can share the wealth of information I have been able to get with people who are in the place I was before college, people who thought educa- tion wasn’t meant for people like them,” Gallegos Banda said. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has been all too common in Gallegos Banda’s opinion, and he emphasized that it wasn’t limited to Re- publicans; many Democrats have espoused right-wing stances on immigration. “We saw just a fire hydrant of hate against immigrants coming not just from the Republicans but even the Democrats as well,” Gallegos Banda said. “Despite the hate, I think it is important to focus on building yourself up so that you can help others.” Gallegos Banda said that his experience with the Archer program and Legal Aid D.C. has allowed him to work with some of the highest government offices in the U.S. while striving to offer important support to immi- grants who would otherwise receive noth- ing in an increasingly unsupportive nation. He said he was hopeful because groups like the ACLU, LULAC, the National Immigra- tion Center and others had banded together to support the Hispanic and immigrant communities that play such a major part culturally and economically in the U.S.. “My DACA status is a big part of who I am and it impacts so many things in my life, but I won’t let it define who I am,” Gallegos Banda said. “My immigration status doesn’t make me less human or less worthy of respect.” ▼ TRANSPORTATION INSPECT, OR NOT TO INSPECT? NEW DALLAS COUNTY CAR INSPECTION RULES TO START IN JANUARY. BY EMMA RUBY T he New Year means new state legisla- tion goes into effect, and there are a few changes to Texas’ vehicle safety inspection requirements that local drivers need to be aware of. Starting Jan. 1, Texas drivers will no lon- ger be required to obtain an annual safety in- spection for their non-commercial vehicles thanks to House Bill 3297, which was passed by the state legislature in 2023. Proponents of the bill argued that eliminating the safety inspection requirement would save drivers time and money. One of the sponsors of H.B. 3297, Repub- lican Rep. Cody Harris of Palestine, said the bill will help curb the number of Texans ex- posed to “money-making Ponzi schemes” used by “some shady dealerships to upsell consumers with unnecessary repairs.” “Texans are responsible, fiercely inde- pendent, and I trust them to keep their cars and trucks safe while on the road,” Harris said in a statement to ABC 13 in Houston. As Harris implied, the onus of maintain- ing a vehicle’s brakes, lights, tires and wind- shield wipers will now be entirely on owners; police will still be pulling over and ticketing any driver sporting malfunctioning vehicular equipment. On top of that, reports have found that cars with faulty equipment are three times more likely to be involved in a crash that results in a fatality. So please, Dallas drivers, don’t put off getting your brake pads replaced. In lieu of the typical $7 state inspection fee that drivers have been paying for years, you can now expect to pay a $7.50 Inspec- tion Program Replacement Fee that will be added to the total when you register your car with the Texas Department of Motor Ve- hicles. New vehicles that have not been reg- istered in Texas before will be stuck with a two-year fee of $16.75. For Dallas drivers thinking that this change will save them a trip to the car shop, at least — don’t get too excited. Dallas County is one of 17 Texas counties where annual emissions tests will still be required because of excessive ozone in the atmo- sphere. The Environmental Protection Agency mandates emissions tests in these areas to help track and reduce pollution. Although a chore for Dallas drivers, the continued emissions testing may not be a bad thing for our city’s air quality. As Beth- any Erickson at D Magazine pointed out ear- lier this week, Dallas isn’t doing too hot when it comes to curbing air pollution, and Dallas County has not met federal ozone standards in at least 27 years. The state has recommended several plans to address ozone levels in non-compliant counties, but the EPA has yet to be satisfied. Expect to pay around $25 for your Dal- las County emissions test for the foresee- able future. ▼ DRUGS ‘SELLING POISON’ ANOTHER CARROLLTON FENTANYL DEALER SENTENCED TO PRISON. BY KELLY DEARMORE O ne of the drug dealers responsible for at least one of the juvenile fen- tanyl overdose deaths in Carrollton last year has been sentenced to prison, ac- cording to the U.S. Attorney for the North- ern District of Texas. On Dec. 2, Cristian Lopez, 24, was sen- tenced to 96 months in federal prison for conspiracy to contribute a controlled sub- stance after she pleaded guilty in July. The Lopez sentence comes just after one of her conspirators, Lizbeth Prieto, 19, was sen- tenced to 84 months in federal prison for distribution of a controlled substance to a person under 21. The news release stated that Lopez and Prieto “supplied fentanyl pills to a 15-year- old Carrollton girl who fatally over- | UNFAIR PARK | Gage Skidmore President-elect Donald Trump has long been opposed to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. >> p6
