SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Looking over his life in San Diego, Daniel Esparza hopes he can stay here.
Esparza is a DACA recipient.
His mother brought him to the United States from Mexico as a child. He married his high school sweetheart, and they are raising four children together in San Diego.
“This is my prom with my wife,” Esparza said, showing a photo of them as teenagers. “I met her in high school.”
Esparza hopes he can be approved for the Keeping Families Together program, which allows thousands of undocumented spouses of United States citizens to stay in the U.S. while applying for permanent residency.
“There [are] times where [my wife and I] talk about it behind closed doors and things like that when she starts to worry,” he said. “What are the plans this year? Every year since we’ve gotten married: what are the plans this year? What are we going to do? What are the pathways right now?”
The program allows applicants to “parole in place” rather than separating families.
A federal judge currently paused the program because several states filed a lawsuit arguing that allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented residents to “parole in place” would strain state budgets due to increased public service costs.
Tammy Lin, Esq., is a professor at the University of San Diego and an immigration expert. She says the process to apply is strict, and undocumented immigrants are only eligible if they got married to a citizen before June 17, 2024, have lived in the U.S. continuously since June 2014, and have no criminal record.
Lin believes its realistic to expect the second Trump administration to stop the program in the future.
“Once [Trump’s] administration is in office, they can easily say, ‘We no longer want to have this program expanded.’ And they can go back to the way it was prior to that,” Lin said.
She says even though approvals are paused, people can still apply, ready for whenever a decision comes down from a federal judge.
A day after the election, a senior advisor for Donald Trump said one of the president-elect’s top priorities is reinstating Trump-era border policies. However, he did not provide details.
Lin says it’s hard to pinpoint a timeline for changes to border policies.
“I believe that once January 20th happens, the inauguration, at that moment, they could on that day one then stop everything if they wanted to and say ‘We’re not doing this anymore’,” Lin said.
Luis Gonzalez, Esq. is the interim executive director of immigration services at the Jewish Family Service.
He says undocumented family members of U.S. military personnel have been taking part in a similar program for years.
“They won’t just approve it for anyone that’s just submitting an application [to the Keeping Families Together program]. There has to be a very well-documented application,” Gonzalez said.
He believes “parole in place” will help save the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resources while keeping families together as their case is resolved.
“The goal will be immigration reform, but if that is not possible, at least this policy allows opportunities for people who have been members of our community to be able to obtain legal permanent residence,” Gonzalez said. “We can make their lives better just by approving something so simple.”
Esparza hopes whatever happens, he’ll be able to stay with his family in the country he loves.
“I feel just as American as anybody that was born here,” he said. “My wife’s from San Diego and we are raising kids here. I take a lot of pride in being in such a great country.”
The program's restraining order is expected to expire on Friday, Nov. 8.