Maria Alcantara paid more than $600 for the privilege of discovering she didn’t qualify for DACA.
In July of 2014, the second-year legal studies and Latin American and Latino studies student at UC Santa Cruz applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA – President Barack Obama’s executive action protecting some young undocumented immigrants from being deported.
At first she was hesitant. It would cost $465 dollars to apply, a large sum of money for her family, and she wasn’t even sure she qualified. Alcantara had arrived to the United States in 2009; in order to qualify for DACA, one must have arrived in 2007.