New home for Indiana Dreamers in Biden’s immigration plan

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Biden administration has proposed a pathway to citizenship for thousands of undocumented immigrants.

In Indiana, many immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program say President Joe Biden’s proposal is something they’ve looked forward to.

Alicia Cardoza Regalado is just one of the thousands of undocumented immigrants in the country who are protected from deportation by the DACA program. Regalado and her older sister were smuggled into the United States from Mexico more than 10 years ago.

“We had to cut our hair to fit the passport pictures, we had to learn new names, we jumped from house to house until we were finally able to be with our mother and then we just drove for hours until we got to Indiana,” Regalado said.

Regalado says Indiana is home, and, during the past four years, she feared the Trump administration would take that away. But now with Biden’s immigration proposal and pathway to citizenship, life is slowly getting better.

Manuel Alarcon Nava came from Acapulco, Mexico. He says he fled to the United States at the age of 4 with his family. “We had to flee that kind of city that we were living in because of the dangers that persisted,” Nava said.

Nava says although Biden’s pathway to citizenship is a step in the right direction, he believes they’ll face more challenges in the future.

“The pathway to citizenship would be laid out. But would it be a lot easier for us? Perhaps not,” Nava said.

Regalado remains optimistic with Biden.

“It was honestly a weight off our shoulders. It was like we could finally breathe; there was no need to live in fear for now, like things are slowly edging toward a brighter future,” Regalado said.