Since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, AFSC, partners, and communities have called for the release of people locked up in immigration detention centers, jails, and prisons–where close proximity to others and lack of access to adequate healthcare are especially dangerous in a pandemic.

For months, I was among hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the fate of the program, which protects from deportation people who came to the U.S. as children. 

We weren’t just spectators watching politics unfold—our lives and futures were at stake. 

*Update: USCIS called off the furloughs on August 25th. The agency says that the cost-reduction measures necessary to avoid furloughs will increase wait times and affect operations, and are still calling for congressional action in order to avoid future furloughs.*