ATLANTA, GA – FWD.us Georgia State Director Sam Aguilar released the following statement today, which marks two years since the Trump Administration announced their intent to end the DACA program and put 700,000 young people – including more than 22,000 Georgians – at risk of losing their work authorization and being deported:

“The Trump Administration’s two-year-long attempt to end the incredibly successful DACA program flies in the face of our values. DACA has allowed nearly 700,000 hardworking young individuals to contribute more fully to communities and our economy across the country. With DACA, hundreds of thousands of young people have pursued their dreams of higher education, home ownership, starting a business, and better providing for their families. In every respect, DACA has been a transformative program for these young people’s lives and for their futures.

“While multiple courts have kept renewals available for current DACA recipients, they have been forced to live court case to court case, uncertain about their futures and in fear of whether they will be ripped away from their families. We encourage eligible DACA recipients to renew as soon as possible, and we urge members of Congress to pass a permanent legislative solution to provide DACA recipients the certainty and stability to continue building their lives here.”

Learn more about DACA renewals here.

Available for Comment
The following individuals are available for comment on the second anniversary of the Trump administration’s attempt to end DACA:

Samuel Aguilar (Atlanta, GA)
Georgia State Director, FWD.us
Samuel Aguilar is the Georgia State Director for FWD.us, a bipartisan political organization that believes America’s families, communities, and economy thrive when more individuals are able to achieve their full potential. Sam’s involvement in immigration policy began in 2011 when Georgia’s HB87 law directly impacted his family, community, and eventually the state economy. Since then, he has played an active role in moving forward bipartisan conversations around the issue at the state and federal levels. In his free time, Sam enjoys boosting civic engagement in millennial communities, serving on both the Georgia Hispanic Chamber’s HYPE “Hispanic Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs” initiative as well as the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Millennial Advisory Panel. A proud graduate of the University of Georgia’s Master of Public Administration program, Sam has dedicated his career to uplifting Georgia’s immigrant and Latino communities through the legislative process.

Samantha Ramirez Herrera (Atlanta, GA)
CEO & Founder, Offtharecord.com
Samantha Ramirez-Herrera is the CEO & Founder of Offtharecord.com, a creative content agency and digital magazine run by people of color with a focus on uplifting marginalized voices. As a filmmaker, creative director, and writer, she is an expert in multicultural communication for Latin and Hispanic audiences. Samantha recently launched a Hispanic-inspired version of Offtharecord, Mas OTR, celebrating Hispanic creativity and communities, highlighting relevant social issues and related content, and told stories for some of the nation’s biggest organizations including Johns Hopkins Medicine, Afropunk, and NBC.

Christian Olvera (Dalton, GA)
E-commerce Developer
Christian Olvera is a 27-year-old Dreamer, fully invested in this country that he considers home. Through the DACA program Christian has been able to build his credit responsibly, own a vehicle, a home and is happily accountable for his fiscal duties towards it. Additionally, he has been able to help bring his father ́s photography business to fruition, which has grown to be the city’s largest Hispanic wedding and social events digital media provider. His father taught him to work hard and to be responsible. Christian and his brother both have DACA and been involved in their local community and church. While they enjoy the benefits of this program, they both worry about the safety and welfare of their parents. Despite their concerns, Christian has intention of slowing down.

Raymond Partolan (Georgia)
Immigration Paralegal, Kuck | Baxter Immigration LLC
Mr. Raymond Partolan is an Immigration Paralegal at Kuck | Baxter Immigration LLC working primarily on complex family-based immigration cases before USCIS and litigation before the immigration courts. Before joining Kuck | Baxter Immigration, LLC, Raymond spent several years as the Program Associate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, a nonprofit law and advocacy center for Asian Americans across the Southeast. He has been named one of the 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia two years in a row. An avid musician, he won three Grammy Awards in 2019 for his work on the highly-acclaimed jazz album, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom. He received a certificate from the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. for his coursework on immigration law and graduated summa cum laude from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

Jaime Rangel (Dalton, GA)
Immigration Associate, FWD.us
Jaime moved from Mexico to the United States when he was a child. He currently lives in Dalton, Georgia where he is the Immigration Associate at FWD.us His family and community work in the carpet mills and factories that make Dalton, GA, the “carpet capital of the world.” He played varsity baseball in high school where many of his teammates were given amazing opportunities that weren’t available to him because of his citizenship status. He studied Finance and Financial Planning at Dalton State College, where he paid out-of-state tuition even though he’d grown up in Dalton because Georgia laws require non-citizens to do so. Jaime’s status motivated him to become civically engaged and involved in politics. He is also a graduate of the GALEO (GA Association of Latino Elected Officials) Institute for Leadership program which spring-boarded his political involvement. He has worked closely with the Mayor, city council members, and state legislature representatives in Dalton and acts as a Hispanic liaison between their offices and the Hispanic community.

A statement from FWD.us President Todd Schulte on the second anniversary of the Trump administration’s attempt to end DACA is available here.