Published
8 years agoon
GV Wire attended the news conference Wednesday publicizing the opening of Fresno Unified School District’s Dream Resource Center at Manchester Center.
The center will provide resources for undocumented students to renew their applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals before the Oct. 5 deadline. And it will offer citizenship classes and legal services for students and their families.
We were quite impressed with Erika Banuelos, 17, and Nancy, 17, who exhibited great poise, confidence and passion in speaking about being Dreamers. They, along with another Edison High School student, Kathia Osuna, 16, pushed the school district to open the center ahead of schedule.
As they explained, President Trump’s decision to end DACA six months from now increased the urgency for undocumented students to renew their applications.
And then we asked Nancy to imagine that someone who had been asleep for 20 years wandered into the news conference. Unable to process what was going on, he turns to her and asks, “What is a Dreamer?”
The extraordinary video above, shot and edited by our Jamie Ouverson, is Nancy’s answer.
Nancy asked that her last name not be used to protect her father’s identity.
Note: An earlier version of this story and video misidentified Nancy.
Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email
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