Dreaming Home

On June 28, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will decide on the case for Dreamers. The term “Dreamers,” often refers to young undocumented people in the United States who have been granted temporary relief from deportation through the introduction of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The DREAM Act has gone through several iterations, and many undocumented people are now protected under the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (DACA) program. However, under President Trump’s administration, the DACA program has experienced several roadblocks. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about the program on November 12, 2019, and it plans to issue a ruling on its constitutionality between January and June 2020. But right now, the fate of undocumented persons remains uncertain, so the search for stability and home for many endures.

For a lot of undocumented immigrants, the United States has been home for a significant length of time, but it has not been the only one. This vacillation, though not physical, but often mental, linguistic, psychological and emotional, affects people and their lives, and the way that they interact with the world.

A coalition of civil rights organizations launched a campaign on September 4th entitled “Home is Here” with the initiative of informing the public on what is at stake if the Trump Administration were to cancel the DACA program. The campaign features emotive clips of undocumented immigrants sharing about their lives as DACA recipients and their relationship with the United States. This series hopes to accomplish something similar.

Dreaming Home: Found Poems

This series of found-poems is an intimate reflection of the remembering of a native and current home. The answers that respondents—currently or formerly undocumented immigrants— give to the question “where is home?” are poetic and insightful. They urge us to think critically and honestly about what it means to be undocumented and “home-less” and what it means to long for a place to call home. It is a long and profound journey.