UFW offering free DACA renewal workshops in Fresno ahead of possible mass deportations

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. -- In the weeks since President-elect Donald Trump secured his second term, the United Farm Workers Foundation has been bolstering its legal services.

Attorneys are seeing an influx of clients for its DACA and Naturalization workshops in Fresno and Bakersfield.

Every Tuesday, the United Farm Workers Foundation hosts a DACA Renewal and Naturalization workshop starting at 9 am.

The workshop offering additional services including family petitions, citizenship, and general consultations.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA as it's more commonly known, is a US immigration program created under the Obama Administration in 2012.

The policy allows people who came to the US as children and meet certain guidelines to apply for two-year periods of deferred action from deportation.

The program also makes the recipient eligible for a work permit.

Clients are concerned the program could be cut with a second Trump presidency.

"Renew your DACA. Do not let your DACA expire; it's very important to ask questions," explained Linda Martinez, the organizing coordinator of the UFW.

"As a Latina, I've been seeing more fear in our mothers, in DACA recipients, right. 'What's going to happen with my status?'"

For the past five years, Maria Sofia Corona has been the directing attorney for the UFW.

Her own parents immigrated to the United States as undocumented migrants from Mexico in the 1980s.

"They were farmworkers and at least politicians could agree then that the people who feed us, should have a pathway to stay here. Unfortunately, politics has changed. It has become, in my opinion, lost the humanity and become very vicious," said Corona.

Martinez sharing members within her own family are living in the U-S undocumented.

"The fear still exists. We don't know what's going to happen, but we want to let the community know that we have been through this type of administration in the past. We are more prepared," Martinez said.

"There is no back of the line for the vast majority of folks, who are fleeing persecution or who are here trying to feed their families, who fled gross economic disparities or who are feeding you, are clothing you, are cleaning your home, are being your nannies," added Corona.

"We're not stepping back and recognizing that privilege."

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