DACA recipient takes up cudgels for DREAMers

SUNNYVALE, CA – An Indian American DACA recipient, who has lived in the US since the age of six, is heading to Washington, DC on April 12, where he plans to meet with members of Congress to advocate for a clean DREAM Act, which will protect the nation’s 1.5 million undocumented youth from deportation.

“A pathway to citizenship would be great,” says Ruchir Parikh, a resident of Sunnyvale, Calif., who earned his degree in industrial technology from San Jose State University and currently works in IT at Okta.

“I have grown up here and see myself as an American. There has never been a point in my life when I have felt less than American,” he told reporters.

“But I’m okay with anything that allows me to stay here with my family,” he added, noting that his DACA status ends in February 2019. The Trump administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on September 5, 2017, but two lower court decisions have allowed the program to remain in place temporarily, and for renewal applications to be accepted.

Parikh’s DACA status allows him to work and drive in the US, besides protecting him from deportation. He has already filed for a renewal.

Parikh and his parents came to the US in 1991 from Punjab, at the height of the Sikh separatist movement, seeking asylum. The Parikhs are not Sikh. Parikh said his father has spoken of being persecuted by members of Sikh separatist groups.

Arriving in the US, the Parikhs immediately filed for asylum. But their case was not heard for 12 years until October 2003. They then did not receive a decision on their case until December 2009.

Eighteen years after the family filed its asylum application, asylum officers with US Citizenship and Immigration Services determined that Ruchir’s father had been persecuted, but that the country conditions in India had improved since 1991, according to Parikh’s attorney, Kalpana Peddibhotla.

The Parikhs were then referred to Immigration Court but did not get their first court date until May 2010. Their first hearing date on the merits of the case was not until September 2012.

Meanwhile, Ruchir’s younger sister Ridhi, who was born in the US, had turned 21 and was able to sponsor her parents, who now have green cards. But Ruchir is not considered an immediate family relative: only the parents, spouses, and children of US citizens fall into that category.

Parikh is the sole breadwinner for his family. His father suffers from retinopathy, which has left him mostly blind in both eyes; he also suffers from severe arthritis, which does not allow him to lift things. His mother is a home-maker, who nevertheless ran two family-owned shops.