There are people you write about who leave a lasting impression.
Areli Munoz-Reyes is one of those people.
I met her in 2015 shortly after she had graduated from University City High School. She was a very good student, preparing for college and having secured two years’ worth of tuition through Missouri’s A-plus program, which rewards students for good grades and community service.
We met at the , a nonprofit that helps first-generation students and others who lack financial resources to fulfill their higher education dreams. At the time, the Missouri Legislature was in the process of making it more difficult for people like Reyes to go to college.
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“Say her name,†I wrote at the time. “Areli Munoz-Reyes qualified for her college aid the same way your children did. Say her name before you take away that which she already earned.â€
Reyes took a risk talking to me, becoming an advocate for people who wanted a path to citizenship, to continue their studies, to work, to pay taxes, to stay with families that have complicated histories. Reyes’ father was seeking asylum; her mother was undocumented; her little sister is a citizen. American policy, at least under the law, is to tear them apart.
“I’m really worried,†she told me then. “But somebody has to speak up. They need to know how real people are affected. I feel like what they are trying to do to me is take away my hope. I think I’ve done all the right things.â€
When Reyes was 8, she was brought to ºüÀêÊÓƵ by parents from Mexico who were not citizens of this country. There are more than 1 million young people like her — children brought to this country, raised here and educated as Americans, only to find out when they try to get a driver’s license or go to college that they are “different.â€
They are “DREAMers,†the subjects of the long-stalled DREAM Act first introduced in 2001 but never passed by Congress despite bipartisan support. The act would give these young people a path to citizenship. In 2012, then-President Barack Obama issued a memo protecting the students by creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The DACA program, which former President Donald Trump tried to rescind and President Joe Biden has strengthened, turned 11 years old last week. That’s when I saw a video of Areli.
She’s married now and has a new last name, but she was one of four DREAMers highlighted by the White House to celebrate the resilience of DACA and the people it protects.
In the video, Reyes, now Garner, recalled first learning of the DACA protections when she was a teenager in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
“We were actually having a barbecue and we turned on the news and saw that the president was announcing this program,†she says. “We were really happy, but at the same time we were kind of scared because we didn’t know what that meant for us.â€
Indeed, since that day, her life has been a whirlwind, spending two years at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Community College–Forest Park and finishing her undergraduate degree out of state. She came back to ºüÀêÊÓƵ to graduate this spring with a master’s degree in social work from Washington University. All along, she has advocated for other immigrants and watched the various DACA court decisions, wondering what might be in store for her.
No matter what country she was born in, Areli Munoz-Reyes Garner is an American success story — and an example of the dichotomy in our broken immigration system. She’s fulfilling her dreams to contribute to the only country she’s ever known, while also looking over her shoulder and wondering when a court or president might try to send her away.
“I’m speechless. I never thought I’d be in this position,†she said in her moment in the sun, videotaped on the White House grounds. “We are here. We’re going to keep fighting and we’re not going to stop until we have a permanent solution for us.â€