Chapter 1
Clip: Season 2024 Episode 1 | 9m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Meet Luis Cortes Romero, an immigration lawyer who is fighting to protect DACA.
Meet Luis Cortes Romero, an immigration lawyer who is fighting to protect DACA. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, Luis learned from an early age about the restrictions of not having American citizenship. While Luis was able to carve a successful path for himself, he often reflects on the time he lost getting to know his grandparents who were unable to join him and his family in the U.S.
Chapter 1
Clip: Season 2024 Episode 1 | 9m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Meet Luis Cortes Romero, an immigration lawyer who is fighting to protect DACA. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, Luis learned from an early age about the restrictions of not having American citizenship. While Luis was able to carve a successful path for himself, he often reflects on the time he lost getting to know his grandparents who were unable to join him and his family in the U.S.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[upbeat music] Initially I was thinking about having it go down like that, but I don't know.
What do you think?
- I think across will be better.
- Yeah.
Okay, let's do that then.
I can tolerate pain so go as hard as you want.
No me aguito.
¿No aguitation?
No aguitation.
I say that right now Im about to start crying.
[laughing] [speaking faintly] [upbeat music] So what's up with you?
What do you do?
- I work as a lawyer for immigrants.
It's really, you know, you meet a lot of people from a lot of different areas.
You hear a lot of about what brought 'em here.
Some of them querían venir.
[spanglish] some of them... they had to come... forced out.
It's rewarding work, you know, a lot of people who need help.
- [Tattoo artist] Where'd you study?
- I went to community college first and then I went to San Jose State and I studied Chicano studies.
That was dope.
I loved it.
One time [inaudible] con una novia.
and she was like, “you like to argue so much” “you should be a lawyer.” And I was like, oh [beep], maybe I should be a lawyer.
It was like the first time I heard it out loud and then so I looked into it 'cause I didn't even know like what the process was or anything like that, you know?
You know what I mean Not a lot of people can do that.
[jazzy music] - This was a historic moment.
We defended DACA at the Supreme Court.
If they wanted to rescind this program, they have to give reasoned decision making and explain all of the reasons as to why it did it and that it considered the real human stakes that are here.
This case really highlights how badly we need overall comprehensive immigration reform.
We're hoping that we get a decision soon so that people like myself and other DACA recipients feel a sense of stability.
[light music] [guitar music] ¡Hey, hola mijo!
Hola mijo, ¿cómo estás?
Bien.
Por poco no la alcanzo.
Les traje unas flores.
Usted se va mañana, ¿verdad?
Sí, yo me voy mañana, papi.
¡Feliz día de las madres!
¡Gracias, papá!
Que bonito, mijo.
Vamos a dentro.
Vamos a cocinar.
Luis, él quería ver a Luis.
[Abuelo] Dice, me voy a ir sin ver a Luis.
No, no, para eso vine.
¿Cómo está?
¿Cuándo llegó?
Ya vine ahorita.
Son bastantes años.
como 30 años sin verla mis hijas.
Yo no conocía en los de ma nietos.
nada más a Luis pero cuando tenía un año.
Pudiera a Dios.
Él nos ayudó a arreglarlo la visa para poder venir a verlas.
¿Qué Pingüino?
¿Qué pasó?
¿Querías ver qué te trajeron a ti también?
- It's some mixed emotions because on the one hand there's a sense of relief that my mom was able to see her parents.
The other side of it is, is that it's a reminder of just the memories and relationships that we could have had.
¿A ver, no quiere probar de sal a ver come está?
A ver, Luis.
No, no te vas a quemar.
Te dije, no vas a quemar.
Está bueno, bueno.
Está caliente.
Sí, bueno.
Sí, sí.
- My mom had to spend a significant amount of time without her parents because of a division, an imaginary line and some arbitrary laws that won't allow us to see each other.
[Evelia laughing] It's no way to build a relationship.
We try as best as you can, but you know, there's a loss of time.
Cuando Luis empezó a ir a la escuela el primer año, él me quería enseñar inglés.
Él quería enseñarme lo que él aprendía, porque Luis sabía que yo no hablaba inglés y lo que él aprendió en la escuela viene lo enseñaba pretendiendo que él era el maestro y a mí me gustaba.
Luis iba a una escuela "gifted".
Solamente iban estudiantes que eran recomendados por sus maestros.
- And this is the school actually that organized the trip to Europe.
[bell ringing] It was a class about European history.
We learned about the Magna Carta, about King Henry and all that [...].
It was dope.
I loved it.
And so we were going to go to Europe and like go check out what we had read.
That's how bomb the school was.
Luis vino bien entusiasmado con una caja bien grande de chocolates Y le dije ¿qué vas a hacer con eso?
Me dijo, voy a vender chocolates porque voy a ir a Europa y a mí se me hizo divertido.
-Oh sí.
No sé cuántos chocolates vendió pero sí sé que fue que más vendió en la clase.
- [Luis] And one night they're like, “yeah, you can't go 'cause you weren't born here.” ¿Por qué no?
dijo.
¡Si yo vendí los chocolates!
Es que Luis, tú no tienes documentos.
¿Cómo que no tengo documentos?
No, tú no tienes documentos.
Tú no eres ciudadano.
- [Luis] I was just super bummed out.
I remember I was crying.
I got made fun of crying.
En ese momento fue cuando él se dio cuenta que era indocumentado.
Y me dijo ¿Por qué no te veniste antes para que yo naciera aquí?
[gentle music] ¿Por qué te esperaste?
Cuando nos movimos Estados Unidos desde México, yo no terminé mi carrera.
Pero mi esposo había estudió una carrera de ingeniero mecánico que él terminó allá.
Pero aquí él trabajaba en un restaurante de comida rápida, también trabajaba en la construcción.
Para él tener tiempo para Luis y Erick, el se iba a las cuatro de la mañana y terminar temprano y poder disfrutar el día con ellos.
¡Mira!
- We would go fishing.
Aquí Luis ya empezaba a tomar clases de natación.
y tu papá no sabía nadar, y esto salva vida.
Sí.
Tu papá y Luis Mucho, mucho cercas.
- Yeah, he was hands on?
Oh, sí.
Todo el tiempo.
[jazzy upbeat music] - Luis was really someone I looked up to and really helped me out.
And I guess coming of age things.
- I would always go to him 'cause he was the oldest.
I thought of him as like an adult most of my life.
He would like be protective and like keeping me from doing stupid mistakes.
[light jazzy music] - It makes no sense to expel talented young people who for all intents and purposes are Americans.
They've been raised as Americans.
- Getting DACA, that was a game changer.
And I got my driver's license.
I don't know if people ever been on dates and like you carded for a drink and then you have to like hold, go through this whole explanation of why you don't have a [...] ID is the worst.
It really kills the date by the way.
Like I'll just tell you that it's like not romantic.
[light music]
Video has Closed Captions
Preparations for arguments at the Supreme Court are underway. (4m 52s)
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