Bay Area officials, immigrants stand strong behind DACA

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We're just over a week away from what may be the end of DACA -- the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by President Obama.

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It allowed for more than 800,000 people, including 220,000right here in California, to live, work, and study in the U.S. Without fear of deportation.

"San Jose is my home," said Cesar Juarez, who left Mexico when he was just 7.

As an adult, he's been organizing immigration rallies.

Juarez came to the U.S. with his undocumented mother and qualified for DACA.

"I have no criminal background, I have no felonies, no misdemeanors and I graduated from high school and graduated from San Jose State," Juarez told ABC7 News.

He's now a high school teacher and he's worried about being deported.

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President Trump has slammed the program in the past. "The administration has indicated several times before that the DACA program is under review," said Sarah Huckabee Sanders from a White House press briefing.

While in San Jose Tuesday, Senator Kamala Harris promised to help DACA recipients. "America needs to keep the promise to those young people and I'll fight with everything I have to keep it," she said. "It's just the right thing to do."

Harris is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would extend DACA for another three years.

Oakland and San Jose's mayors also vowed to fight.

"We're going to push as hard as we can through the courts to protect our dreamers," said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Ten states under Republican control have threatened to challenge DACA in court unless the president rescinds it by Sept. 5.

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