This piece first appeared in MTV News on March 10, 2020 and was authored by Yazmin Irazoqui Ruiz.
‘WE FIGHT FOR THE MILLIONS OF UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE, BECAUSE FOR ALL OF US, HOME IS HERE’
The Supreme Court is currently deliberating the future of the DACA program and DACA recipients like Yazmin, who was born in Mexico, and migrated with her mother and sister to the United States when she was three years old. She lives in Albuquerque, and will soon graduate from medical school. Her hope and resilience comes from her faith and community organizing. Her #HomeIsHere.
November 12, 2019: I began my day with “morning report” in the Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s the only level-one trauma center in the state — therefore, the multiple admissions admitted overnight weren’t unexpected. The night team reported that we would be receiving two additional transfers from rural areas. I listened to the overnight status of each patient, making note of acute changes to follow-up on during my morning check-ins. That day was no different from any other day in the ICU: after morning report there were pre-rounds, rounds, floorwork, procedures, and sign-out.
Yet as I performed these routine, daily tasks, my mind was elsewhere. I thought about the members of my community as they walked out of their schools, rallied outside the Supreme Court in our nation’s capital, and took action in their communities. Young people just like me from across the country who chanted loud and clear: Home is here!
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