For Immediate Release: June 11, 2025
Contact: Fermin Vasquez at [email protected]
Gaby Pacheco Reflects on Dreamer Ximena Arias Cristóbal’s Senate Testimony and on Upcoming DACA Anniversary
Read TheDream.US Scholar Ximena’s prepared testimony HERE for “spotlight forum” hosted by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee today at 2:30 pm ET; watch forum live HERE
Washington, DC – On Wednesday afternoon June 11, TheDream.US Scholar and Georgia college student Ximena Arias Cristóbal is testifying before Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee at a “spotlight forum.” Ximena’s testimony (prepared version of testimony here), about her recent harrowing experiences in a Georgia detention center, comes just four days before the 13th anniversary of the announcement of the popular and successful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for Dreamers.
The following is a statement from TheDream.US CEO Gaby Pacheco. TheDream.US is the nation’s leading organization supporting Dreamers at the intersection of higher education, workforce development, immigration, and advocacy.
“We continue to be awed by the poise and courage of Ximena, our TheDream.US Scholar whose story captured the attention of people across the country, including in the U.S. Senate. Ximena’s experiences and testimony reveals a painful truth: Dreamers are under attack and need our support.
Unfortunately, Ximena’s story is not isolated. In recent months, multiple TheDream.US Scholars and Alumni have been arrested, detained, and even deported. Like Ximena, most younger Dreamers today do not have the deportation protections and work opportunities that DACA status provides – including nearly 90% of our first-year TheDream.US Scholars who are fully undocumented and have been unable to apply into the DACA program due to legal challenges.
So while we celebrate DACA’s success, knowing how hundreds of thousands of Dreamers with DACA have proven that legal protections and a work permit supercharge their success and contributions to their communities, we also know that DACA is not enough. What all Dreamers, with and without DACA, need is permanent legal protections.
Dreamers like Ximena have grown up in our neighborhoods, attended our schools, and now want to contribute to their communities and this country. The average age of arrival to the U.S. among our 12,000-plus TheDream.US Scholars is just four years old.
Yet instead of fully contributing to this nation and putting their degrees to work, many of our Scholars and the broader Dreamer population are currently living in fear — trapped in a cruel web of outdated policies and political indifference and now anxious about heightened enforcement that is ensnaring Dreamers like Ximena.
Is the right answer for our nation really to detain Dreamers like Ximena? To deport them to countries that they barely even remember? Absolutely not. We need a permanent legislative fix that officially recognizes Dreamers like Ximena as the Americans they already are.
So, ahead of this year’s DACA’s anniversary on June 15th: alongside celebrating the hundreds of thousands of stories of Dreamers whose lives have changed and whose communities have been strengthened because of DACA, join us in a clear call to action to build on DACA’s successes as a bridge to a permanent legislative solution, such as the Dream Act.
Even President Trump noted last December: ‘We have to do something about Dreamers… Some of them are running small businesses. They’ve become successful.’
If we agree that Dreamers contribute to this country, if we agree they belong, what is stopping us? We need permanent legal protections. We need a path to permanent legal status and we need to honor the dreams of young people like Ximena, not with empty promises, but with action.”
Read Ximena’s testimony as prepared for delivery for the Senate spotlight forum HERE
See the recent NBC News coverage from Nicole Acevedo highlighting Ximena’s story and implications: “College student’s immigration detention highlights Dreamers’ growing deportation risks”
TheDream.US is the nation’s largest college and career success program for undocumented immigrant students, having provided more than 12,000 college scholarships to Dreamers attending over 80 partner colleges in 21 states and Washington, DC. We believe everyone, regardless of where they were born, should have equitable access to a college education, a meaningful career, and opportunities to contribute to the communities they call home. For more information on TheDream.US, visit www.thedream.us
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