Jennifer Huerta - A DACA Teacher's Fight to Stay in the Classroom

John Carlos Frey sits down with Jennifer Huerta, a sixth-grade language teacher in Bakersfield, California, and a recipient of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Brought to the U.S. from Michoacán, Mexico at just two years old, Jennifer grew up not fully understanding what it meant to be undocumented — until college applications and financial aid forms made the distinction painfully clear. 

Jennifer walks through her journey: applying for DACA as a teenager, navigating a separate, more difficult path to higher education than her U.S.-citizen peers, graduating debt-free from Cal State Bakersfield through state aid and private scholarships (since DACA recipients don't qualify for federal aid), and eventually becoming the teacher her parents — both farmworkers — always hoped she'd become. 

The conversation covers the cost and burden of reapplying every two years, the ripple effects on students, families, and communities when DACA recipients in critical roles (teachers, nurses, attorneys) lose their status, and what it feels like to build a life in the only country you've ever known — only to watch it hang in the balance as DACA approvals have been increasingly delayed. 

https://theraidpodcast.org/ 

@heyitsmisshuerta

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