KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — For Tomás Péndola, an immigrant from Argentina, it was a normal week teaching chemistry in a public high school here, filling a whiteboard with dense equations and coaxing his students to decipher them.
For Yeni Benítez, a Mexican immigrant in Wisconsin, this week was when “everything just fell apart.”
Mr. Péndola, who came here with his family when he was 10 and grew up in Florida without immigration papers, has protection from deportation and a work permit under President Obama’s program for unauthorized immigrants, known as Dreamers, who came to the United States as children. Ms. Benítez had been ready on Wednesday to join an expanded version of the program, which was announced by the president in November.
But officials indefinitely postponed the expansion this week after a federal judge in Texas, ruling in a lawsuit by 26 states, said it would impose major burdens on state budgets. On Friday, the administration said it would seek a stay of the Texas judge’s order.
“I’m back to this sense of insecurity, of being afraid every day, every hour, every minute,” said Ms. Benítez, who has a college degree in engineering but is working in a factory. “It really is taking a toll on me.”
–
The legal foothold allowed him to win a private scholarship, get a car and start plotting a course to a four-year degree and a computer engineering career — indoors.
Mr. Santiago is part of a group that is helping students who have deferrals to renew them and trying to bolster the sinking spirits of first-time applicants now in limbo.
“I feel protected, at least,” Mr. Santiago said. “But it’s just a work permit. I can’t say I’m more American until I have a way to citizenship.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 21, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ruling Sends Migrants Back Into Shadows. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
Go to Home Page »
