Escalante was 15 years old when he came to Massachusetts and has now spent more than half his life here. He graduated from high school here and worked in nurseries without any problems.

But when she applied for the job at Taco Bell last April, she faced what immigration advocates say is an increasingly common problem: an employer who insisted a work permit wasn’t enough. In some cases, employers fear the work authorization program could be struck down by federal courts if Donald Trump returns to the White House (or by federal courts even if he doesn’t), and they don’t want to take a chance on hiring a worker, lawyers say. They may have to shoot soon. In other cases, employers do not understand the law.

Here’s what Escalante had to say: First, it looks like he got the job; He said a restaurant manager told him to “bring your employment documents so you can start work as soon as possible, because we need workers.” Escalante said he then told her he had a U.S. Social Security number and employment authorization card. He allegedly said he was shocked when he told him “it’s not good for these people to work here, you need a US passport or green card.”

“I felt so bad emotionally, I wasn’t rejected from any job,” Escalante said. After a friend told him what was happening wasn’t legal, Escalante called the manager, who allegedly repeated that he needed a U.S. passport and hung up when he asked to confirm his name.

“This is a clear case of employment discrimination,” senior attorney Mirian Albert said. Civil Rights Lawyersin question. federal laws Protecting immigrants from workplace discrimination based on citizenship or immigration status. Albert represents Escalante and, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Occupational Safety and Health Coalition, MassCOSHHe sent a demand letter in April to Charter Foods North, a Tennessee-based company that operates the Taco Bell location in Lawrence. Threatening legal action Unless the company “immediately addresses this unlawful discrimination.”

Albert said they are in contact with Charter Foods’ legal team. “We’re keeping all our options on the table,” Albert said. “We’re not allowed to comment on anything that’s ongoing,” Leah Taylor, Charter Foods’ human resources manager, said when reached by phone. (Messages left for the company’s lawyer were not returned.)

Looks like Escalante’s situation not contrary.

“We have heard of a significant number of people being rejected from jobs because employers view them as a major risk,” he said. Roberto G. GonzalesA professor at the University of Pennsylvania who researched the work authorization program, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. He is currently working on a book, based on an 11-year long-term project that followed hundreds of people with work permits under the program and described the challenges and successes they faced. “There is a huge lack of understanding about the program,” he said, noting that some recipients have even been turned away from testing sites for graduate or law school admissions tests.

The program really needs to be understood as a dilemma. “Based on all the accumulated evidence“It is clear that DACA has been one of the most successful immigration policies in recent memory,” Gonzales said. Beneficiaries of the program have achieved significant upward mobility in their careers. But he said the program “is as much about its limitations as its power to launch lives.”

lengthy federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the program is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. oral arguments were held last month. Over the past four years, the Biden administration has largely played defense and scored few victories. Affordable Care Act eligible participants. Meanwhile, Congress had 12 years to sign the protections into law and failed to act.

“Congress doing nothing is arguably the greatest form of deferred action,” Gonzales said.

Many participants, like Escalante, now have families and will lose more than they would have had when they first got their work permits years ago. That’s not the only cause for concern, Gonzales said. The government now has tons of their personal information because they have to renew their status every two years, and some are horrified about what the Trump administration could do with it.

“Like other immigrant families, we are very afraid of Trump winning because we have no permanent status in this country, and if Trump decides to revoke DACA, our lives could change from one day to the next,” Escalante told me. . “I wouldn’t even want to imagine the huge impact this could have on my children. “It would be very difficult emotionally.”

Marcela Garcia is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @marcela_elisa and on Instagram @marcela_elisa.