美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Promises Of Deportations Create Uncertainty For N.J. Family

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

Donald Trump¹ has taken aim at the intelligence community. He's also targeted immigrants. Protesters are going to converge² on Washington D.C. this weekend for a rally about immigrants' rights. Trump has pledged to deport³ millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, and that's created in uncertainty⁴ for thousands of families. We'll hear from one of those families today and again over the coming weeks as part of our Kitchen Table Conversations series. NPR's Joel Rose has their story.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁵: In some ways, Desiree Armas is your typical high-school senior. She's getting ready to take the test for her driver's license⁶. And she's applying to colleges.

DESIREE ARMAS: I do have my sights set on Yale, on, you know, engineering. It's just a dream. But I do like the school.

ROSE: But Desiree has a big secret. She rides the bus an hour each way to a magnet school miles away from her family's apartment. And her friends don't know that Desiree and her parents are living in the country illegally.

D. ARMAS: Only my best friend knows. No one else in school - and besides my counselors⁷. Yeah. That's something I don't tell anyone because...

ROSE: Why?

D. ARMAS: ...You never know.

ROSE: Desiree left Peru with her parents when she was 3. Today, the family lives in a small, tidy apartment in working-class Elizabeth, N.J.

OLGA ARMAS: (Speaking Spanish). Recipe is my grandmother's.

ROSE: Desiree's mother, Olga Armas, is a gracious host, quick to offer hot chocolate. Olga says the family first arrived in the U.S. in 2002 and stayed to seek a better future for their daughter.

O. ARMAS: (Through interpreter) The beginning was very hard. It was difficult to come. We arrived here with nothing to a lot of uncertainty - no pans and pots or even a spoon.

ROSE: In Peru, Olga's college-educated husband, Carlos, had a white-collar job for an airline. In New Jersey⁸, he gets up at 4 in the morning to load pallets at a paper warehouse⁹. When his parents died, Carlos couldn't go back for their funerals.

CARLOS ARMAS: (Speaking Spanish).

ROSE: "I withstood that," Carlos says, "because I wanted my daughters to stay in school and my family to stay together here - that they continue to study."

Desiree is a straight-A student. So the family was thrilled when President Obama introduced a program called Deferred¹⁰ Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, allowing immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as kids to work and attend college. Olga says as soon as Desiree was old enough to apply, the whole family went to the lawyer's office together to fill out the paperwork.

O. ARMAS: (Through interpreter) My daughter was so happy, she cried. We cried because my daughter will come out of the dark. She'll be able to continue studying. We always worried, how will Desiree stay in school? I'm always worried about that because she's always liked school.

ROSE: Desiree says getting DACA made a huge difference. Her younger sister Kimberly, who was born in Florida, is a citizen. And Desiree admits she's a little jealous.

D. ARMAS: I see my sister's passport. And, like, I don't know. Something about it just gets me all, like, sappy - I don't know for some reason - that I can't have one. But when I got my Social Security, it felt, like, so official. Like, I was way more positive. I was more hopeful.

ROSE: But Desiree's hopes may have suffered a setback¹¹ on election night. President-elect Trump has pledged to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, although he has also said he doesn't want to break up families. And Trump has committed to rolling back President Obama's immigration policies, including DACA. Olga Armas says, once again, her family is facing an uncertain future.

O. ARMAS: (Through interpreter) Yes. The truth is people are in limbo¹². We don't know what will come from Trump's words. But everybody's talking about it. There's lots of fear.

ROSE: For Olga, the fear is that what her family has gained could all go away. She's volunteering with an immigrant activist¹³ group. And the whole family is traveling to Washington this weekend to protest for immigrants' rights. Without DACA, Desiree can still get accepted to college. But losing her status would make it hard to find money for school or to work, once she gets there. She says kids with DACA want the same thing Immigrants to this country have always wanted.

D. ARMAS: What you have now - you know, your parents had to fight for it. And that's what our parents are doing. That's what we're doing. Not just me - just so many other students that are hard-working - and that we deserve a chance to show what we've got. And, you know, if you take that away from us, you probably will yank the dreams of, you know, future doctors and engineers and lawyers.

ROSE: So Desiree Armas is anxiously watching her mailbox for two reasons, acceptance letters from the colleges she's applied¹⁴ to and news about her future in this country. Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 converge   

vi.会合；聚集，集中；(思想、观点等)趋近

参考例句：

• The results converge towards this truth.其结果趋近于这个真理。
• Parallel lines converge at infinity.平行线永不相交。

3 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

4 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

7 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

8 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

9 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

10 deferred   

adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• The department deferred the decision for six months. 这个部门推迟了六个月才作决定。
• a tax-deferred savings plan 延税储蓄计划

11 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

12 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

13 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

14 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。