Chapman student Valeria Delgado represents ‘Dreamers’ at the State of the Union

On Thursday evening, Chapman University senior Valeria Delgado found herself inside a bustling House chamber in the U.S. Capitol, thousands of miles away from her home in Orange.

She was one of hundreds of guests lawmakers invited to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7, an annual message the president delivers to a joint session of Congress.

Related: These are the State of the Union guests accompanying OC representatives

“Sitting there was a surreal experience. It was something I never imagined would happen in my life,” said Delgado. “Watching it on television is one thing. Sitting there experiencing everything, the reactions to any statements made, clapping and being part of that great environment just left me speechless.”

Guests at the annual address are invited by lawmakers largely to put a face to a current political issue or a cause important to them.

For Democratic Rep. Lou Correa, that’s immigration.

Ever since being elected to Congress, Correa, the son of Mexican immigrants, said he has taken with him a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era immigration policy that provides certain protections from deportation for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, commonly referred to as “Dreamers” based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections for young immigrants.

“I’ve chosen to advocate for immigrants because I live in a community of immigrants,” said Correa, who represents Anaheim, Santa Ana, Stanton and parts of Orange and Fullerton in the 46th congressional district.

“What I have done over the last eight years is really try to put the face of this issue in front of the president and in front of Congress,” he said. “A ‘Dreamer’ who is part of a family who works hard day in and day out.”

“Valeria’s from the district, she grew up in the area,” he said. “She’s an honest, hardworking taxpayer.”

Delgado was brought to the U.S. from Tepic, Nayarit in western Mexico when she was only two years old. She didn’t obtain DACA status until she was finishing up her first year of college, she said, which posed uncertainty about her chosen career path, medicine. Pursuing medicine in the U.S. as a non-citizen is difficult, she said, but even more so as an undocumented immigrant.

That didn’t stop her from pushing to achieve her goals, Delgado said.

“I thought, hopefully, something would happen, and luckily, it did,” she said. “DACA has opened so many doors for me and allowed so many opportunities that I never expected. Right now, I work at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County due to DACA.”

Delgado’s DACA recipient status also opened the doors of the Capitol building, where she had a “fangirl moment” over first lady Jill Biden.

“She was sitting a few rows down from me, which was a very exciting experience,” Delgado said with a laugh.

“And obviously, it was just crazy to see the president in person,” she said. “Being in the same room as the people I watched for years on TV, that was so amazing.”

Biden, in his address Thursday night, reaffirmed his support for immigrants and a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.

“I will not demonize immigrants, saying they are ‘poison in the blood of our country,’” he said, in reference to comments former President Donald Trump made at a rally last year.

But in an off-the-cuff exchange with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Biden held up a pin that read “Say Her Name, Laken Riley,” a reference to the 22-year-old nursing student who was killed last month while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. During the exchange, Biden said Riley was “killed by an illegal.” The man accused of killing her is a Venezuelan citizen whom officials say entered the country illegally.

The term Biden used to describe the suspect drew immediate pushback.

“He needs to be made aware that it is a statement that insults individuals, and hopefully he’ll correct that in the future,” said Correa. “I don’t think he meant to insult anybody, but the fact that he said the word ‘illegal’ saddened me.”

“Mr. President, I know you meant well, I know that in the heat of the debate when you got hollered at, you had a slip-up. But it’s a slip-up that I hope you will be able to correct in the future,” he said.

Besides attending the State of the Union, Delgado this week sat down for 16 interviews, an experience she said she hopes will relay DACA recipients’ message to a wider audience. She and Correa appeared on Telemundo, Univision, CNN en Español, Spectrum News1 SoCal and FOX 11 Los Angeles, among others, according to Correa’s office.

“I was able to do interviews in both English and Spanish, and that helps reach both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking communities,” she said. “We should continue to support DACA, and hopefully find a path toward progress for it.”

Delgado also shadowed Correa for one day in the Capitol, sitting in on various meetings and witnessing what lawmakers do on a day-to-day.

“It was eye-opening because from an outsider’s perspective, we think that people just debate and argue in Congress, but they really are working together, they really do put in the effort to do that,” she said. “Almost all of the members I saw … were wearing sneakers and running from one meeting to another. They really don’t catch a break.”

She said her trip to Washington, D.C., invigorated her determination to continue to speak up for DACA recipients. Delgado, who wants to practice medicine as a physician assistant, said her goal is to help her community have better access to healthcare.

“That’s really what I’m trying to do, enter into a career field that allows me to serve my community,” she said. “I’m grateful that through this opportunity, I was able to give DACA recipients a voice.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla, too, hosted a DACA recipient Tuesday night. He brought Dr. Denisse Rojas Marquez, an emergency room resident physician at Boston Medical Center who co-founded Pre-Health Dreamers, a national group that helps young immigrants pursue healthcare careers.

Source: Orange County Register