3 Months Ago, Donald Trump Threw Vincent’s Life Into Chaos. This Is His Story.

“I celebrate July 4th just like anybody else, right?”

Al Kamalizad/Mother Jones

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It’s been a tumultuous year for Vincent Ronquillo, 33. For the last five years, Ronquillo, like 800,000 other previously undocumented immigrants, has been protected from deportation thanks to the Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. But in September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the program—exactly what Ronquillo was afraid would happen when Trump took office.

Finding a permanent replacement for DACA has been a hotly contested political issue ever since. President Trump gave Congress until March 2018 to come up with a solution. But sensing that passing a standalone bill by then was unlikely, Democrats have been threatening to hold the federal budget bill hostage unless provisions for DACA are included. The budget needs to pass by the end of this week in order to avoid a partial government shutdown. (Trump has invited congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday to hammer out a plan.)

Ronquillo is watching closely. I first met him while covering a protest in November 2016. He has lived in California since he was 7 years old, balancing work, family, and the strains of being in legal limbo. I wanted to know what it’s like to live like this, so we’ve kept in closer touch over the last few months through in-person interviews, home videos, and emailed voice-memos.

What does he think of the continued squabbles over his right to call himself an American? “They’re playing with our lives,” he says. As I listened to him drop references to Power Rangers, Thanksgiving, and his small business, Vincent’s life struck me as routinely American—with the notable exception that it all might be ripped out from under him.

For the full experience, head over to Mother Jones on Instagram, and keep following to see how things progress for Ronquillo as the deadline for Congress to decide his fate approaches.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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