Busy streets, crazy drivers, heels clicking and everyone in suits.

It’s 6:30 a.m.

I’m barely awake. It’d be 5:30 a.m. in Ames, but I’m in Washington D.C. The building is cold as my host lives on the top floor where all the heat rises and the windows are open.

I got up and got dressed, slipping on my black dress pants with my top and blazer. I straighten my hair and make myself presentable because it’s not every day you get to talk to Sen. Joni Ernst face-to-face in the capitol city of the nation.

I was selected, along with 20 other sorority sisters of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. across the nation, to represent Iowa in our Second Annual Lambda Hills Day. Lambda Hills Day is a two-day program where members go to the Washington D.C. and speak to their representatives about important issues within our community.

Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. was established in 1975 at Kean University by 17 Latinx-identified women who, at the time, wanted to create a community that focused on women empowerment and social and political engagement. Although the sorority is Latin-founded, it is not Latin-based.

It goes by the motto, “Latin by tradition, not by definition,” as the culture climate changes, the sorority became non-exclusionary. Currently, the organization holds more than 160 undergraduate and alumnae chapters across the United States. 

I became a sister of the organization in the spring of 2017 along with five other sisters who pledged with me that semester. As I got more involved in the organization, I became more involved and more motivated to take part in helping my community, leading me to apply for Lambda Hills Day.

Each year at this event, the Political Engagement Initiative committee surveys sorority members asking them what important political issue that they feel is most pressing during that time. Last year’s topic was improving immigration reform whereas this year was on immigration reform again, but focusing on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA).

DACA is an immigration policy that allowed qualified undocumented minors to receive a two-year period of deferred action from deportation and be eligible for work.

Currently, approximately 800,000 individuals are DACA recipients. Many of which have completed a higher education degree, work in the United States or serve in the military—or a combination of the three.

DACA recipients do not benefit from any federal or state welfare or federal financial aid if they attend higher education institutes. Although, they, along with non-DACA undocumented immigrants, do contribute a significant amount to state and local taxes; approximately $11.64 billion a year, according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy.

Undocumented immigrants in Iowa alone contribute more than $37 million in state and local taxes. Undocumented immigrants also pay an average estimate 8 percent of their income toward state and local taxes, according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. 

My focus was speaking to Iowa representatives and senators from my district. Another sorority member and I both had scheduled meetings with Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst.

Rep. David Loebsack and Rep. Steve King were unavailable to meet.

Although we only had two meetings with Iowa representatives, we accompanied other sorority members as they met with their representatives.

We had our first meeting at 8 a.m. on Feb. 28, in the Russell Senate Building.

Marble covered the walls and flags and each state stood in front of their respective senator. As we arrived to Sen. Ernst’s office, we were greeted by multiple staff members. We were encouraged to sign the guest book, eat some pastries and chat with other constituents about what they wanted to talk to Ernst about.

It was interesting, many thought I was a professional photographer as I just observed and took pictures. Many even came up to me and gave me their business cards to email them the pictures I took. Unfortunately, I lost them on my flight back. (If they’re reading this, I apologize.)

As I was taking pictures, Sen. Ernst walked in and greeted everyone. We also received a surprise visit from Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Sen. Ernst approached my sorority sister and I. She knew exactly what we wanted to talk about.

She sat down with us and said, “Go ahead, give me what you got.”

We told her DACA is more than just a program, it is giving someone the opportunity to pursue their education and career goals without the fear of deportation.

Many undocumented immigrants were brought here at a young age and have no reference to their country of origin. If they get deported, they’re headed back to a location they might not know the language of, don’t know where they’re at or how to survive in that location. 

As we shared these concerns with Joni Ernst, we also asked what her stance on DACA was and what she was willing to do if she were for it, and if she wasn’t supportive of DACA, her reason as to why.

“I’ll admit, I was against DACA at the beginning. But as people, like yourselves, came and told me their stories, I realized I had to change my stance,” Ernst said. “I changed my opinion on DACA and I do believe we need to create a cleaner program.”

We didn’t speak for long. Most of the meetings we had with representatives lasted 15 to 20 minutes. I suppose they’re really busy people.

Due to the funeral held at the Capitol for Rev. Billy Graham, most representatives went back to their districts since they no longer had to vote on anything at the House.

Grassley stayed in D.C. but was still unable to meet with us on March 1. He had been called to a House panel to speak on a bill that proposed to combat the opioid crisis. Fortunately, he was still able to direct us to his staff member that day. 

We continued our journey that day and caught up with our other sorority members at the Longworth building, one of the three office buildings for the House of Representatives that exemplifies a Neoclassical Revival style. Once we were in the building, we got into our groups, and headed out to our meetings for the day.

We met with five other staff members and representatives from New Mexico, Michigan and Florida. 

As we met with them, we asked questions concerning the March 5 deadline, the deadline President Trump gave Congress to come up with a legislative plan for DACA. Many representatives agreed that the plan would come with a path to citizenship, if the DACA recipients are qualified.

Many of the representatives we met from outside of Iowa, said that the plan would be implemented but since the Republican party and the president are seeking funding for border security, it makes the proposal more difficult to agree on.

“We need to clean [DACA], we have to fix the problem that we have. The only problem is that the president continues to threaten to veto the proposal if it doesn’t meet his prioritization,” staff member Rachel Hugman for Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico said.

Border security was another topic that was touched on. Considering that the president’s campaign was well-known for its promise for a physical wall, it led to questioning if members of Congress would actually consider funding for the wall in return for DACA.

Each representative and member of Congress we met with all agreed there had to be some sort of border security. Not necessarily a physical wall, but more focus on funding for border security technology, personnel and more enforcement on sea ports of entry. Sen. Lujan Grisham was heavily against a physical wall as it came with more harmful effect on the economy, the environment, and property.

“There needs to be more attention to the ports. That’s no excuse. Some of these shipment containers are not checked and can contain human trafficking victims, drugs or weapons. We have the technology to scan and X-ray these items,” Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico said.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff member, Thomas Boodry, talked about the difficulty of the bill.

“The more you put into the bill, the more there’s people opposed to it… We’re not going to address everything in the bill.”

Boodry also mentioned that Sen. Rubio’s stance on border security laid mostly on increasing funding of technology and personnel, and much less on a physical wall which.

Boodry also said, “we’ll have to wait and see if it ends up being signed by the president… We’re nervous that nothing will happen until the wall is built.”

Our last meeting of the trip was with Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Staff member, Brad Watts, in the Hart building.

Watts gave a different perspective on DACA, stating that Grassley’s opinion has changed dramatically from rejecting DACA completely to now being open to it on certain conditions.

“The [DACA] program was unconstitutional,” Watts said. “If you want any permanent solution [for DACA] you need compromise.”

Watts stated that Grassley would support the plan for DACA as long as it contained a path to citizenship, physical border security where it is needed, limited immigration visas and sponsorships and less diversity lottery visas.

“Without those conditions, there’s no DACA,” Watts said.

Other conditions that he listed for Grassley to support DACA include the recipient to be willing to assimilate to American culture, speak English, and pay back taxes. However, since undocumented immigrants already contribute to state and local taxes, this would mean they’d have to pay more taxes on top of what they’ve already contributed.

After the exhaustive meetings and walking in heels, our group decided to relieve some of the stress we experienced. We decided to act like tourists.

We ventured to the National Mall and visited the multiple monuments and exhibits. Some that we visited were the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Smithsonian Portrait Art Gallery. I even got to see the portrait Kehinde Wiley created of Barack and Michelle Obama at the Portrait Art Gallery.

As I prepared for the my departure back to Iowa, I reflected on my journey and recognized the importance of knowing about the issues that politicians are talking about in Congress. Regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your stance on DACA, representatives are meant to represent the people.

Even if you cannot make the trip to Washington D.C., you can call, email, write, or even visit to your representatives. With enough persistence, they do listen and can change their opinion. For example, both Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley were completely against DACA, at first. As more constituents came forward to express their concern, they’ve changed their stance.

Even with my flight getting delayed, missing my connecting flight and having to stay in Chicago for another night; later getting my luggage lost and ending up in Texas, to finally getting back to Ames in time to present for the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, I was still extremely grateful for the opportunity to be an advocate for my community and speak on DACA.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct the sentence “Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff member, Brian Walsh…” to “Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff member, Thomas Boodry…” Other mentions of “Walsh” have been  replaced with “Boodry.” This article has been updated to reflect a removal of comments from an off-the-record discussion.

The article originally ran as a news article, when in reality it should have ran as an opinion piece. It has since been updated to be under the opinion section of the article.

The Daily regrets these errors.