On the Tuesday, Dec. 8, episode of Sundial:
DACA Ruling
A federal judge in New York ruled that the Obama-era program known as DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, will remain intact. This means hundreds of thousands of children of immigrants across the U.S. will not be at risk of deportation.
“Florida has the fourth highest number of DACA recipients. We have about 75,000. In Homestead, quite a few young Mexican DACA recipients," said WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett. "But I would say probably the lion's share are from Central America and South America. Quite a few Columbian DACA recipients here in South Florida, for example."
In order for someone to be eligible to apply for DACA you must be: under the age of 31 as of June 15th, 2012, come to the U.S under the age of 16 and continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15th of 2007, and are either in school or have graduated from high school or in the military.
However, with the incoming Biden administration, questions still remain about the future of DACA recipients.
“We can count on Joe Biden to restore DACA, as it was under President Obama who created DACA with executive action back in 2012. The problem is, what do we do in the long run with DACA recipients? Sure, we give them these temporary work authorizations and protection from deportation," Padgett said. "But what do we do to give them permanent legal standing? That's going to have to happen in Congress — can Joe Biden convince them to take on immigration reform? Boy, that's just not looking likely right now. A lot of it could depend on how these two Senate races in Georgia go.”
Self Driving Cars Deliver Produce
Students doing online school at Fienberg-Fisher K-8 Elementary on Miami Beach and Riverside Elementary in Little Havana can access fresh produce from their at-school gardens — through Ford’s autonomous vehicle program.
“We've been in contact with the different families and just making sure that everything that we're sending home is very valuable to them. They've been sending us pictures of the different meals that they're making using the greens. We've seen salads; just this morning, somebody sent a picture of some black beans that they cooked with vegetables that we were growing at the school,“ said Deborah LaBelle, the manager for the Education Fund’s Food Forests program.
The program normally gives students the opportunity to learn about growing fresh produce and incorporate it into their school lunches. In light of COVID-19, the food is picked up by a self-driving car from the garden and then delivered to homes through contactless drop-offs.
Black Violin
Wilner Baptiste and Kevin Marcus have been defying stereotypes their entire career — mixing hip-hop with classical music to create their very own sound as the duo Black Violin.
Having played together for the past 15 years, after meeting in high school, they've gone on to win "Live at the Apollo," perform on the "Today Show" and for thousands of area schools. Their latest album is a holiday special, called "Give Thanks."
"I think hip-hop was everything, and being able to express ourselves with this instrument was the reason we kept playing. We grew up in the '90s, so hip-hop was just vibrant. Artists from Tupac to Biggie, it was a really great time," Baptiste said.
The group will be first artists featured in season three of Live from the 305 — a special series where we highlight the artists that shape the South Florida music scene.
