Latina business owner calls DACA program a life-changing experience

In 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was approved by President Obama, Karla Burton was 22 years old with a dream of starting her own business. She tells Yahoo Life DACA was the life-changing movement she needed. Burton says it offered her the opportunity to get a driver’s license, a social security number and it allowed her to live without fear. “That gave me a piece of mind that I wasn’t going to get deported,” she says. Burton grew up in Los Angeles, after her parents migrated to the U.S. from Honduras. She was eight years old when she arrived in L.A. The neighborhood of Echo Park is where she calls home and the spot where Karla’s Coffee Cart was born. Last year, she and her husband launched their coffee cart, but when the coronavirus pandemic hit, they were hit hard financially. To help ease the impact, they started a GoFundMe page. “That’s been such a blessing for us,” she says. “It’s so wonderful to see that many people want to help you.”