In Washington, D.C., yesterday, about 900 people rallied and nearly 100 were arrested in an act of civil disobedience in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other undocumented immigrant youth. Donald Trump announced the end of DACA last September and Congress has had six months to fix it, but they have done nothing. People are pissed, and they showed it in more than 40 actions nationwide.
In Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera and community leaders rallied near Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office. Ryan told a DACA recipient during a televised town hall last year that she shouldn’t worry about Donald Trump’s deportation force. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have detained DACA recipients and Ryan has done nothing except support mass deportation legislation. Undocumented immigrants are also his constituents, and they reminded him of his inaction.
Following the rally, more than 20 people—including Democrats Randy Bryce and Cathy Myers, both running to replace Ryan in his Congressional seat—were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Additionally, 150 local high school students walked out of their classrooms in protest. “Six months ago, I was going to apply for DACA,” said Racine high school student Luís Tapia, “but then Trump took that chance away. My family, my friends, and I deserve a permanent legislative solution that allows us to stay and continue to contribute to this place we call home. We need the clean Dream Act now.”
In Texas, another 100 rallied in support of permanent protections for undocumented immigrant youth. Despite being home to the second-largest population of DACA recipients in the nation, Republican Sen. John Cornyn has been one of the biggest obstacles to passing comprehensive immigration reform by saying nice things about immigrants and then offering nothing but poison pills designed to derail progress. Immigrant rights group America’s Voice has already coined his trickery the “Cornyn Con.” But if there’s one thing to know about immigrant youth, it’s that they don’t give up easily.
“We still feel the urgency,” said Jessica Azua, a DACA recipient and organizer with the Texas Organizing Project. While recent court decisions have reinstated portions of DACA, the urgency for Congress to act shouldn’t lessen because the administration is still hellbent on forging ahead in appeals court to end the program, period. “Maybe members of Congress don’t feel the urgency, but we’re the ones that are still in limbo. I know my DACA is going to expire next year, but I don’t know if I’ll have the chance to renew.”
Immigrant youth and allies also rallied in front of Trump Tower in New York, in cities across California, in Colorado, in Florida, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Oregon, in Washington state, and of course the nation’s capital, where the nearly 1,000 rallied for permanent protections for undocumented immigrant youth, including Alejandra Gonzalez, who traveled from South Carolina to advocate for her cousin, who is currently facing deportation.
“If we had [the DREAM Act] sooner, my cousin would still be with me today. He is currently sitting in a detention center, where he has endured cruelty after cruelty,” she said. Because he “has been so unjustly treated” and transferred from facility to facility, he has desperately signed a form that gives the government permission to deport him. “This is the face of the people that are being [deported,” Gonzalez said. “It’s time to put a face to them, because without the face, Congress won’t believe that it’s true.”
Of course, Congress knows that this is true. They’ve met with DACA recipients and other immigrant youth face to face and have had nothing but nice words to say to them. But when it comes to what matters—votes—they have failed immigrant youth. And Trump can keep up the frantic tweetstorms trying to pin blame for inaction on DACA on anyone he likes, but the fact is that he ended DACA, and now it’s his crisis—and the Republican Congress’—to fix. And if they continue to refuse to, November approaches.
“We cannot expect Congress to make any headway on protecting Dreamers until the White House and Republicans, who control every branch of government, choose to work with Democrats on a bipartisan DACA fix,” the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) said in a letter to Trump shortly before his March 5 “deadline.” “As ... more DACA recipients fall out of status, we strongly urge you to come to the table and work on a narrow solution that protects Dreamers immediately.”
“We are going to hit the deadline and nothing has been done,” said DACA recipient Javier Gamboa before the national day of action, “and nothing has been passed to provide a solution for DACA. We belong in this country and it is a fight to remain in this country. It is a fight for my future.”