As 10,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and allies rally for the DREAM Act and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in Washington, D.C. today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched an emotionally gripping online ad depicting a DACA mom being swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as she takes her young kids to school. The ad—targeting California Republicans including Reps. Paul Cook, Darrell Issa, Devin Nunes, Ed Royce, and Mimi Walters—is heart-wrenching, but that’s the reality DACA recipients face if Congress does not act on legislation to protect them soon:
Actress Rosario Dawson does the voice-over narration in the ad. A clock ticks in the background as a woman waits for immigration agents to knock on her car window. She pleads with them to let her drop her children off at school or call her husband. The children scream as she is handcuffed and led away.
“It’s time for you to choose. Is this really the California you stand for? The California you represent?” Dawson says in the ad. “Choose the right side of history. Stand with the Dreamers.”
Of the five targeted Republicans, only Walters signed the letter from 34 House Republicans urging Speaker Paul Ryan to pass a DACA fix as soon as possible. California is home to the largest population of DACA recipients in the nation, and unless Republicans step up to the plate to demand a vote on the DREAM Act now, they’ll have been accomplices in the deportation of 200,000 young people in California. Several of these elected officials are facing tough races, in particular Issa, who was named by the LA Times as the most vulnerable House Republican in the state.
You can watch the ad below.