Paul Ryan has said that DACA recipients have nothing to worry about, so why does he refuse to meet with them? Wisconsin Dreamers have gone on a hunger strike outside his Racine office to demand the DREAM Act, yet he refused to sit with them. They’ve lobbied outside his Janesville church (with permission from the priest, of course), but he appeared to skip mass that day. Still, if there’s one thing we know about immigrant youth, it’s that they don’t give up. They’re relentless. So if Paul Ryan won’t go to them, they’ll keep going to him:
Ryan is due to speak Thursday night at the prestigious Al Smith Dinner in New York, and six Wisconsin "Dreamers" plan to demonstrate outside the venue.
DACA recipients have urged Ryan and Republicans to pass a replacement before the program's protection begins to be phased out.
At the New York event, the Wisconsin contingent will be joined by DACA recipients from New York and other immigrant-rights activists. They had previously urged New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to rescind Ryan’s keynote invitation.
Other youth and allies are also participating in a 12-mile march across Congressman Peter King’s district to demand action on the bipartisan DREAM Act, and their cries are clear. Without clean passage of the DREAM Act—meaning a bill that doesn’t include any harmful enforcement proposals ramping up Donald Trump’s immoral, mass deportation force—their lives and families are at stake.
“I’m a high school student from Racine,” said Fernanda, Ryan’s constituent and a leader with Wisconsin immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera. “I’m also a DACA recipient. Today, we are here in New York City to demand our congressman to confront us, to talk to us.”
There are an estimated 7,600 DACA recipients in Wisconsin and 42,000 in New York state who stand to lose permission to work legally and protection from deportation if Ryan and King do not act. Trump has tried suggesting that if Congress doesn’t act by his artificial March 2018 deadline, he can extend it, but he can’t extend a program he’s already rescinded. It’s up to Congress to act. And, Catholic leaders like Cardinal Timothy Dolan should be standing with immigrant youth and their families. As Pope Francis once tweeted, “We pray for a heart which will embrace immigrants. God will judge us upon how we have treated the most needy.”
Ryan “will be talking about supporting children” during tonight’s dinner, said his constituent Valeria, “but in his district—including my sister and around the country—there are children at risk of being separated from their families because Paul Ryan has not brought up a clean DREAM Act.”
For any local New York allies interested in joining the demonstration in support of the DREAM Act outside the Al Smith Dinner today, here’s a link with more information.