Campaign Action
Undocumented immigrant youth have been rallying, organizing, and sharing their personal stories for years, winning one of the most prominent immigrant rights victories—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—from the Obama administration back in 2012. Because of DACA, some 800,000 immigrant youth have been able to live their lives with some normalcy. But in the coming weeks, they’re facing the fight of their lives as they advocate for the bipartisan DREAM Act, which would finally put undocumented immigrant youth on a path to citizenship:
This month, the dreamers face the biggest test yet of their political clout — a make-or-break moment in their long path to the precipice of becoming fully legalized residents. A loss would mean a devastating return to living in the shadows and the perpetual fear of being deported.
President Trump, who ended the Obama-era deferred action program in September, has set a March 5 deadline for lawmakers to act before the bulk of the permits begin to expire at a rate of nearly 1,000 per day.
But the fact is that this March date is a completely arbitrary—and dangerous—deadline invented by the Trump administration. More than 10,000 DACA recipients have already fallen out of status, and over 120 continue to lose their work permits and protection from deportation every single day. And as the Washington Post notes, without a clean DREAM Act now, that number will skyrocket, with some studies showing it could be as high as 1,400 young people daily:
Most on Capitol Hill said a deal must realistically be done before the end of December because a bipartisan agreement would become more difficult in a midterm election year.
For the dreamers, the moment has reactivated a nationwide political network honed over the past decade. Motivated anew, they are planning to ramp up the emotional, in-your-face demonstrations that have brought them to this precipice.
“I am one of the 800,000 DACA Dreamers,” tweeted Sarahi, who shared her story as part of a recent United We Dream (UWD) campaign. “I have 502 days until my DACA expires. In 502 days I will lose my job. In 502 days I will no longer be able to afford school or attend school. In 502 days my dreams will be destroyed. Every day 122 Dreamers are losing their opportunity to work here, to go to school here, and start living in fear of getting deported.” It’s now or never for DREAM, and across the nation, immigrant youth are promising a continuous presence, including sending delegations of Dreamers to airports to greet members of Congress returning to Washington, D.C.
While both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said Congress should address protections for immigrant youth, as America’s Voice notes, “Republicans have a long history of delivering happy talk about getting something positive done for immigrants, only to get to ‘no’ at the end of the day. So if Congress doesn’t do it now—by attaching Dreamer legislation to must-pass legislation this year—it’s highly unlikely they are going to do it at all”:
If Republicans somehow manage to kick the can to next spring, what’s predictable is that they’ll load up an inadequate DACA fix with enough poison pills to ensure opposition. This would put them in their favorite position: “we tried to do something but Democrats are to blame for it not happening.”
“Some Democrats have suggested they will not support a must-pass spending bill without a deal that offers the dreamers a path to citizenship,” notes the Post. “Last week, Republican Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both of Florida, added their names to that list. More than two dozen other moderate GOP lawmakers are expected to make similar pledges in the coming days.” And recently, California Republicans Jeff Denham and David Valadao became the latest to urge action now:
“I want to send a very clear message to the speaker,” Denham said. “We want to show the speaker there are a large number of votes there...We shouldn’t wait another week or another month or [until] a deadline to pass a bill that has bipartisan support.”
Immigrant youth continue to add to the pressure by intensifying actions at the offices of Congressional members, rallying across the U.S., and urging allies to make a call for the DREAM Act. “I’m ready to do the work. Go full steam ahead,” tweeted DACA recipient Juan Escalante. “I guess I just don’t want to face any version of reality where any Dreamer has to worry about their future in this country, their financial responsibilities, or the emotional burden of losing their status.”
“A couple of months ago,” he continued, “I told a reporter that the reason why I signed up to do this work was because I didn’t want anyone to have to experience some of the horrors of life before DACA. So much trauma, fear, depression, and anxiety.” But, he added, “we are going to win his fight. Some way or another—I just feel it. We just need to stay focused and engaged.”
“This is the moment,” said United We Dream’s Cristina Jiménez, who was recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur fellowship for her years of activism and advocacy for our nation’s immigrant families. “It’s higher stakes for us in comparison to other fights. The reason why is we’re facing the most aggressive immigration enforcement environment in our lifetime.”