Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient Juan Escalante knows no other country but the U.S. as his home. Since arriving here from Venezuela at age 11, his goals have been no different than any else’s. College. A good job. Helping take care of his family. Thanks to the work permit he gets through DACA, he’s been able to accomplish a lot of that, graduating with a master’s degree from Florida State University’s Askew School of Public Administration and Public Policy.
But because Donald Trump rescinded DACA and Congress has yet to act on the DREAM Act, his future is at stake. On Wednesday, he joined thousands of other Americans in Washington, DC, to demand Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell act on legislation before the year’s end. “The reason I’m out here today,” he said, “is that I’m tired of playing these political games with my life, and Congress needs to realize that the only way to move forward on this issue is to pass the Dream Act, and as soon as possible”:
"History will judge where you stood at this moment in time," said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who spoke at the rally. "Do the right thing."
At the event, more than two hundred demonstrators, including immigration community leaders and several members of Congress, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., staged a sit-in on the U.S. Capitol steps and in a civil disobedience act were arrested for refusing to move.
"We've done everything that they've asked, handed all our information, I don't have a criminal record ... I'm so angry that with the snap of a finger the president could take that away, there's been many sleepless nights," said Gladis Ibarra, 27, a DACA recipient who is worried about her and her siblings' future. She traveled from Denver, Colorado to attend the rally.
Lisbeth Enciso traveled from Racine, Wisconsin; she said she came in solidarity with the immigrant community. "I’m not a DREAMer but I know a lot of people who are."
In DC, over two hundreds activists—including California Congresswoman Judy Chu and Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez—were arrested in a historic act of civil disobedience in defense of Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) families. Across the nation, other actions were simultaneously kicking off. In California and Florida, activists are fasting at the offices of congressional Republicans. Online, bipartisan legislators, business and faith leaders, and celebrities showed their support. “Dreamers cannot wait in limbo any longer,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican, tweeted. “Only Congress can provide the legal certainty these young people are relying on."
In Oregon, home to more than 11,000 DACA recipients, more than one hundred students rallied at the state capitol in support of a DREAM Act now. As numerous advocacy groups and activists have noted, attaching the legislation to the must-pass year-end spending bill is the best chance for it to pass in a Republican-controlled Congress. A DACA fix also has bipartisan support in both chambers, with six Senate Democrats pledging to not vote for the package unless there’s a DREAM Act vote, and 24 House Republicans penning a letter to Ryan urging a fix before the end of the year. With 11,000 DACA recipients already out of status, Dreamers have no time to wait for the Trump administration’s arbitrary March 2018 deadline:
"The sense of urgency is very real for any DACA recipients, as some are falling off this program on a daily basis," said Oregon DACA Coalition representative Leonardo Reyes. "That reinforces the sense of needing to take action and reaching a solution as soon as possible."
Students standing on the Capitol steps pulled out their cellphones and called Oregon's Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Walden's office in Washington, D.C., in hope of personally demanding that a Dream Act be enacted by the end of the year.
In Stamford, Connecticut, it’s incredibly personal. Immigrants make up about a third of the city’s population, with advocates and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal recently fighting to stop the deportation of an undocumented Stamford mom. On Wednesday, DACA recipients and their allies gathered at the Stamford Superior Court to fight for all immigrant families. “We’re here today as part of a national day of action siding with people all over the country and down in D.C.,” said CT Students for a Dream’s Lucas Codognolla:
“We’re calling for a clean Dream Act that doesn’t use undocumented people for political gain and does not throw our parents and other people who wouldn’t qualify for the Dream Act under the bus,” Codognolla said. “We’re fighting for the protection of all immigrants.”
“This is not who we are as a country and what we stand for,” Simmons said. “We’re calling on ICE and this administration to show compassion and to pass a clean Dream Act that honors who we are as Americans. Know that we in Stamford will continue to stand up for our immigrant community. Stamford is one of the most culturally vibrant and enriching places to live because of the strength of our immigrant community.”
Stamford mother Miriam Martinez had been ordered back to Guatemala last month after living in the U.S. for 25 years and caring for a young daughter with juvenile diabetes. A judge awarded her a stay of deportation while her case is sorted out.
Rosario Orozco, 30 and a stay-at-home mother from Bridgeport, has been in the country for five years, and told the crowd, “I’m fighting so my kids have a better future than mine.”
Back in Washington, DC, immigrants put themselves on the line by getting arrested at the capitol building, along with national leaders like UnidosUS’s Clarissa Martinez, United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodriguez, National Immigration Law Center’s Marielena Hincape, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles’s Angelica Salas, Texas Organizing Project’s Michelle Tremillo, and many other supporters. “This is such a critical week and month in the lives of these Dreamers,” said Rep. Chu. “I have heard from them, I have heard their anxiety and their incredible fear,” Chu said. “It’s a very urgent matter and we have to put our actions where our mouths are.”
“DACA has opened up so many doors for me,” said Ricardo Aca, a DACA recipient who rallied in Washington, DC. “Once DACA was implemented, that allowed me to have more goals, and more hopes for my family. I want to be able to one day—if I can become a citizen—work, maybe become a councilman, maybe become a lawyer.” Remember, entire families, lives, futures and hopes are tied up in how a few select legislators proceed on a DACA fix supported by the American public—new polling from CBS News finds that 84 percent of the public, including 74 percent of Republicans, support efforts to keep Dreamers here in America—and one that could pass if it came to a vote.