Campaign Action
When Congress punted on passing permanent protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients earlier this year, 78-year-old Alan Dornan from Wethersfield, Connecticut, got mad.
“A voice deep within spoke to me and said, ‘You need to walk before it’s too late. Hurry!’” he told the Hartford Courant. He made a sign reading, “I walk for Dreamers and All Immigrants,” and every single day since—that’s more than 135 days and counting—he has walked 2.2 miles in support of immigrant youth and their families:
“I’ve had people stop and ask to take a photo with me, and I’ve had people yell negative things at me,” Dornan said. “One guy yelled, ‘Go back to North Korea.’ I’m not sure what North Korea has to do with this, but I just focus on my walk.”
Dornan almost missed one day, “when he had to go to the hospital in the morning for an outpatient procedure.” But, rain or shine, through scoliosis and severe spinal stenosis, he walks. “When I walk out the door I have pain, so it is a challenge every day,” he said. “When I wake up I have a cup of coffee and tell myself it’s time to walk.”
Dornan’s persistence certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed, or unappreciated.
“Al has inspired many people involved in this movement,” said Arturo Iriarte of the Archdiocese of Hartford. “He doesn’t speak Spanish, and he isn’t Hispanic, but it’s clear this is important to him.” Dornan has gone beyond walking too, speaking “to both U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy about trying to revive a new bill in Congress.”
There also seems to be a bittersweet connection for Dornan that spurs his activism for young people. He and his wife Carmen “had one son, Aaron, who was 18 when he died in a car accident, 20 years ago this month, while returning from a youth leadership conference in New Hampshire.” Dornan told WPNR that “I feel that little—excuse the word, I won’t say it—little ‘b’—pushing me from behind every day, pushing me and saying, ‘Don’t you dare stop.’”
He has no plans to. Dornan and advocates are planning a group walk on June 30 to continue showing public support for the DREAM Act now, to follow-up one held in April, which attracted about two dozen supporters. “Iriarte said they expect a lot more people to take part in this walk because Dornan and his quest are more well-known now.”
“I’ll continue to walk indefinitely for the passing of a Dream Act,” Dornan said. “And I have met many, many Dreamers now. I’m really glad to feel more a part, more a fellow walker with the Dreamers and all undocumented immigrants.”