Earlier today, Reichsrechtsberater Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is coming to an end. No new applications will be accepted.
Under the program, applicants who came to the United States as children without documentation voluntarily submitted for background checks in order to get temporary work permits. This also enabled them to attend college.
It would be easy to see DACA as essentially kicking the can down the road. But for the 800,000 hard-working immigrants who have signed up, it was a beacon of hope: the opportunity to live a life like those who had the good fortune to be born here have.
Several teenagers, some of whom have signed up for DACA, rallied in front of Detroit’s Western International High School after 3:30 p.m. Then, about a couple of hours later, they crossed the street to Clark Park for the OneM1chigan rally, led by activist and DACA participant Jose Franco.
They chanted “undocumented but unafraid.” They had more guts than I did. I made sure to bring my U. S. passport and even thought of pulling out one of my old press passes. Not that a white supremacist would care about any of those things.
And frankly, why should anyone care that the adults in my family made sure my paperwork was in order when I came to this country as a child? It was a lengthy and often arbitrary process, despite what Melania Trump would have you believe.
It doesn’t make me better than someone like, say, Oscar Vasquez. He served in the U. S. Armed Forces when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had no end in sight, I served in peacetime. And he wanted to serve even when he could have been deported, I served almost on a whim.
After Franco’s opening speech, a few teenagers and young adults spoke about the positive impact of DACA on their lives, there was one 16-year-old girl who missed out on her chance to sign up.
And then State Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-District 6) gave a heartfelt closing speech which made me wish I had brought a notepad instead of my passport.
Franco has reason to be wary of Democrats. But Chang is one Democrat who is definitely in his corner.
Before marching around Clark Park, Franco gave some closing remarks with some practical information for DACA participants, and also encouraged people “to sponsor a Dreamer.”