Check for web archive captures
Grannies Love Dreamers/Protect DACA; Valentine's Day
Vigil. Photos by Mabel Leon
By mickielynn on 2018-02-22 08:30:04
Although this Valentine's day vigil was planned in January we were actually hoping that Congress would have already acted
to protect the Dreamers [those eligible for work and education permits and protection from deportation under the Delayed
Action for Childhood Arrivals designation created on June 15, 2012] Since President Trump arbitrarily terminated this
program in September of 2017, a termination halted by the courts for the present he set a deadline of March 5, 2018 for the
creation of anew DACA program. With the leverage of continuing budget resolutions and other spending bills we were
hoping for a new, clean DACA Act that would also provide a pathway to permanent citizenship for these 800,000 young
adults and for others qualified but not yet enrolled. But unfortunately it developed that Congress didn't really care about the
lives of these people who were currently enrolled in education, serving in the military and working as professionals and
paraprofessionals and with families of their own in some cases. And it also turned out that President Trump and others in his
administration had set this crisis up in order to use the plight of the Dreamers as a way to try to make drastic changes to
legal immigration by linking it to his so called "4 pillars of immigration." He particularly wanted to force Congress to fund
his destructive and budget busting "wall." In fact, Majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell seemed oblivious of the
anxiety and suffering caused by this arbitrary attempt to cancel the program. He said that the DACA recipients had nothing
to worry about because they would be low priority for deportation! House majority leader, Paul Ryan was even worse. He
said that he would not accept any proposals, bipartisan or not, that could not be guaranteed approval by President Trump in
advance. Fortunately there were more compassionate members of Congress who would only approve the budget bills with
the agreement that there would be a discussion and vote in the Senate. Paul Ryan promised less and the whole issue after a
week of so called discussion and three votes in the Senate is still unresolved. So on Valentine's Day 38 supporters of the
Dreamers and of continued legal immigration and acceptance of refugees and families of immigrants already here with legal
status spent an hour and a half sending their messages to drivers and passengers on a busy route between Albany and
Mor
ro
> ele
KEEP
IMMIGRANT
af
eee
= iy
=oy
= io
|
Provide a
| Path to Suef PRR ®
Have a ed
—_ Families
. Se SZ
per Lows i
Nof Hate
This is some of what we
wrote in our media release: While we still don’t have the final details about how the Congress will ultimately deal with the
protection of Dreamers, immigrants with Temporary Protective Status, those with long term residence, and asylum for
refugees, Grannies for Peace feels that the anxiety being visited on these communities has to stop now! Granny, Dorothy
Richards focused on one way that Immigrants make America Great:
The president knows that many industries are hurting for lack of available workers. Yet, while Immigrants have
shown that they have the necessary skills and will to perform these specific and vital blue collar roles, they are
vilified and blocked from our country. Among these industries are the Building Trades, (electricians, plumbers,
carpenters, etc.) farm and agriculture workers, and health care aides and providers. The disingenuous drumbeat
against immigrants is harming Americans and their businesses, communities and families. We need to be
enlightened and informed. We need immigrants. Yet we are daily being led and fed a dishonest diet of fear and
loathing for "the other." Ask frustrated building contractors, nursing home administrators and family members
with sick and frail loved ones. Ask yourself, "Is this any way to make America great again?"
Before President Trump put the status of Dreamers and those with long term TPS at risk this fall and before he delegated
cruel and unregulated deportation procedures to ICE and Department of Homeland Security we have seen the kinds of
contributions to our country that those protected under DACA and under TPS could make to our economy and to our
communities. We have seen immigrants brought out from the shadows complete higher education, serve in the military,
brilliantly perform professional and para professional jobs in science, education, small business, healthcare, the arts, and
other vital spheres. That safe status needs to be restored. Although the courts have decreed that renewals of the DACA status
need to continue to be processed at this time this is obviously an unfinished struggle and Dreamers and their supporters are
continuing to press the case for a solution to this artificially created crisis. One thing that they are doing is currently walking
on a 15 day march from New York City to Washington DC where they will have a large demonstration in the run up to the
March Sth deadline proposed by President Trump, or more likely by his anti-immigrant adviser, Stephen Miller. [caption
id="attachment_ loo align salignnone’ oN
ia
f
sf ‘ 7 i =
| 0 y O hope f s \ DACA recipients and their
allies launched a 250 mile, 15 day march from New York to Washington DC on February 16, 2018 from Democracy Now!
[/caption] In our community as well as those all over the United States the public strongly supports a path to citizenship for
Dreamers An aggregate of polls taken at the time of the brief government shutdown in January came to about 80 percent or
more of all political persuasions. So this issue is not going to go away. We will be lobbying Congress to fix DACA and
protect these young adults who contribute so much to our nation.
- - if ' Oi oa
=
~ — i J J 4
= Ms i . al = a |
oo 2
ie ~ ' ae ie
Together
Brel="attachment wp-att-
PROTECT
DACA
