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Photoblog: DREAMers in NY Protest Ted Cruz’ Position on Immigration: “You Cruz, You Lose”

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Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report

During the Senate markup of the Gang of 8 immigration reform bill (which ended last week), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made it obvious how anti-immigrant he can be, most specifically by introducing and voting for an amendment which would bar all undocumented immigrants from ever being able to attain citizenship.

Since then, DREAMers, immigrants, and allies—many of whom are Cruz’s constituents back in Texas—have been up in arms, marching on Cruz’s office to protest his votes on immigration.  (Cruz’s anti-citizenship amendment failed, but Cruz later voted against moving the immigration reform bill forward altogether.)

Yesterday, Cruz came to New York to speak to the state GOP, and was met by more than a hundred shouting, chanting, drumming protestors who turned out to “unwelcome” Cruz from Manhattan.  Using New York’s historical status as a beacon for immigrants to highlight Cruz’s stance against immigrants, the DREAMers (from Texas and New York) held signs saying “You Cruz, You Lose.”

One of them was Ramiro Luna, a Texas DREAMer who came to the US at age 7.

“We’re going to chase him wherever he goes,” Luna said to the Dallas News.  “We want him to know the immigrant community is not afraid of him.”

Agreed Guisela Morroquin, a graduate student at Hunter College who was born in Guatemala, “Cruz was an immigrant himself and he doesn’t acknowledge it.  He’s from Canada,” she said, referring to his birth there.

She continued, “He’s not supporting people like us.  We’re part of this nation, whether he likes it or not.”

View photos from yesterday’s protest below, courtesy of the DRM Action Coalition: