Six months has passed since the Trump Administration ended DACA, and Congress has done nothing to ensure that Dreamers — young people who have lived in the U.S. for nearly their entire lives — will be able to keep working and be protected from deportation.
The courts have preserved DACA for now, meaning that Dreamers who currently have DACA or have had it in the past are able to renew their paperwork. But young Dreamers who are aging into the program for the first time are not able to apply for work permits or protection, USCIS may not be renewing applications in a timely manner, and multiple Dreamers have been picked up by CBP and ICE despite actively having DACA.
That’s why today, thousands of Dreamers and advocates are speaking out in over seventy events around Washington, D.C. and around the nation, making it clear that Congressional inaction is intolerable and that the Dream Act needs to be passed now. As a press release from United We Dream stated:
Teenagers like Daniela who grew up in Texas who immigrated to the United States for life-saving heart surgery and was ready to apply for DACA on September 5th. Arely is a North Carolina teen from El Salvador who like nearly 50,000 other immigrant youth, are losing protections they’ve had under the Temporary Protected Status program which Trump ended. Miguel should be protected by DACA yet was profiled and locked in a detention camp and Dennis, who today is locked in a detention camp for standing up to a bully at school. All of these young people could be citizens with the Dream Act but instead they are targets.
Events planned for today and the week surrounding March 5 include:
- An act of civil disobedience in the streets of Washington, D.C. where hundreds of advocates will be arrested after sitting down in traffic
- Takeovers of the offices of members of Congress
- From PICO National Network: actions outside key Congressional offices in 10 states, including civil disobedience in 5 states
- A National Catholic Day of Action last week in which 40 Catholic nuns, priests and lay leaders were arrested for practicing nonviolent civil disobedience in the Russell Senate Building Rotunda
- Action and leadership from #MuslimsforDream calling for the legislative Dream Act
- Immigrants protesting beefed-up ICE enforcement in six Central Valley-Central Coast communities in California
- High school walk-outs where immigrant youth are calling for Dream action
View just some of the photos, tweets, and videos from today and this week, below:
