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Immigrant Students in Wisconsin Stage Hunger Strike for DACA

by Americas's Voice on

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In Wisconsin today, DACA recipients who are constituents of Speaker Paul Ryan launched a hunger strike in support of DACA and the Dream Act. The hunger strike is led by the advocacy group Voces de la Frontera and their student arm, Youth Empowered in the Struggle.

The group will occupy Monument Square in Racine, Wisconsin, near one of Speaker Ryan’s district offices. They will stay and hunger strike until September 5th — currently the day Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement regarding the end of DACA — when advocates and Dreamers from across Wisconsin will join them in a rally.

As Valeria Ruiz, Racine organizer with Voces de la Frontera and Youth Empowered in the Struggle, said in a statement:

If DACA is rescinded, I and 800,000 others will be robbed of the ability to contribute to our communities and we will be at immediate risk of deportation along with our families. Speaker Ryan needs to speak up. Ryan must urge the President to keep DACA and he must support legislation to make DACA permanent without giving in to white supremacist mass deportation demands. We are going on hunger strike this week because we are putting it all on the line to defend our families and communities. We are here to stay.

Speaker Ryan has said publicly that he doesn’t support Trump rescinding DACA, and that “this is something Congress has to fix.” But advocates want him to get behind the Dream Act or a similar bill would would make DACA permanent without enforcement tradeoffs for immigrant communities. They also want Ryan to block federal budget spending that would fund mass deportations.

View some of the photos from the kickoff rally in Wisconsin today: