Rallies and protests are planned across Southern California in response to the news Tuesday that the Trump administration will end a program protecting from deportation some 800,000 people who as children were brought to this country illegally by their parents.
DACA supporters chant “Si se puede” at the downtown L.A. federal building on Sept. 5, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions made that announcement that many undocumented young people had long feared since Donald Trump’s election win: the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created during the Obama administration is “being rescinded.”
In anticipation of that announcement, hundreds marched in Los Angeles on Monday, Labor Day.
On Tuesday, within hours of Sessions’ 8 a.m. comments, the advocacy group Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights gathered recipients and supporters of DACA outside the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Speakers called on Congress to act in response to Sessions’ announcement.
“We’re going to keep fighting. … This is our country,” said CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas. “For 15 years, we’ve been fighting for the DREAM Act. For 15 years, we’ve been fighting for immigration reform. And what did Congress do? They did nothing … That’s why we have DACA.”
Other events planned for Tuesday include the following. This list will be updated:
- Stop the Hate! Defend DACA, defend TPS!, a rally beginning at L.A. City Hall at 11:30 a.m. Organized by youth activist group Kids Over Politics and the union representing property service workers in California.
- National DACA Mobilization Day, at 5 p.m. at the historic Placita Olvera in downtown L.A. Hosted by nonprofit UndocuMedia.
- Defend DACA rally at 5 p.m. outside the Department of Homeland Security’s field office in San Bernardino.
The Obama administration created DACA in 2012 in response to the failure of Congress to pass the DREAM Act. Sessions, then in the Senate, led Republican opposition to the legislation, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
DACA allows so-called Dreamers who meet specific conditions to live in the U.S. legally and defer deportation, letting them to “come out of the shadows.”
from KTLA http://ift.tt/2j09A8J
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