Rally held to support immigrants
Activists chant ‘undocumented and unafraid’ in Civic Plaza protest
About 200 young social activists from around the nation capped off two days of learning how to mobilize protests on behalf of undocumented immigrants with a 1.5-mile march through Downtown Albuquerque, ending up in Civic Plaza Friday.
There the group hosted speakers, most of them undocumented immigrants themselves, and state Auditor Tim Keller, who advocated against recent threats to the federal program that gives special visa status to children who were brought to the U.S. without immigration papers by their parents.
That program, Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrival Program, or DACA, came under fire during President Donald Trump’s campaign and more recently after 10 state attorneys general, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, sent a letter to Trump asking that he dismantle the program or prepare for Texas to challenge it in court.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas on Friday joined 19 other Democratic attorneys general around the country urging Trump to keep the program.
In a letter to the president, the Democratic attorneys general said the 800,000 immigrant students covered under the Obama-era DACA have been a boon to universities and employers.
Keller, in his address to the protest group Friday afternoon, said the same thing.
For the protesters, though, the issue is more emotional.
“Our parents gave everything they had to give us this opportunity,” one protester said in her speech. “We are here to stay.”
The group chanted frequently their main refrain: “undocumented and unafraid.”
The protest was led by the NM DREAM Team, part of the larger United We Dream immigrant rights advocacy group.
United We Dream field communications manager Sheridan Aguirre said at the protest that about half of the protesters and participants in the prior day’s workshops were from New Mexico, and the others came to Albuquerque from 12 states to learn organizing and activist strategies so they can “continue the fight.”