Rally backs young undocumented immigrants
MEDIA » A gathering of individuals outside the Media Courthouse Tuesday evening opposed to the potential of a repeal of an Obamaera protection for immigrant children ended with a war cry.
“When DACA is under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!”
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is in jeopardy, said immigrants, DACA recipients, and activists from various Indivisible groups around Delaware County, who fear the Trump administration will fail to renew the protections that grant young immigrants a two-year reprieve from deportation.
These are protests are not for felons, said Maria Sotomayor, the deputy director for the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, but rather for immigrants who came to the United States as children and could face deportation over something as innocuous as a broken taillight.
“I will never forget the moment my mom called me and asked, ‘Where are you? Have you listened to the news?” Sotomayor said of August 15, 2012, the day that applications for DACA began.
Tuesday was the fifth anniversary.
For Sotomayor, she said the passing of DACA meant she could now visit her grandmother in Ecuador. Her status as an undocumented immigrant previously meant she couldn’t leave the country to visit family she left behind. It also opened up possibilities to pursue an education and avoid drastically high out-of-state tuition costs for college, despite being a Pennsylvania resident for much of her life.
“There are 5,900 people approved for DACA in Pennsylvania, now those 5,900 people are waiting to see what will happen to them, their families and their communities,” Sotomayor said.
News reports of two different cases in which DACA recipients were detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — Daniel Ramirez Medina, 23, was detained on Feb. 7 in his father’s Des Moines, Wash., home, and Daniela Vargas, 22, of Jackson, Miss., who was detained March 7 — raised questions on how the administration would handle the nearly 800,000 people who received DACA.
Both Ramirez Medina and Vargas were eventually released.
Ana Santoyo of Norristown, who was born an American citizen and later received dual citizenship in Mexico, said the treatment of immigrants in the country is akin to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
“It is despicable,” she said.
Another speaker, Kimberly McCollum, born an undocumented immigrant herself, said “migratory reform instead of cruel and unusual punishment” was a cause worth fighting.
In Pennsylvania, there are bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that would hinder or even damage any place of worship, schooling institution or municipality that impedes a formal request from the federal government regarding information on an undocumented immigrant.
Senate Bill 10 says “the governing body of any municipality may not adopt a rule, order, ordinance or policy which prohibits the enforcement of a Federal law or the laws of this Commonwealth, pertaining to an immigrant or immigration.”
House Bill 10 too limits the “sanctuary” protections: “The governing body of an institution of higher education may not adopt a rule, order or policy which ... prohibits the enforcement of a Federal law or the laws of this Commonwealth pertaining to an immigrant or immigration.”
Senate Bill 273 threatens to end state funding on “institutions of higher education that adopt certain practices relating to immigration policy.”
In December, Swarthmore College declared itself a sanctuary campus. As a private school, Swarthmore College does not directly receive funds from the state Legislature. The bill, however, reads that private college could vacate “directly or indirectly receives appropriated funds from the Commonwealth,” could refer to public funding that goes into loans and grants provided by state and federal governments to help students meet tuition costs.
“We have a chance for a better tomorrow,” McCollum said. “Love your immigrant neighbors.”
“There are 5,900 people approved for DACA in Pennsylvania, now those 5,900 people are waiting to see what will happen to them, their families and their communities.”
— Maria Sotomayor, the deputy director for the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition