Small group rallies for DACA program
Trump administration still deciding if program will stay
A little less than a dozen Tulare County residents gathered Friday morning in Porterville’s Veterans Park to share thoughts on the possible ending of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
President Donald Trump vowed during his campaign to end DACA — a program the Obama administration created back in 2012 that grants work permits, identity documents and relief from deportation to approximately 800,000 illegal immigrants who arrived in the country as youths — during his first day in office, saying that it was an unconstitutional abuse of executive authority.
Earlier this week, top officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) met to discuss the future of DACA.
Although there is a lot of talk about the Trump administration getting rid of the program, no official announcement regarding the issue has been made.
However, Porterville resident Daniel Penaloza, who organized the halfhour discussion in the city, was worried that the Trump administration would make a decision on Friday.
“There were strong indications that it was going to happen this [Friday] morning because usually the president signs the executive decisions on Fridays,” Penaloza said.
Throughout the meeting, which took place right next to the helicopter in Veterans Park, the primary focus revolved around what would happen if the Trump administration decided to do away with DACA.
“What we have to do is really try to connect our community in becoming
engaged because this is very concerning,” said Penaloza, who, although is a U.S. citizen, is still deeply affected by the issue. “I am not affected directly, but I am frustrated, I am angry, but I am motivated because we can take action and we have the right to speak up for our community.”
Porterville resident Fernando Serrano said he knew the day would come where the existence of American immigration policies such as DACA would be threatened.
“We knew that this [Trump] administration was going to try and do something along these lines,” Serrano said.
Lindsay resident Benny Corona said getting rid of DACA is “very un-american.”
“It is an inhumane thing, and in many ways I see it as an evil act,” he
said, adding that if DACA is revoked it is “going to put a lot of people that I know personally and that I love and care about in danger.”
Porterville resident Donna Serna said getting rid of DACA will inevitably ruin families and tear them apart, which she believes is unacceptable.
“It is about families and keeping the families together and that is what we should be fighting for every single day,” Serna said.
Given all the hurdles undocumented students have to jump over just to be present in a classroom, Porterville resident Raul Garcia said many of them are “more American than most of the people living here.”
“In spite of the poverty that they live in and the constant pressure of being deported, they are still
staying focused on what they need to do,” Garcia said.
Porterville resident Hank Handelsman said DACA students “are the ones we should be assisting as much as possible.”
“These are the students the schools are very proud of,” said Handelsman, who worked with Porterville Unified School District’s Migrant program. “They want to be legal, they want to continue with their education and they want to work.”
Porterville resident Brock Neeley said there are two things local residents can do to help the country’s immigration issues.
The first, he said, is to support Senate Bill (SB) 54, which would, among other things and subject to exceptions, “prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies, including
school police and security departments, from using resources to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.”
The second thing Neeley said residents can do is encourage legislators to finish the legislation they started on making private prisons unlawful in the State of California.
“These private prisons are not being used as prisons, they are being used as detention centers, and when they put you in detention you are not subject to due process,” Neeley said, adding, “They can keep you there for decades without any kind of trial or anything because you are not being detained in a prison or jail, you are being detained in a detention center.”
He continued, “There is a play with words there
that our government uses to try and circumvent their own laws and they are doing it very well,” he said.
In addition to DACA, Neeley said something also needs to be done with the country’s immigration laws in general.
“Currently there are 32 decorated veterans that have been deported,” Neeley said, adding, “One actually has two purple hearts from Afghanistan and he is now in Mexico because he was deported. So he is good enough to bleed for our country, but he can’t live here.”
Woodville resident Leticia Lopez said no matter what happens with DACA she will try and keep a good attitude.
“I try to be optimistic even though something like losing DACA would be very, very devastating to our community,” Lopez said.