Young undocumented immigrants march in D.C.

WASHINGTON » On Jan. 10 this year, Yeni Cortes, of New Haven, chased retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly down a congressional hallway, telling him of her status as a dreamer and her hope of continuing the life she’s lived in Connecticut since age 2.

On Tuesday, Cortes was back in Washington along with 100 or more fellow Connecticut dreamers — young undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children — to celebrate the fifth anniversary of then-President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order.

“My parents did nothing wrong in bringing me here from poverty” in Tlaxcala, Mexico, said Cortes, 19, a graduate of New Haven’s Career High School. “With DACA, I can pay back everything they did for me.”

The undocumented youths from Danbury, Bridgeport, Norwalk, New Haven, Stamford, Greenwich and elsewhere in the state joined a thousand or so others at a demonstration in front of the White House.

They hope to convince President Donald Trump (and Kelly, now White House chief of staff but former head of the Department of Homeland Security) to maintain DACA and prevent deportation of the estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants now in the U.S.

The Connecticut delegation displayed a banner, “Make the Road, Con- necticut,” with the Spanish words “dignidad, communidad y poder” below.

They witnessed 25 demonstrators submit to peaceful arrest for sitting down in front of the White House.

Although Trump promised during the campaign to deport all undocumented immigrants, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have stepped up their activities since Inauguration Day, the fate of DACA is unclear.

A coalition of 10 red states led by Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the federal government, demanding that Washington rescind DACA by Sept. 5.

Trump has indicated he has little interest in deporting the young undocumented immigrants, but the administration’s response to the deadline remains uncertain.

Camila Bortolleto, 29, of Danbury, came here in 1998 with her parents as a 9-year-old. She majored in biology at Western Connecticut State University, but has not been able to work in her field because of federal immigration law requiring proof of citizenship or legal status.

“There’s a thousand people here — that gives me hope,” said Bortolleto, one of the Connecticut delegation’s organizers. “I know my community will fight to make something happen.”

Karen Gomez, 24, of Greenwich, traveled in the wee hours on buses organized by Connecticut Students for a Dream, accompanied by her boyfriend, Alex Guzman of Norwalk.

Gomez came to the U.S. at age 6 from Mexico City. Guzman, 23, a personal trainer and tae kwon do black belt born in Miami, went to show support for Gomez.

“It was hard for me,” Gomez said of her early years here. “I was an outcast. I did not know the culture. I was lost.”

But she persevered in school, learned English and is now a student at Norwalk Community College with plans to attend Western Connecticut.

“I am very positive that this will come through,” she said. “Many of us are married, and many of us have kids here. I feel like there’s no way we can’t win this.”

Trump was in New York Tuesday at his Trump Tower office, rather than at the White House. Most of his senior staff, including Kelly, have been at his side during an extended vacation at Trump’s golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.

But if Kelly were to stroll out of the White House and encounter Cortes, what would she say to him?

“You and the president have a choice to make about DACA,” Cortes said. “Do you save this protection and work permits for me and nearly a million other DACA beneficiaries? Or will you throw us into poverty, kick us out of our jobs and release your deportation agents on us? You cannot pass the responsibility to someone else.”