Families seek safety for ‘Dreamers’
Walk highlights their fears of deportation
LAS CRUCES — Dozens of families participated in the “Walk for Our Dreams” in Las Cruces on Monday, demanding New Mexico’s congressional delegation protect socalled “Dreamers” — those brought to the U.S. illegally as children — without separating families.
The walk, organized by the Border Dreamers and Youth Alliance and Border Network for Human Rights, included stops at the Las Cruces offices of Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, and Republican Rep. Steve Pearce.
Parents and children waved American flags as they walked to each lawmaker’s office, where one Dreamer delivered a sledgehammer as a symbol to “tear down any walls, barriers, or obstacles that keep immigrant families apart.”
The walk’s organizers say families do not want New Mexico’s congressional delegation to cut a deal that protects Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, but also leads to mass deportations of their relatives and a border wall.
“That’s why I’m here, so my son doesn’t have to leave while his little girl stays behind alone,” said Marisela Espino, as she pushed a stroller with her baby granddaughter.
Espino, a native of Durango, Mexico, has lived in Las Cruces for 17 years. All three of her sons are DACA recipients at risk of deportation after President Donald Trump ended the Obama-era program and gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a permanent replacement.
Trump said he supports a path to citizenship for all Dreamers, but he also wants money for increased border security, including a wall.
“I’m fighting for a clean dream act,” Espino said.
She and other immigrant families worry stepped-up immigration enforcement will lead to mass deportations, especially in border communities with lots of Border Patrol agents.
“I’m afraid,” she said. “We run into them wherever we go.”
Many immigrant families like hers include a mix of U.S. citizen children, Dreamers protected by DACA and their undocumented parents or grandparents.
“I’m a Dreamer,” said El Paso resident Griselda Navar, who drove to Las Cruces to be part of the walk.
“They go over and support us when we have events. It’s only fair for us to come help them.”
As she walked, her young daughter, June, a U.S. citizen, loudly chanted: “We don’t need the wall. We don’t want the wall.”
Navar is among 800,000 DACA recipients in the U.S. She said she has been able to get a “good job” to support her family and build a life.
“I’m at risk of losing all that,” she said.