On a hot, smokey Tuesday afternoon, dozens of people lined George Washington Way in Richland to demonstrate against President Trump’s decision to
end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Many wore protective masks to avoid breathing in the throat-searing smoke. Most held signs expressing their views on the issue. All were supportive, and most of the traffic along GW Way, blew their horns and raised their thumbs in solidarity with the demonstrators, including a couple of semi-truck drivers, who blasted out their accord on their big rig's air horn.
According to
Johanna Walters, writing in the Guardian, “The DACA program was a compromise devised by the Obama administration after Congress failed to pass the so-called Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (Dream) Act (thus the term “DREAMers), which would have offered those who had arrived illegally as children the chance of permanent legal residency. The bipartisan act was first introduced in 2001 and has repeatedly failed to pass,” due to Republican opposition.
The
Northwest Immigrants' Rights Project provides basic information on DACA including President Trump’s decision to end the program as of March 5, 2018. The website also provides specific information on what you can expect if you’re a DACA recipient, and what to do under a variety of circumstances.
If you want to show your support for DACA, a good place to find ways to do that is the
Faith Action Network page. To express concern and to demand legislative action to restore DACA and create a pathway to citizenship for its recipients, contact Rep Dan Newhouse, who has already spoken out against this decision.
Washington AG
Bob Ferguson has labeled the decision “cruel and unlawful,” and is threatening “to take Trump to court to protect the thousands of Dreamers in Washington state.” Go to his Twitter page and tell him thanks @AGOWA.
