SenateDreamers Feel Betrayed After Senate Democrats Break Their Promises
Dreamers Feel Betrayed After Senate Democrats Break Their Promises
Many politicians said they wouldn’t vote for government funding without protections for undocumented young people, then did it anyway.
WASHINGTON
― Young undocumented immigrants watched on Monday as Senate Democrats
did something many of them had promised not to: cast votes for
government spending without securing protections for so-called Dreamers
at risk of deportation.
Dreamer
activists felt betrayed. Sitting in the gallery above the Senate floor,
33-year-old Karina Ruiz started to cry when she watched the first vote
to end the government shutdown.
“I
really [had] hopes and expectations that Democrats would hold the line
for us, that they would hold their vote,” Ruiz, executive director of
Arizona Dream Act Coalition and a mother of three, said afterwards. “We
would send a message that this is urgent.”
For months, undocumented immigrants have urged Democrats
to oppose government funding bills unless they did something to help
Dreamers, about 700,000 of whom will lose deportation relief because
President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Senate Democrats stood with Dreamers on Friday and voted against a four-week spending bill, but just days later on Monday they agreed to a three-week measure,
insisting it wasn’t a cave because they had received a promise from
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he would hold a vote
on a DACA protection bill if one hadn’t passed by Feb. 8.
The
deal wasn’t nothing. But it wasn’t what Dreamers asked for, or what
Democrats promised. So on Monday, these undocumented immigrants were
left in search of a way forward in a battle that has extended far longer
than many had hoped, keeping them in Washington and away from family,
school and work.
After
Monday’s vote, more than 50 Dreamers gathered in a park across from the
Capitol in a circle, some of them holding back tears and putting their
arms around each another. Greisa Martinez Rosas, advocacy director for
the Dreamer-led group United We Dream, asked them to raise a hand if
they felt disappointed. Everyone did.
She
then asked them to take a step forward for a series of prompts. They
stepped toward the center when she asked if they believed in their
hearts that they would win the fight for protections, and again when she
said they would not allow politicians to lie to them, and again when
she said they are worthy and loved. She asked them to send love to
Republicans who oppose their cause and forgiveness to Democrats who lost
their spine.
“We’re not done,” Martinez Rosas said before leading the group in a battle cry.
It
was an especially difficult day for Antonio Jauregui, a 20-year-old
college student who came to the U.S. when he was five, because it is the
one-year anniversary of his grandfather’s death. He said he’d like to
be at home with family in California to remember and honor his
grandfather, but instead has been in Washington for weeks pleading with
lawmakers to fight for him.
Jauregui
had DACA protections but they expired in September and his renewal
application was caught in postal delays. His application is now pending,
but in the meantime, he is at risk, just like an estimated 122 other
DACA recipients across the country who lose protections each day.
He
was disappointed by Monday’s events and the fact that Democrats agreed
to move forward on a short-term government funding bill based only on a
promise for a future immigration vote.
“Promises
aren’t going to protect our community,” Jauregui said. “Promises aren’t
going to grant us a permanent solution. Promises aren’t going to do
anything for the DACA recipients like myself who have already lost
status. We were really counting on their actions.”
Isaias
Guerrero, a 33-year-old who works with the Fair Immigration Reform
Movement advocacy group, still has DACA protection for another 602 days.
He knows because he has a countdown on his computer and has been
watching the days tick down since Trump rescinded the program.
Guerrero was surprised at what happened on Monday.
“We’re
just very hurt that we were betrayed once again, both I think by
Democrats and by Republicans,” he said. “I thought that they actually
were going to listen.”
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