September 5, 2017

Nationwide Protests Hit the Streets After Trump Decision to End Dreamer Protections

Dreamers will pressure Congress to pass legislation that gives them legal status in the United States.

Protesters marched from the White House to Trump International Hotel on September 5 in support of Dreamers affected by President Donald Trump's decision to end DACA.Noah Lanard/Mother Jones

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Across the country, undocumented immigrants and their allies are taking to the streets to protest President Donald Trump’s decision to phase out protections from deportation for nearly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers.

Under the terms set by the Trump administration on Tuesday, Congress has six months to pass legislation before Dreamers begin to lose their protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by President Barack Obama in 2012. After Dreamers’ DACA permits expire, they will become subject to possible detention and deportation.

In Washington, DC, hundreds of people marched from the White House to Trump International Hotel, chanting “Yes We Can,” “Move Trump; get out the way,” and “We are the immigrants, the mighty, mighty immigrants.”

In New York, a dozen protesters were arrested for staging a sit-in outside Trump Tower.

https://twitter.com/cora/status/905123668891762688

 

Credit: ABC 7 New York

In Denver, hundreds of students walked out of class to protest Trump’s decision.

Dreamers have vowed to fight for their right to stay in the United States. In Washington, Rainy Leonor, a 23-year-old DACA recipient who took a bus down from Reading, Pennsylvania, told Mother Jones, “We knew this day was going to come, but we didn’t think it was going to be so fast.” Leonor, who has been protected by DACA since 2013, said the next step is to pressure as many members of Congress as possible to act. Like many Dreamers, Leonor said she was uncertain about DACA’s future:.”You never know,” she said. “You never know where this may go.”

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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