A rally outside of the federal building on Friday drew a large crowd as local residents, "dreamers" and allies protested President Donald Trump’s recent decision to end DACA.
DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals, is an executive order under former President Barack Obama allowed the children of undocumented workers to go to school, get licensing, and essentially, according to Kemberly Gil, a student at SUNY Brockport and Dreamer, come out of the shadows.
“I was here since I was three years old. The United States is all I know,” she said during the protest. “I don’t know much about my country Colombia. DACA came into my life at the perfect time. I was just finishing my sophomore year, going into my junior year and my peers were getting theirs and starting to drive and I got my DACA just in time to do the same as everyone else and my peers.”
She said she’d gotten comfortable and it was both frustrating and scary to deal with this again.
Carly Fox, an organizer for the rally from Worker Justice Center of NY said she believes DACA recipients are being unfairly targeted.
“The line that the xenophobes are repeating is that immigrants should follow the law right,” she said.
“Well, we need to talk about the farmers following the law too. If we’re going to blame the victim- always blaming immigrants for everything let’s blame the business owners who are also committing an act of hiring people and they never get blamed for it.”
Pauline Smith, a protestor, added that often DACA recipients were very young children with no say in their parents’ decision to move to America.
“Dreamers did nothing quote unquote wrong,” she said. “They came here through decisions of persons other than themselves. And by all rights and intents are Americans just like anyone born here so I don’t agree with any policy changes related to DACA.”
"For a quick second, I let my fear consume me," said Gil. "I was scared about what this meant for my future. What was going to happen to me? Am I going to have to leave everything behind...I was scared I'd have to go to a country I don't know anything about."
During the protest the family of Reginald Castel, a local man facing deportation to his native country of Haiti, took a second to update the community on his situation. They said despite all of the work to petition Governor Andrew Cuomo for a pardon and various other motions and cases, he may still be sent back.
"Right now he has so many cases, so many motions that are put in place for him to stay here but ICE they’re trying to rush him off to Haiti without even hearing his case, without even reviewing his petitions,” said Cherie Banda, who spoke on behalf of both Castel and his wife Lashanda.
“Reginald Castel was not a DACA recipient but there are so many similarities,” said Mary Adams, who has been helping the Castel family. Another member of the School Board, Van White, has actually been representing Castel legally, and drafted the petition to Cuomo.
“We know what it means to be a family torn apart," Adams continued. "We know the panic of knowing that your husband, your father, your loved one is being forcibly removed from a country where he is lived since he was eight years old to a country he’s never step foot on.”
A number of other elected officials showed up, including Jaclyn Ortiz of the City Council and though Mayor Lovely Warren didn’t attend, James Smith, the Director of the Bureau of Communications and Special Events for the City spoke on her behalf, saying he’s a proud child of an immigrant and that the Mayor is as well.
“In Rochester we stand with all of our citizens because we are one community that’s united and strengthened by our diversity,” he said reading her statement in CITY newspaper.
Fox used Smith’s appearance to push for more from the City, arguing they need an Office for New Americans to help immigrants acclimate and get legal help and asked the City to also back the Green Light NY program, which allows undocumented residents to legally drive.
Dreamers, allies, and families all over the nation will be watching Congress the next six months as their status as students, workers and more remain jeopardized. They're dependent on legislation that allows them to both stay in America and also out of the shadows.