EDINBURG — Nearly 100 people “walked out” of their classrooms and gathered around the Tree of Solidarity on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus as part of a coordinated national effort to urge lawmakers to work out a deal for Dreamers.
EDINBURG — Nearly 100 people “walked out” of their classrooms and gathered around the Tree of Solidarity on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus as part of a coordinated national effort to urge lawmakers to work out a deal for Dreamers.
It’s been more than two months since U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the rescission of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shielded young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children from deportation.
President Donald Trump has stated he would give Congress six months to work out a deal for the now-vulnerable group.
Event organizers did their best to warm the chilled bodies of attendees who suffered through a light drizzle and cold front throughout the morning with protest chants like, “Si se puede,” and “No border walls,” that reverberated throughout the halls that surrounded them.
The event on the campus was in coordination with several others that took place across the country in locations like Washington, California and Arizona, to name a few.
Delores Montiel, 65, stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the very students she works with as a teacher’s assistant at the university.
Montiel, who previously taught French as an instructor at the former University of Texas Pan American, said she felt compelled to show support for those current and former students who are part of the group called Dreamers.
“I am walking out in solidarity of the Dreamers. We have more than 1,000 students here at the university who are afraid even to walk out now, because they can be deported. I feel my obligation to support them,” she said.
Montiel, who is a graduate of Mexican-American studies in her first semester as a teacher’s assistant, said she has many friends who are living with the nightmare of an uncertain future.
Fresh from a three-day trip to Washington, John-Michael Torres conveyed appreciation to those in attendance. Torres is the spokesman for La Union Del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE.
Torres said he was in the nation’s capital earlier in the week as part of a local group lobbying for a clean DREAM act, a deal for Dreamers that would not involve any other conditions or caveats, such as tying it to border wall security negotiations, as has been discussed by the Trump Administration.
Torres and other immigration advocates across the country have called for leaders in Washington to work out a deal that would keep these people from being deported.
Reflecting on his time in Washington, Torres said he was there to push lawmakers to not include any additional conditions to the negotiations on a new DREAM Act.
He said he’s optimistic because some Republicans have stated their support for a deal for the Dreamers.
“There are Republicans who have said they don’t want the border wall to be part of that negotiation,” Torres said. “There isn’t as much commitment as we’d like from Republicans to say that we want a Dream act that is hefty, hearty and actually gives protections and a roadmap to citizenship for the Dreamers who are in a precarious situation.”
He expects negotiations related to the DREAM Act to be held during the coming budget talks.
“We don’t know what that will end up being, but what we do know is that we need to continue pushing our local representatives to support a clean DREAM Act,” Torres said.
Beatriz Uribe, 21, is a junior at the university who said her participation in the walkout was out of solidarity.
“I came (to the country) undocumented when I first got here, luckily I was able to get residency,” Uribe said. “I feel I understand what (Dreamers) are going through and what they feel, so I feel like I’m obligated to stand with them.”
Uribe, a political science and criminal justice major, said expelling Dreamers from the country goes against the nation’s spirit.
“When we were in geography in school, we learned about America being a melting pot — melting pot meaning different cultures coming together,” Uribe said. “So how do we learn that and then have people saying (Dreamers) don’t belong here. It’s redefining what we learned in school of what America is and I just don’t think being divided and sending people back home is an answer.”
