[Vision2020] The WSU students fighting for the DREAM Act

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of today’s (February 2, 2018) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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The WSU students fighting for the DREAM Act
Undocumented students to travel to D.C.; planning on-campus demonstration

Brenda Rodriguez vividly remembers her trip across the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite with her parents and two brothers. She was 9 years old, the last member of her immediate family to make the journey.

Now a 23-year-old student at Washington State University and a recipient of temporary residency status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Rodriguez said she was told as a child not to talk about her status, though she did not understand why.

These days, she is opening her story up to the world in hopes she and hundreds of thousands of other people in her position can thwart the lingering threat of deportation.

Rodriguez opened her planner Thursday afternoon in WSU's Compton Union Building and ran a finger over the calendar days, counting in her head. She has 452 days until her DACA permit expires.

President Donald Trump's sudden announcement last year that DACA would be rescinded if Congress does not come up with a plan to preserve protections by March 5 has thrown a wrench in her plans to apply for graduate school and eventually become a professor. Rodriguez is double-majoring in Spanish and women's studies.

Rodriguez will travel to Washington, D.C. next week, for a second time in less than a year to join DACA recipients across the country in pressuring their legislators to pass a "clean DREAM Act" - one that would put DACA recipients on a path to citizenship, protect immigrants who did not meet age or other requirements for DACA and protect some temporary protective status holders.

United We Dream is the immigrant youth-led organization that flies DACA recipients from across the country, including Pullman, to D.C. to rally, protest and engage their legislators. Participants dress in bright orange shirts and hats that stick out from a mile away.

Rodriguez went for the first time in December. She told her story. She rallied outside the U.S. Capitol. She laid on the ground in an act of symbolism, forcing legislators to walk over her body as they went to consider DREAM Act legislation that promised to affect her future.

Several WSU students, documented and undocumented, have made the trip before. Omar Zaragoza, an ASWSU senator, traveled to D.C. two weeks ago as an ally to confront legislators.

Zaragoza said he went to the office of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, with the intention of having a conversation about undocumented immigrants. When Zaragoza and a handful of other activists ignored warnings to leave the office, he was arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.

Zaragoza returned to Pullman with a desire and momentum to keep the movement alive, and together with ASWSU Sen. Itzel Trejo and uncertified Sen. Jerry Martinez crafted a resolution in two days declaring ASWSU's support of a DREAM Act and urging local legislators to advocate for one.

Maria Yepez, a 20-year-old WSU student and DACA recipient, was one of a handful of activists to advocate for the resolution Wednesday evening before it was unanimously passed by ASWSU. Yepez has been to D.C. twice now to advocate for DREAM Act legislation with United We Dream.

Yepez believes the resolution will make a difference on other college campuses that look to WSU.

"It really means a lot that this university has that support for their students, because we're known to be a diverse campus, and this just shows how the university stands with students," Yepez said.

She and other WSU DACA recipients and allies are expected to do a demonstration outside the CUB at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in support of a DREAM Act.

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Washington State University students Maria Yepez, left, and Brenda Rodriguez are participating in protests in Washington, D.C., in support of passing the DREAM Act. Yepez and Rodriguez are DACA recipients.

http://www.moscowcares.com/Photos/DNews/DNews_020218_Fighting_for_DACA.jpg

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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