UAB students, community members rally to defend DACA
Hundreds of people gathered at UAB’s Hill Student Center Wednesday, Sept. 6, in defense of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.
DACA is an immigration policy enacted by the Obama administration that protects immigrants who came to the country illegally as minors from deportation for a renewable two-year period. Recipients of DACA are also able to apply for a work permit.
President Donald Trump announced his decision to dissolve DACA Tuesday, Sept. 5, a move that garnered national attention and sparked backlash almost immediately.
The gathering, which event organizers called the DACA Solidarity Rally, was a response to the decision to end DACA. Organizers wanted not only to stand in solidarity with the 800,000 immigrants attending college across the U.S. because of DACA, but to raise awareness of issues DACA recipients face such as the inability to accept academic scholarships and ineligibility for many government programs.
“This is a human issue. It’s not just a political issue,” event organizer Diana Martinez said.
Representatives from the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama and the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice stood alongside UAB students and members of the clergy for the rally. Attendees carried signs and chanted “si se puede,” which translates to “yes, we can.” UAB students who are recipients of DACA—called “Dreamers”—tearfully shared their stories.
Speaker Jimmy Franco, who was born in Mexico City, explained that he was brought to the states at the age of 4 and grew up calling America his home.
“Do any of you remember being 4 years old?” Franco asked. “I don’t.”
Franco, who is studying dentistry at UAB, said that DACA costs him over $450 to renew every two years, in addition to legal fees.
“I pay taxes every year. I don’t receive any form of federal help for college, for unemployment or food stamps,” Franco said.
Denise Garcia, a student attending UAB because of DACA, compared the decision to end the program to the 2011 Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, House Bill 56. The bill stated that police can attempt to determine a person’s legal citizenship status during a legal stop or arrest. The bill was protested by many special interest organizations and student groups and was contested by the Obama administration. It was signed into law in 2011 by then Gov. Robert Bentley.
“Yesterday … I saw the fear, the sadness, the anger that we all had when HB 56 was supposed to be passed,” Garcia said. “I felt the same thing. But it gave me the courage to say I’m going to fight—for me, for my sister, for my community—and we are going to stay here. We are not leaving.”