Minneapolis, MN – More than 150 people protested December 8 in downtown Minneapolis, blocking Washington Avenue near Interstate 35W in for two hours at rush hour. They protested outside of Senator Amy Klobuchar's office demanding that the U.S. Senate act immediately to legalize people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) temporary immigration status.

The protest, organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), is part of a national push to get the Senate to pass the American Dream and Promise Act during Congress’s lame duck session this month. The Act was passed by the House of Representatives in 2021, but has languished in the Senate. With Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives starting in January, and with right-wing courts on the verge of ending the DACA program as well as threatening Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the future of more than a million immigrants and their families hangs in the balance.

If DACA and TPS are ended by right-wing courts without Congress taking action to legalize people with those statuses, they will be thrust into undocumented status and at risk of deportation after having grown up here and built a life here for decades.

The protesters focused on Senator Klobuchar because she is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Dream Act is stuck. Feeling the pressure as the protest neared, both Senator Klobuchar and Senator Tina Smith's office agreed to meetings with activists and community members the day of the protest. While Democratic senators from other states have been actively pushing on social media about the urgency for the Senate to take action this month, Minnesota's senators have not shown such leadership.

At the end of the protest, the speakers led the crowd in a chant of “We'll be back!”

#MinneapolisMN #immigrantRights #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCoalitionMIRAc #DeferredActionForChildhoodArrivalsDACA

Fight Back! interviewed 19-year-old Monica Fuentes, a student who was one of the many who traveled in a caravan from Milwaukee to New Orleans. Fuentes is among those covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which provides legal relief to some undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

More than 500 people from around the country, including California, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois and Wisconsin, came together in New Orleans, July 10, to support Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), which would assist more undocumented immigrants. Rallying in front of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the immigrant rights protesters slammed the legal delays that have put the implementation of DAPA on hold.

Fight Back!: Why was the caravan organized?

Monica Fuentes: We as the community representatives of Milwaukee wanted to show our support for DAPA and our disapproval for Governor Walker of Wisconsin siding with the other 26 states in a lawsuit against DAPA.

Fight Back!: What made you join the caravan to New Orleans?

Fuentes: My parents would benefit from this executive action and I don't want them to be deported. I know so many friends and extended family members who also would benefit from this. 34,000 people in Wisconsin would also benefit!

Fight Back!: What do you think about the lawsuit that 26 state governments have signed on to in order to block DAPA?

Fuentes: The governors of the states are not considering why immigration is currently the way that it is. They say their communities will 'be harmed' if they are to grant us DAPA – but the undocumented community is here to say this is not true. We pay taxes and government assistance like Food Stamps, Medicaid, Social Security, financial aid don't even apply to us.

Fight Back!: What do you think of when politicians talk about “securing our borders” against immigration?

Fuentes: They are dehumanizing the people who live on the other side of the U.S. and Mexico border. The reason people are coming here is to escape poverty in their home countries. I completely disagree with militarization at the border.

Fight Back!: What would you like to say to racists like Donald Trump who see immigrants in a negative light?

Fuentes: There's a lot I would say to him. Take a look at my dad – a hard-working Mexican who sacrificed everything back home to give his children a better future. What Trump said completely stereotypes our people and doesn't highlight the truth; that we're hard-working and can't event use the benefits people like Trump claim we can.

Fight Back!: What advice would you give people in their own communities, now that DAPA continues to be blocked?

Fuentes: While we did not win today, we have to keep fighting. The only way we're going to win is if we keep uniting together to keep pressuring the government. We must keep coming out of the shadows and showing that we matter to our communities. Today we live with our heads held high and full of energy for our next fight!

#NewOrleansLA #DeferredActionForChildhoodArrivalsDACA

Fight Back News Service is circulating this Nov. 20 statement by the Legalization for All (L4A) network.

The Legalization for All (L4A) network welcomes President Obama expansion of deferred action as a positive step. His action, which will offer protection from deportation am ability to work legally to about four million undocumented who are parents of U.S. citizen or legal resident children. In addition Obama will expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program and will end the so-called “Secure Communities” program that tried to make local police enforcers for the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.

Obama’s action is the fruit of the struggle by immigrant rights forces for more than a year. In September of 2013, Legalization for All was among the first immigrant rights groups to raise the demand that President Obama expand his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program. L4A raised this demand because the House of Representatives Republican leadership made it clear that they were not going to take up any votes on immigration reform. Their decision came despite intense lobbying by immigrant rights forces, including L4A, over the summer. The House Republican leadership not only refused to consider the Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed in June of 2013, but would not even vote on Republican bills such as the so-called SAFE act that would have cancelled DACA, expanded on Arizona’s 1087 law to further criminalize the undocumented, and authorize the indefinite detention of the undocumented.

Then in a last straw, the House of Representatives Comprehensive Immigration Reform effort collapsed as most of the Republican members of the so-called “Group of Seven” withdrew from the effort on Friday, September 20th, 2013. Following this Legalization for All came out with a call for Obama to expand Deferred Action to all the undocumented. Many other immigrant rights forces also joined the campaign for Deferred Action, which along with its twin demand to stop the deportations. Two important steps were taken by United We Dream, which launched their “We Can’t Wait” campaign in March of 2014, and the letter sent by the National Immigrant Law Center in April signed by more than 60 immigrant rights, community, religious and labor organizations.

While Obama’s expanded Deferred Action is a positive step, it still leaves the majority of undocumented targets of deportations. In particular, Obama’s order will not protect the parents of the Dreamers who came as children, unless the parents also have citizen or legal resident children. Legalization 4 All will continue to support the Dreamers and their parents, including organization such as Dreamers Moms in their struggle to win Deferred Action.

With the total number of deportations closing in on two and a half million under Obama, the struggle against deportations needs to continue on both a national and local level. Legalization for All is committed to participating in this campaign with other national organizations such as PUENTE and local groups like the Minneapolis-Saint Paul MIRAC (Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee).

We are committed to continuing the struggle for Deferred Action For All, so that the millions of undocumented, most of whom have been living and working in this country for many years, can also get relief from the threat of deportations. We also support efforts of groups like the National Immigrant Youth Alliance to bring deportees back to the United States.

While welcoming Obama’s action to expand Deferred Action as a step forward, Legalization for All opposes his action to even further militarize the border. This part of his executive order will only increase deaths among those trying to cross the border and does nothing to address the real reasons that people come: to flee the poverty and violence caused by U.S. economic and military interventions in Mexico and Central America.

State and local campaigns to expand the rights of the undocumented will continue to be an important area of struggle. For example, in the last two years the number of states granting drivers licenses to the undocumented has gone from three to ten. Local organization such as RAICES in Florida and other that are fighting for drivers licenses, Youth Empowered in Struggle (YES) fighting in Wisconsin along with others for in-state tuition for undocumented college students, will be waging important fights to expand the rights of the undocumented at the state and local levels. This fight will be especially intense in many so-called Red States where Republican will try to obstruct the expanded Deferred Action program by trying to deny drivers licenses to those getting Deferred Action.

Republicans are now trying to blame Obama and Deferred Action for their lack of action. But in the last four years that the Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives, they HAVE NOT BROUGHT ONE SINGLE IMMIGRATION BILL TO A VOTE BY THE ENTIRE HOUSE. It is the struggle of the people, not politicians, who continue the fight to legalize the undocumented.

Continue the fight for Drivers Licenses and Tuition Equity for Deferred Action and All Undocumented!

Expand Deferred Action to Cover Parents of Dreamers and All the Undocumented!

Fight for Legalization for All!

#UnitedStates #Obama #LegalizationForAllNetwork #DACA #DeferredActionForChildhoodArrivalsDACA #DAPA

Tampa, FL – Dozens of immigrant rights supporters gathered here to protest against President Obama's continued delays on stopping deportations. His administration has deported a record number of more than two million people; Obama has also backtracked for the second time after issuing Deferred Action for All Childhood Arrivals saying that he won’t take action on immigration until after the election. While Obama has accused the Republicans of playing politics with the immigration issue, this latest action shows that he is also willing to sacrifice the hopes and dreams of tens of thousands of immigrants for political gain.

Cielo Gomez director of Casa Chiapas said, “My children should not live day to day, asking themselves, 'Will today be the day our mom will be torn away from us?' Like many families in my very own community of Tampa, President Obama's continued delays affect the lives of all of us.”

The protest was held at 1002 E. Palm Avenue – the same place where Hillary Clinton spoke as she visited Tampa. Clinton was Secretary of State in 2009 and helped back the Honduran coup against then-president Manuel Zalaya. This coup resulted in harsher living conditions for Hondurans and a massive migration of the refugee children coming to the U.S. to seek asylum.

“Instead of spending millions on wars overseas, President Obama should worry about unification of our families!” said Alicia Gazga of Raíces en Tampa who is a Honduran immigrant and whose mother self-deported in 2013. “Many of us go to sleep without saying, 'Goodnight' to our mothers! Our fathers! Sisters! Brother! Uncles! Cousins! Obama needs to stop lying and breaking his promises!”

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented who were brought here as children now are finding at least temporary relief with Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program. They are now able to work, get a driver’s license, and come out of the shadows. Their parents and siblings who don’t qualify are under constant threat of deportation. This is why Raíces en Tampa which is part of the Legalization for All (L4A) Network calls on Obama to grant deferred action to all of the undocumented.

Present at the event were Casa Chiapas, Raíces en Tampa, Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The rally ended with those present promising to continue with their protests if President Obama does not act after the elections like he has promised. Jared Hamil of Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “Obama has the power to stop deportations like he did with DACA and the DREAMers. So what can we do? We can continue fighting like the DREAMers to have DACA extended to all of the 12 million!”

#TampaFL #DeferredActionForChildhoodArrivalsDACA

Washington D.C. – More than 1000 protesters marched through the streets here, Aug. 2, demanding a stop to deportations of immigrants. Protesters called on President Obama to stop deportations, which have exceeded 2 million under his administration.

Protesters from around the country gathered at the National Mall in the morning and marched towards the White House, demanding President Obama to make an executive order to stop deportations. In the past Obama issued temporary relief for Dreamers – called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The protesters demanded that he extend this to all undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

Demonstrators chanted, “Not One More” and “El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido” – The people united can never be defeated.

As the protesters closed in on the White House, they met thousands of other protesters who were in support of Palestine and against the attacks on Gaza. At one point both crowds were chanting, “Not One More, Free Free Palestine!”

The protesters rallied across from the White House front lawn where speaker from many groups called on Obama to act now.

#WashingtonDC #deportations #DeferredActionForChildhoodArrivalsDACA