Hundreds march in support of ‘Dreamers’ in downtown Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 16, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon to voice their support for the estimated 800,000 people facing deportation with the end of DACA, the so-called Dream Act.

The Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals Act was launched at the start of President Barack Obama’s second term and was designed to keep children of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors from being deported.

The Trump administration’s decision to scuttle DACA has close to a million people mulling uncertain futures.

Nadia Romero is a ‘Dreamer’ and a longtime Utah resident.

She was brought into the country as a pre-schooler decades ago. Now she’s a student and a mom. 

“I have been here since I was four-years-old,” she told Gephardt Daily. “This is the only home I know. I’ve never been back to my home country.

“I’m here today to fight for the rights of the DACA recipient and all immigrants,” she said. “I basically feel we have contributed so much to the country and we don’t get the same back.

“We don’t want anything special,” she said. “We just want to work.”

Photo Gephardt DailyRichard Trelles

Romero’s sentiments were echoed by a fellow marcher who identified himself as a Catholic Community Service member. He said Utah’s Dreamers were an integral part of the community and he called upon the state’s political leaders to stand behind them.

“Many of these youths went to school here,” he said gesturing to the crowd as it made its way up State Street toward the State Capitol. “They went to college here. Many of them are working, contributing to our economy. This is the only country they’ve known, and we want them to stay here. That’s the message we want to send.”

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams agreed. While addressing the crowd as it gathered on the State House steps, McAdams said Salt Lake was “a welcoming community” and the Dreamer population a part of that community.

“We are here today because our federal government has failed us — failed to enact core comprehensive immigration reform, failed to protect children in our community who are seeking safety and prosperity. We are standing here today with members of this community to say we demand action from our federal government to fix our broken immigration system. We are all welcomers and we are all dreamers,” he said.

When asked if they were hopeful about recent overtures by President Trump to work with Democrats to preserve DACA, most we spoke to were skeptical.

“The Trump administration has stayed it for a few months, but they’re talking about shipping 10 thousand Utah kids back to Mexico,” said Utah State Senator Jim Dabakis.

“Imagine the horror that would bring. You’re brought to Utah as a child. Your schooling was in Utah. Your prom was in Utah. You went to Lagoon in Utah. And now ICE is going to come, you’ll be shipped off by plane to an airport in Mexico, without any ID, without a phone, and with your cash confiscated. And what the hell is supposed to happen to you then? This is what it all comes down to. These are Utah children. They need to be protected. And people who don’t understand that have no soul.”

1 COMMENT

  1. * The cost of educating illegal aliens children is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers $122,000 for EACH illegal alien. That is not even counting the FREE school lunches every day for 13 years.

    *2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in our politics.

    *30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Does not include local jails and State Prisons. At 21,000 per year expense per inmate in Federal Prison—do the math.

    * Using the Obama created program- DACA, 800,000 illegal aliens has funneled 800 THOUSAND jobs away from American Citizens.

    *$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

    *$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens, I repeat 3 MILLION a DAY to process Illegals in the Criminal justice system.

    *$2.2Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as SNAP (food stamps),WIC, & free school lunches for illegal aliens.

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