Coincidence once again placed me in D.C. at a historic moment. A little more than two years ago, I stood in front of the Supreme Court and witnessed the joyous moment when the Court moved the country forward, deciding gay marriage is legal everywhere in the U.S. Today I stood in front of Trump’s White House protesting his alarming decision to move the country backward, tossing out DACA and putting its fate in the hands of a deeply divided, ineffective Congress, leaving 800,000 Dreamers and their families walking a razor’s edge for the next six months as they wait to see if they will be allowed to remain in the country legally.
Except for the White House in the background, the march and demonstration could have been in Tucson or pretty much any city in the country.
We gathered at Lafayette Park across from the White House, walked along H Street, then down 15th Street.
Chanting, we turned onto the pedestrian street in front of the White House.
Most of the chants were familiar, though a few I don’t remember hearing in Tucson: “Up, up with education! Down, down with deportation!” “Stop, stop deportation! No more family separation!”
It was a moderate sized crowd at a demonstration which must have been thrown together quickly, a couple of hundred people, young and old, lots of clergy and members of pro-immigration organizations as well as unaffiliated, concerned citizens like me.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2017.
And when the gay marriage ruling was settled there were still some counties and states that thought they could defy it and resist. That was illegal and if nothing comes to replace daca it will be illegal for smaller jurisdictions in this country to defy its repeal. If local governments only obeyed federal laws they agreed with we would still have sunset towns.
DACA was completely illegal. If a Republican president did a similar thing the left would be howling.
It’s sad that the left in this country has been entirely snookered into supporting high immigration rates, including unlimited illegal immigration – a policy that hurts low income and minority Americans while benefiting the rich.
Glad you were there, David, to demonstrate support!
Not sure what Trump is thinking with his “maybe I will revisit this” comment if the Congress fails his test. That said, I think every blind pig finds an acorn or two and believe Trump was right to call out Congress to get off their collective asses and get something done that has bi-partisan support, support of the business community and a large majority of those polled on the issue. And then smacked his Republican congress critters by siding with Pelosi and Schumer on the debt ceiling.
Strange times.
I see all of the DACA marchers, and signs, and rallies, and night vigils, and crying Facebook videos which are appealing to the empathetic emotions of individuals who can help their plight. It’s not going to work. In order to get the attention of those in power you have to hit them in the pocketbook. By completely boycotting large businesses and industries including the Tech companies you will get action within a week after you start a boycott. All the suppressors at the top want, love and lust for is money. If you take away their money they are nothing but empty soulless shells .
Beneal,
The business community supports DACA because its repeal will cost them big bucks. Not because they are kind and empathetic to the plight of the young people at risk.
Bslap, a republican president did exactly that. Ronald reagan passed a bill that gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, bush # 41 wrote an executive order deferring deportation of chinese immigrants, and president bush # 43 supported giving amnesty to millions more. Of all the criticisms liberals have of either presidents ive never seen that on the list.