More than 100 protest DACA decision outside Congressman Murphy’s Mt. Lebanon office
More than 100 people gathered outside U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy’s Mt. Lebanon office Sept. 6 to protest President Donald Trump’s decision Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – an Obama-era immigration policy better known as DACA.
Protesters, as part of a statewide collection of advocacy organizations named #PaResist, brought signs, listened to speeches, chanted and even banged on the office’s door. The group outside Murphy’s office was one of 17 statewide protests planned during the day for 14 different Republican members of Congress.
Erin Kramer, a leader of the protest and director of One Pennsylvania, said the decision to rescind DACA, which now lies in the hands of Congress, isn’t about “law and order,” as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Sept. 5.
“What the president is doing, and what Congressman Murphy supports, is to fear our communities about people who are trying to live the American dream,” Kramer said.
DACA went into effect in 2012 through an executive order by former President Obama. The policy allows undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to attain a renewable two-year work permit and deportation deferment.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, nearly 800,000 immigrants are DACA recipients, which are often referred to as “Dreamers” due to the similar, but unsuccessful, legislation called the DREAM Act. According to Pennsylvania Attorney General Joe Shapiro, there are nearly 6,000 DACA recipients in Pennsylvania.
Murphy, who voted in favor of a failed motion to freeze DACA in 2014, released a statement Sept. 5 in support of the president’s decision, while also stating he is not in support of deporting people “who have no home but the United States and are here through no fault of their own.” Neither Murphy nor anyone from his office addressed the protestors Wednesday.
“The president has made it clear that DACA permits would not be immediately revoked nor will ending the temporary program result in immediate deportation of individuals currently enrolled in the DACA deferral program,” Murphy said. “Instead, this announcement is proactive in nature and dictates how we will move forward in reforming immigration policy. Now more than ever we must remember lessons learned from the past and offer a permanent, workable legislative solution for those who wish to become an American citizen, one that accurately reflects our nation’s priority to protect our national security to advance the interests of the American people.”
Along with Kramer, several others spoke during the protest.
Arielle Cohen, co-chair of Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, urged Murphy to “have the courage” to vote to continue the program.
“Dreamers and their families trusted that by coming out of the shadows they would be safe,” Cohen said. “We affirm the rights of all working people to remain and thrive in the locations of their choosing. … Dreamers have placed their faith in a promise made to them by America, and America has turned their backs on them. Will you?”
Maria Montano spoke about her teenage niece who has asked several times in the past year whether or not she will be deported.
“It makes me so mad and angry that we live in a country where our children can’t look to the president for hope and aspiration of what they might be able to accomplish but instead look up in fear and worry for their friends and their families. And that’s a shame,” Montano said. “I’m here on behalf of my niece to tell her when we face bullies, we stand up and we protect those who are unable to because they’re targets of oppression.”
Montano said the message to Murphy from the protestors is clear.
“We are here today to ask Congressman Murphy whose side is he on?” she said. “Is he on the side of the Dreamers, the people who are fighting for a better life for their families? Or is he standing with the racist agenda of Trump and Sessions? Is he going to stand with us or with them? Because if he doesn’t stand with us, if he doesn’t work to pass a clean ‘Dream Act,’ we’re going to do everything we can to vote him out of office in 2018.”
Kramer, one of the protests’ organizers, said the decision to end DACA “doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t make economic sense; it doesn’t make legal sense,” she said. “It only makes sense if your frame is about hate and is about oppression and is about racism.”
Also on Wednesday, Shapiro and attorneys general from 14 other states filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s decision to rescind DACA. Shapiro said in a statement that Trump’s actions “violate the rule of law.” Shapiro said 87 percent of DACA recipients are employed while also generating more than $20 million in state and local taxes.
“Whether or not you agree with the policy or support President Trump isn’t the issue here,” Shapiro said. “The Federal Government made a promise, they put a program in place and asked these young people who have grown up as Americans to apply, and the rule of law says we can’t rip that away from them now.”