Congress failed to meet Donald Trump’s DACA deadline, but these Dreamers are fighting on
March 11, 2018
JUST WEEKS AGO, immigration reform was all Congress could talk about. But in the whirlwind that is Washington politics, lawmakers’ attention spans can be short, and they’ve moved on from looking in earnest for a solution for 800,000 “Dreamers” — immigrants whose protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program President Donald Trump rescinded last year.
Trump had given Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative solution for DACA. That deadline has, of course, come and gone, though the president’s decision to end DACA has been stalled by the courts. But for the young immigrants who have known no home other than the United States, the fight for their lives remains in full swing.
For the last six months, the Dreamers have been visibly lobbying on Capitol Hill. They’ve held rallies to protest Trump’s canceling of DACA. They’ve organized online and traveled to Washington from around the country, chanting in the halls of Congress and staging sit-ins, risking arrest.