At a rally on City Hall Plaza Monday afternoon, elected officials and immigrants voiced their support for immigrants living in the U.S. under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, U.S. Reps. James McGovern and Katherine Clark and Mayor Martin Walsh spoke in favor of the Dream and Promise Act, a national bill that would give those immigrants a chance to stay in the country despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the programs that protect them.
“The Trump administration’s reckless decision to terminate protections for Dreamers under [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] and immigrants under Temporary Protected Status or the Deferred Enforcement protection program has upended the lives of hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their families,” Markey said. “It is heartbreaking to witness the Trump administration strip protections away from people who are Americans in every way that should matter, leaving them to live under the threat of deportation.”
The bill, proposed by Congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.), would grant DACA recipients, or “Dreamers,” conditional permanent status for 10 years and TPS and DED holders lawful permanent resident status.
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Executive Director Eva Milona called the Trump administration’s efforts to get rid of DACA and TPS as a “slow-motion humanitarian crisis.”
She said as many as 1 million people who are here legally under those programs are facing deportation, including 40,000 people in Massachusetts.
“We can’t rely on DACA and TPS to protect people from deportation,” Milona said. “Only Congress can protect Dreamers and TPS holders.”
Walsh spoke in favor of the protection programs, reminding those present that 28 percent of Boston’s population was born in another country, including his own parents, and another 48 percent are first-generation Americans.
“This act is about offering solutions, not scapegoats,” he said. “We’re one of the most successful cities in the country. We’re a good, safe, strong city, because we’re an immigrant city.”
José Urias, a Boston business owner and member of the Massachusetts TPS Committee, said that he is afraid of losing his TPS status despite being in the United States for more than two decades.
“I’m an example of thousands of families across the country,” Urias said. “After 22 years of playing by the rules, doing what they tell us to do, how dare they tell us I’m not allowed to raise my family. They are American citizens too.”
