Paul Ryan Confronted by DREAMers Again on Immigration Reform, Deportation and Vote to Defund DACA
A national immigrant youth-led organization confronted Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., once again for his opposition against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
United We Dream members met Ryan during a book signing as the Wisconsin representative continued to promote his new book, "The Way Forward." According to UWD, the Republican Party has continued their "deport-them-all" approach and obstructed progress for federal immigration reform. As Latin Post reported, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to defund DACA, a program that has saved over 500,000 undocumented immigrant youths from deportation.
Footage of the latest confrontation with Ryan showed UWD national organizer Greisa Martinez introducing herself as an undocumented immigrant and a DREAMer, a term used for DACA recipients. She asked Ryan why he wants to deport her and her mother. Ryan did not directly answer Martinez's question.
"I'm not doing questions, but it's in the book and you'll find out," Ryan said.
Following her departure from the bookstore, Martinez said, "Representative Ryan was there in front of me, and I had a question for him: Why is he wanting to deport me and my mom? Her name is Elia Rosas, and she deserves to stay, and all he could do was run and hide just like any other time, just like any other day."
"Republicans have decided not to do anything about anything," Martinez said. "They've decided to hold immigration reform hostage, and not only that, they want to step further and they voted to defund DACA and they voted to deport me and my sister and that's not okay."
"As of today, we're saying as DREAMers from all across the country, 'You cannot hide from us.' We're going to be in Florida, in Texas, in Colorado and California. And we're going to be asking you the same questions, 'Why do you want to deport us?' And you do not scare us, and you do not scare a community, and we are here to stay," the UWD national organizer said outside the Colorado bookstore.
In a separate statement to Latin Post, Martinez said the GOP has voted to deport DREAMers, and now those lawmakers have to live with the consequences.
"Rep. Ryan has subscribed to Rep. [Steve] King's anti-immigrant rhetoric and tactics at a time when our community needs leadership and courage. That he would have the audacity to title his book 'The Way Forward' is laughable," Martinez said.
The Colorado confrontation is the second by UWD this month. On Aug. 23, several UWD organizers asked Ryan why he opposes DACA, but the Congressman reiterated the answers can be found in his book.
As Latin Post reported, Ryan favors providing legal status to many of the 11.7 undocumented workers in the country but has said undocumented immigrants should "earn" their citizenship.
DACA was implemented by an executive action by President Barack Obama in 2012. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 673,000 people had applied for DACA as of March this year, and 553,197 were approved.
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