| Dear Kevin,
We walked 1500 miles for our families.1 We chained ourselves in front of detention facilities for our freedom.2 We risked our lives and said we were undocumented and unafraid.3 We built community, led with our values, and changed how millions view immigrants.
And yet, on March 5, 2018 — if this cruel administration has its way — we will have to say goodbye to our families, sell all our things, say goodbye to the loves of our lives, and say goodbye to the country we’ve known as home, as our bodies will be violently taken from our dreams, maybe forever.4 Why? Because our DACA status wasn’t renewed. In the eyes of Trump, we are not humans with relationships, emotions, and dreams. We are not fearless dreamers to this government, but shadows to be hidden. This is the reality our Latinx communities faces as the DACA renewals ended yesterday.
Beloved community: chip in as little as $5 and tell the Trump government we will never go back to the shadows. We will work to save the lives of our friends, brothers, sisters, and parents who may have to say goodbye forever.
Today, as this new phase of the immigrant rights movement begins, there are more than 300 Presente members who are helping to push 10,000 calls to Congress supporting full protections for DACA recipients.5
Trump and the Department of Homeland Security call this DACA renewal deadline and the deportations that will follow people’s loss of legal status as an “orderly winding down.” There are still 42,500 people who qualify for DACA renewal, whose applications are not in, and who could face instant deportation. In the days after September 5th, when Jeff Sessions announced the end of DACA, Trump announced this abrupt October 5th renewal deadline. Advocates calculated that in order to get the 154,000 people’s legal status renewed, each advocate would need to finish 214 people’s application an hour. Meaning even in the best case scenario, 40,000 of our people could face instant deportation.6 Orderly winding down is another way to say the breaking, harming, killing, and violent uprooting of our community members.
Your support grows more important each day. By supporting Presente YOU can fight Trump’s mass deportation and dream killing agenda. Will you chip in?
The Latinx community is known for its fearlessness and influence in making the American government responsive to community needs. At just 5 years old, Sophie Cruz asked one of the strongest religious leaders in the world to live by her view of life, that we “love our friends no matter our skin color” and keep her 2 parents from being deported.7 DREAMer heroes like Blanca Gomez fought and met with President Obama, resulting in the executive action that protected DREAMers to legally live and work outside of the shadows for the first time.8Activists like Sylvia Rivera fought throughout the Civil Rights Movement and beyond to protect the rights of low income, people of color, queer and transgender communities.9 Authors like Rudolfo Anaya helped developed Chicano literature, showing Americans that there many ways to be American and none of them require losing your heritage, culture, or family.10
History has shown a single Latinx community member can make a difference. YOU can make a difference. Donate $5 to help Presente live up to our fearless nature and fight deportations.
With your donation, we will make sure there is no “orderly winding down.” Your money will be used to:
- Innovate text and social media technology so that any legislator can be quickly and constantly bombarded with constituent pressure to do what’s right.
- Support our Sanctuary Restaurants work so that as Trump tries to deport our communities — we can provide legal, physical, and emotional support to block the process.
- Train future and current Latinx leaders so that our businesses, government, and education institutions understand the value of a human life and would never call a child fleeing war an “unaccompanied minor” or demolish a human’s life because of paperwork.
Trump expects to have an “orderly winding down,” hurting everyone in his path. We will show Trump that it will never be orderly when facing oppression and we will never give up. We are fearless and we will fight to protect each other.
Chip in today and we can promise you Presente will help create organized resistance, so that Trump’s “orderly winding down” can never happen.
 CONTRIBUTE
Thank you for all you do and ¡adelante!
– Matt, Favianna, Erick, Reetu, Oscar, Erica and the Presente team.
P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.
References:
[1] “Trail of Dream students walk 1,500 miles to bring immigration message to Washington.” Washington Post. May 1, 2010.
[2] “Chained together, Dreamers fight on.” Sun Sentinel. August 20, 2014.
[3] “DACA brought ‘Dreamers’ out of the shadows. Now, some plan to only get louder.” Los Angeles Times. September 7, 2017.
[4] “Thousands of Dreamers could lose protection as DACA deadline arrives.” ABC News. October 5, 2017.
[5] “Protect Immigrant Youth: Empower Thousands to Take Action Now!” Call to Dream Campaign. 2017
[6] “The Trump administration didn’t notify immigrants about an abrupt deadline to renew DACA.” Vox. October 4, 2017.
[7] “Meet Sophie Cruz, 5-year-old who gave the pope a letter because she doesn’t want her parents deported.” The Washington Post. September 23, 2015.
[8] “She met with a President inside the White House. Now she’s protesting outside.” CNN Politics. October 5, 2017.
[9] “Who was Sylvia Rivera?” Sylvia Rivera Law Project.
[10] “Awards & Honors: 2015 National Humanities Medalist: Rudolfo Anaya.” National Endowment for the Humanities. 2015. |
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