NORTHAMPTON — Several hundred people showed up for a vigil Tuesday night in support of undocumented youth and youth affected by President Trump’s announcement that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, otherwise known as DACA, would be terminated.
The candlelight vigil at 20 Hampton Ave., organized by local Five College students, the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and Jobs with Justice, included songs, chants and several emotional presentations from documented and undocumented immigrants alike. Organizers passed out signs bearing messages such as “We are here to stay.” Others brought their own homemade signs, with one reading, “Patriots protect people and planet.”
“I myself am an undocumented immigrant,” said Eduardo Samaniego, a student at Hampshire College and a key organizer of the event.
“As we know, what happened today was just another show of white supremacy,” said Samaniego.
Samaniego was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. as a child after the agricultural industry in his hometown began to falter, something he attributes to NAFTA and U.S. foreign policy.
Growing up in Georgia, Samaniego was the student body president at his high school. He was unaware of his status as undocumented until he applied to study at the University of Georgia. A teacher helping him with his application noticed that he had not filled out his Social Security number, and informed him that he would likely not be going to the university.
“That day was when I learned what it means to be undocumented in this country. So I walked out of that door with my application in hand, with all of my essays and all of my extracurricular activities, and none of that mattered. I just told myself, ‘I’m going to college because I’m going to college,’” Samaniego said, with tears in his eyes.
Samaniego eventually was granted financial aid to study at Hampshire College, where documentation is not required for applicants. He now views it as an obligation to help other undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts, a state he claims is not progressive enough when it comes to immigration.
Samaniego says he expected the Trump administration to rescind DACA, and felt compelled to hold the Northampton vigil. Samaniego empathizes with DACA youth who he feels could lose everything.
“They’ve been working so hard over and over again. They could lose that all in one day, all because of a white supremacist agenda,” Samaniego said.
Other speakers, like Smith College student Diana Umana, 20, echoed Samaniego’s belief that Tuesday’s decision was motivated by racism. Umana was brought to the U.S. at age 4, and remembers nothing of her home country, El Salvador. She said earthquakes and political violence gave her Salvadoran family no choice, and that moving to the U.S. — albeit illegally — was the only real option.
“This has been another win for white supremacy,” said Umana, who has been registered under DACA herself.
“Of the DACA youth, 12 percent have bought a home, 54 percent their first car and 93 percent hold jobs. The majority of Americans support DACA, despite what the Trump administration may say,” Umana said.
Umana, however, does not want to see Congress reinstate DACA within six months if that means Democrats must negotiate on things like a border wall.
“I don’t want anything to come at the expense of others,” Umana said.
Several times during the vigil the organizers asked the crowd to use their phones to urge Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg to support legislation similar to the Dream Act at the state level. The DREAM Act is a piece of bipartisan legislation from Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for many undocumented immigrants in the country. Durbin introduced the first DREAM Act in 2001, but the legislation has yet to become law.
In 2012, the Obama administration enacted the DACA immigration policy, which has allowed illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain in the U.S. and obtain work permits. Immigrants without criminal records and able to prove they were brought to the U.S. before the age of 16 were eligible for DACA’s protections from deportation. These protections and work permits required renewals every two years.
About 800,000 immigrants met these criteria, and voluntarily gave their personal information to authorities in order to benefit from DACA. Many of those 800,000 were brought illegally as toddlers or even infants, and have known no other country but the U.S.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will rescind DACA, calling the policy “an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”
The Trump administration is giving Congres s six months to pass legislation that will decide the fate of these immigrants’ status, at which point the government will no longer renew work permits and any DACA protections will expire.
Editors note: This story was updated on Sept. 7 to give credit to Jobs with Justice and the Pioneer Valley Workers Center for helping to organize the vigil.