DACA Protest at Trump Tower
Peter Miner, a retired New York City teacher, held a sign that asked: “Congress, are you humane and honorable people? Make DACA the law now!”
Christopher Morrow
There was an overwhelming sense amongst the crowd gathered on the southside of Central Park on Saturday, Sept. 9 that the ending of the DACA program is fundamentally wrong. As a former teacher, Mr. Miner interacted with undocumented children. “If this Congress follows through with [this] cowardly cruel action it will further prove that this country has lost its way,” Miner said.
The Obama Administration enacted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy in 2012. The policy provided some short-term protections for noncitizens who arrived in the U.S. as children and who are law abiding and perceived as low priority by immigration officials. On September 7th, President Trump announced that he would gradually phase out the DACA program under the rationale that it is an amnesty program for illegal immigrants.
Jill Shatz of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, works at a nonprofit for low-income children. She felt a deep obligation to come out to the DACA protest and express her support for those affected.
Shatz and her nonprofit co-workers stood atop a bench on Central Park West directly outside of Trump Tower. “These kids are part of the fabric of our society. [They] are contributing members of our society, and we wanted to defend them.”
Shatz proposed that an alternative to ending the DACA program would be to “improve pathways to citizenship in place of the existing and often problematic immigration system.”
Erin Stolz and Rattaella Glasser, students living in Brooklyn, also felt obligated to show support despite not being directly impacted by the President’s decision. They said that close friends and classmates were being negatively impacted. They were angered and saw the act as both “politically and economically unsound.” A report by the CATO institute from early 2017 indicates that the DACA program provides for a positive economic impact for both individuals in the program and the U.S. as a whole. The ending of the program could also ignite an economic downturn. Stolz says that removing DACA is “a political move that is nasty and immoral.” While many expressed that the government’s role was immoral – these strong feelings were surpassed by the idea that removing DACA was the result of cruelty.
Mr. Outtasite, a blind hip-hop artist from Harlem, appeared from within the crowd. He wore a shirt which portrayed President Trump’s face on a benefit card. Mr. Outtasite prides himself on being the first Hip-Hop artist to record a “Trump diss track” titled “A Blind Man Disses Donald Trump on the Train.” Mr. Outtasite was seeking anti-Trump participants for his new music video: “All the Way Up.”
President Trump’s decision to end the DACA program could potentially be halted by Congress but Peter Miner does not think that this will occur. Ending DACA would leave 800,000 U.S. residents in a citizenship limbo. The decision to end the program will see challenges within the Federal Court system but Peter Miner is not hopeful. “I don’t know if I can be optimistic,” Miner says. “This should be a no-brainer but it would have to include Republicans standing up for what’s right. I don’t see that happening.”
Christopher Morrow is a Writer, editor and social critic from Harlem. He has worked at the Meridian, a college newspaper and Enspire, a Bronx-based cultural publication. He covers politics, culture and entertainment in New York City. He worked in entertainment for over 10 years as videographer, engineer and stage manager. Christopher is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and Journalism at CUNY. Christopher has travelled extensively, having spent periods of time in cities in Europe and North Africa.
