In New York state alone, there are 42,000 Dreamers, and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is helping share some of their stories.
Dreamers are enrolled in DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era immigration policy that protects those who came to the United States as children.
President Donald Trump announced in September the end of DACA, leaving all 42,000 of those Dreamers in New York — and the nearly 800,000 Dreamers across the country — to face an uncertain future.
Following that announcement, Schneiderman and 15 other Attorneys General filed a lawsuit to protect DACA grantees. Last month they won a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s move.
On Tuesday, a federal judge upheld Trump’s right to end the program (though it does not affect the nationwide injunction requiring the administration to renew DACA work permits.)
“Dreamers are New Yorkers.” Schneiderman said in a statement. “Dreamers play by the rules, work hard, and pay taxes. For most, America is the only home they have ever known. They deserve to stay here — and if Washington refuses to protect them, we will keep fighting for them in court.”
In the wake of that court decision, Schneiderman released new videos online featuring New York Dreamers affected by this move.
One, Ricardo Aca, was a former employee of the Trump SoHo Hotel.
“Because of DACA, I was able to get a job legally at one of Trump’s hotels, so I know from personal experience that it is because of immigrants myself that cities like New York even run,” Aca says in a video. “All we need is your support and to take action so you can protect us from the Trump administration.”
“I came here at six months. I don’t know no other home but the United States,” another Dreamer, Iljirijana Glavatovic, says. “There is a fear of me being deported to Montenegro. It’s a country I don’t know. I would have to start all over. It’s like raising a baby, but I’m raising myself, in a whole new world.”
Angie Kim, in another video, noted that she does identify as a New Yorker, even as an immigrant, because being an immigrant in New York “is a norm.”
“New York literally exemplifies who immigrants are, and why immigrants are the backbone of this country,” she said. “We are the country. We are Americans.”
Watch the videos below or here.
