Santa Cruz phone bank and DACA recipients push for clean DREAM Act
As Dreamers descend on Washington, three-thousand miles away, callers in Santa Cruz are doing the same – pushing for a clean DREAM Act.
“That was just so inspiring, that folks here need to support in some way,” phone bank organizer, Vicki Winters, said.
Roughly a half-dozen people at a time, hoping to get people in New York and Pennsylvania to learn what being a Dreamer is.
“A lot of them don’t even speak the language. Some speak the language of their parents, but they don’t read it and they don’t write it. So their life is here,” volunteer Ernestina Saldana, said.
Democrats are threatening to vote against this week’s spending bill if there is no DACA support, and Republicans say there will be no DREAM Act unless they can tie it in with something else, like border wall or security funding.
A group of Dreamers from the Central Coast are in Washington D.C. this week, joining a much larger group from around the country.
“We are here to stay and demand a clean DREAM Act. We’re tired of waiting for something to come of our lives. We’re tired of living our lives on two-year increments,” Gabriela Cruz said. “using a clean Dream Act to piggy back the border on us, it has nothing to do with Dreamers or immigration.
