Dreamers' backers turn ire on Pelosi, crowd her office

Nora Vinas of Little Rock is shown in this photo.
Nora Vinas of Little Rock is shown in this photo.

WASHINGTON -- Activists who previously targeted Republicans on Capitol Hill occupied the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, accusing her of failing to fight on behalf of illegal aliens.

President Donald Trump has given Congress until early next month to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of young adults who were raised in the United States but are in the country illegally; many lawmakers refer to them as Dreamers.

Three Arkansans joined in Thursday's protest, alleging that both political parties have contributed to the gridlock.

"They've ... been blaming other people for not doing the right job. Republicans blaming Democrats. Democrats blaming Republicans. I feel like there needs to be leadership in the way this issue is handled. Someone needs to stand up," said Fernando Gutierrez, 21, of Fort Smith.

Trump announced in September that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed Gutierrez and 690,000 other illegal aliens to live and work legally in the United States.

Since then, the White House has offered to provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young adults who have been in the country illegally. In exchange, Trump wants $25 billion for a border wall, plus sharp cutbacks on legal immigration going forward.

In an attempt to force the Republican-controlled Congress to act on the issue, Democrats blocked legislation that would've prevented last month's brief government shutdown.

Eventually, Democrats agreed to a short-term funding measure that allowed the government to reopen.

Gutierrez, who came to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, when he was 4 years old, said he believes Pelosi caved instead of standing firm.

"She kind of threw us under the bus," he said.

Demonstrators visited several lawmakers' offices during the day, but Pelosi's was a focal point.

Roughly 150 people participated in the hours-long protest, organizers said. For much of the afternoon, immigration activists occupied Pelosi's reception area in the Cannon House Office Building, chanting, snapping their fingers and sharing stories.

Several sat on the floor, eating pizza and sipping Poland Spring bottled water. Others broadcast the event live on social media.

While they demonstrated, the receptionists quietly went about their work.

One of the protesters, Nora Vinas of Little Rock, said it's time for Congress to act.

"We need the DREAM Act now and not tomorrow or the day after. Every day that goes by means deportation, means somebody's family being torn apart," the Clinton School of Public Service student said. DACA was a policy by then-President Barack Obama, but the DREAM Act -- an acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act -- was legislation that Congress failed to pass that would have created a path to residency for minor aliens.

Democrats need to step up, she said.

"They haven't had backbone and we think they could do better and that's why we're going to their offices today," she said.

The protests would "physically remind them that we're here," she said. "We're going to keep coming to D.C. We're going to keep taking over offices because we're not political pawns and our families cannot continue to be criminalized."

Legislation that legalizes Dreamers but prevents them from ever bringing their relatives to the U.S. is unacceptable, she added.

Vinas arrived in Florida from Colombia when she was 6 years old and stayed even after her visa expired.

After more than a decade, she was able to get a green card after her stepmother petitioned on her behalf, she said.

"I was undocumented. I know the fear, the shame, the uncertainty, the limitations that entails," she said.

Although she no longer has to worry about being deported, she is committed to fighting on behalf of those who remain in limbo, she said.

"I was and I will always be a dreamer," she said.

A Section on 02/09/2018

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