DACA recipient Greisa Martinez fired back at the Trump administration’s decision to end the immigrant program, saying, “People all across the country are concerned about what’s happening to our democracy… and we are ready to fight like hell to protect it.”
Speaking Tuesday on CNN, Martinez added, “We know this is a symbol of what we saw in Charlottesville … We will not be thrown back into the shadows. We will not go back in silence.”
Martinez, advocacy director at United We Dream, an advocacy group for young immigrants, spoke to CNN from outside the White House, where she was joined by hundreds of others protesting the administration’s plans to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“We are calling on Congress, Republicans and Democrats to deliver a clean dream act that does not put 11 million people in the pathway of deportation,” she told CNN”s Jeremy Diamond. “It’s more than undocumented young people. It’s our democracy.”
Martinez said 800,000 young Dreamers like herself are now at risk of being forced from the only country they’ve known. She blamed President Trump.
“We know the person responsible here is Donald Trump. He is the leader of the Republican Party. The Republicans are in charge of Congress.” The decision “is owned by him and his party,” she added.
Martinez said she was disappointed in the President — not just on issues of immigration, but on “how he is handling everything.”
“I believe in our democracy. I believe in the dream my parents crossed the border for 21 years ago,” she said. “United We Dream is ready to fight back.”
