New York Assemblyman: We Must #DefendDACA

Assemblyman Michael Blake at the N.Y.C. #DefendDACA
rally on  August 30th at Columbus Circle near Trump Tower.

The following statement was submitted by New York State Assembly member Michael Blake. 

As a State Assemblyman representing the most diverse county in the United States, I take it personally when someone implies that new people coming to the United States to realize their dreams threatens our communities and detract from our American identity. The reality is quite the opposite as The Bronx welcomed my Jamaican parents in the 1970s and does the same for new families every day, especially because of DACA. There is no Bronx without diversity. The same goes for America.

 

President Trump could undermine that notion any day now by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sending the lives of the nearly 1 million friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and veterans we call DREAMers into wild uncertainty. Our fellow brothers and sisters on this journey of justice, whether Latino, African, West Indian or elsewhere contribute to our society in every imaginable way, embodying what it means to work towards the American dream.

 

When President Obama first announced DACA five years ago, he proclaimed that “we have always drawn strength from being a nation of immigrants.” Ending DACA would not only be bad policy and callous leadership, but, it would also break the bond that generation after generation of Americans has made to each other, a bond that says this land is made for you and me.

 

We reject President Trump’s prejudices and remind his administration that our unified voices are stronger than the artificial divisions he seeks to impose could ever be, which is why we emphatically say that we must #DefendDACA.

Source: The Office of Assemblyman Michael Blake