Above Photo: Garcia criticized Biden for failing to revoke Title 42 and the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policies implemented under the Trump administration. United We Dream.
“We feel the trauma every time lives are torn apart and loved ones are deported.”
A day after President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, immigrant youth from across the U.S. rallied outside the White House on Wednesday, demanding an end to all deportations.
Organized by United We Dream—the largest immigrant youth-led group in the country—activists at the rally drew attention to the president’s failed immigration policies and unveiled a banner acknowledging the over two million people who have been deported or expelled under the Biden administration.
“President Biden can praise his administration’s purported achievements all he wants, but at the end of the day, young, Black, brown, and immigrant people from across the country know of his failures to protect our communities,” said Cynthia Garcia, national campaigns manager for community protection at United We Dream, in a statement.
Garcia criticized Biden for failing to revoke Title 42 and the “Remain in Mexico” policies implemented under the Trump administration. Both policies are widely denounced as cruel by human rights experts, including United Nations officials.
“We feel the trauma every time lives are torn apart and loved ones are deported. We feel the pain of community members languishing in detention centers,” Garcia continued. “We feel the damage on our physical and mental health when the president chooses to fund profit-driven surveillance technology over our well-being. It’s up to all of us, across movements, to continue taking action to protect our communities when millions of lives are left on the line.”
Yazmin Valdez—a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who belongs to United We Dream and Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance—said in a statement that Biden had failed on his campaign promises to stand up for immigrant, racial, and climate justice.
Valdez said that her father was one of over 80,000 first-time DACA applicants whose applications have stalled after a federal ruling in Texas and that every day she lives with “the constant fear that my dad could be separated from our family and deported.”
“This is the state of our country’s immigration system; a system that willfully puts millions of families like mine in positions where we could be broken apart at any time,” lamented Valdez. “I refuse to remain silent as President Biden chooses to keep my family—and millions more just like ours—at constant risk of detention, deportation, and family separation.”