Democratic lawmakers arrested outside Trump Tower for DACA protest
BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 09/19/17 01:43 PM EDT
Three Hispanic House Democrats were arrested outside Trump Tower on Tuesday during a protest to demand action on shielding young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), Raul Grijalva (Ariz.) and Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.) were all arrested while rallying outside Trump’s Manhattan residence with advocacy groups, aides confirmed.
The lawmakers and advocacy groups are pressing Trump to work with Congress to pass a “clean” version of the DREAM Act granting undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children a path to citizenship, without including border security measures meant to placate immigration hawks.
“We’re taking the necessary steps to make it clear to President Trump, the Republicans and the Democrats that we will continue this peaceful fight for DREAMers and immigrants as long as it takes to enact legislation and put DREAMers in a safe place,” Gutierrez, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Espaillat, one of the first former undocumented immigrants to serve as a member of Congress, said he “stood up for immigrant youth to say loud and clear – unequivocally, that he dedicates his work in Congress to protecting immigrants, immigrant families, and their future in America.”
Trump is in New York City this week for the United Nations General Assembly and is staying at his namesake tower.
His administration announced earlier this month that it is ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which granted temporary work permits for qualifying young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Trump met with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last week at the White House to discuss a potential compromise to extend DACA protections paired with efforts to boost border security.
Pelosi was shouted down by protesters during a press conference in San Francisco on Monday who called for a "clean" DREAM Act, demonstrating the risks Democratic leaders face from the left for working with Trump.
Tuesday marked the second time in five weeks that Gutierrez was arrested as part of an immigration protest.
Gutierrez was also arrested in mid-August outside the White House during a rally commemorating the fifth anniversary of DACA.
He had been arrested outside the White House twice before that, in 2010 and 2011, during similar protests. Gutierrez was additionally arrested at a Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in March while protesting deportations of DACA recipients.
http://thehill.com/latino/351365-dem...r-daca-protest
