Thread: ‘Dreamers’ make 1,300-mile West Coast bicycle trek to protest Trump policies

Steve Rubenstein Aug. 20, 2018 Updated: Aug. 20, 2018 4:54 p.m.

It’s not easy riding a bike for 1,300 miles with one eye on the road and the other on the lookout for immigration agents. But that’s exactly what a dozen young activists have been doing since they pedaled south out of Seattle.

“It’s scary,” said Young Woon Han, 30, one of the riders. “More scary than running over a thorn and getting a flat tire.”

On Monday, the Journey to Justice rolled into San Francisco to give riders’ necks — and other key portions of their anatomy — a day off. The five-week trek is designed to call attention to the plight of non-documented U.S. residents and demand a path to citizenship for all “Dreamers,” young immigrants living in the country illegally who were brought here as children. The name refers to never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided protections for young immigrants.

Most of the cyclists have no permission to be in the U.S. after coming to the country on tourist visas and sticking around.

In the case of Allyson Duarte, now 25 years old, she waded across the Rio Grande in the middle of the night a dozen years ago.

“There were risks then,” she recalled. “And there are risks now.”

That’s why, on this little bike ride, a support van has more inside than the usual bananas and energy bars.

“Lawyers,” said Han. “We always have a lawyer with us at all times. We’ve had three different volunteer lawyers since we left Seattle.”

Journey to Justice riders got the idea to cycle after their weeks-long vigil in front of the White House didn’t persuade the Trump administration and Congress to get permanent Dreamers legislation passed. And bicycling is better exercise than hunkering down on the sidewalk, the riders said.

Duarte remembers wading across the river with her parents as a teenager, mindful of the agents with the flashlights. Her family, like every other immigrant, was looking for something better. Duarte, a graduate student in philosophy at American University in Washington, D.C., has DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status and would be safe if stopped on the side of the road by immigration officers.

But eight of the other cyclists would not.

One of them is Alice, a 23-year-old organizer from Orange County who asked that her last name be withheld for fear of targeting by immigration agents.

“I have zero protection,” she said. “This bike ride is empowering, but it’s scary. We talk about what we’re supposed to do if we get stopped. Remain silent. Do not consent to being searched. And call the lawyer.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...e-13169755.php

Keep driving your bike right back OVER the border.

Do not stop! Go drive your damn bike up to YOUR President's doorstep.

This is not your country and Trump is not your President...Comprende?

I am "looking for something better" too, guess I will go ride my bike in Martha's Vineyard find a nice house and jump the FENCE and set up camp in their backyard. Demand my free house, food, money and free medical care.

Get these idiots off our soil. Load them up in a semi-truck and drive them the rest of the way to the border!

Lawyers,” said Han. “We always have a lawyer with us at all times. We’ve had three different volunteer lawyers since we left Seattle.”

They know that what they are doing is wrong or they wouldn't need lawyers. Blatant lawbreakers flaunting the law. IMO