Boulder City Council Passes Resolution to Support Dreamers

Boulder City Council Chambers were packed Tuesday night as word spread that council would pass a resolution in support of DACA – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program after the Trump administration rescinded the program earlier in the day. KGNU’s Roz Brown says only a handful of the more than 100 people who spontaneously made their way to city hall addressed the council, but two of those who did are “Dreamers” including Adrian Duran Flores.

“I go to college and I’m trying to get my degree and if DACA gets removed I’m not sure how that’s going to work out,” said Flores. “I also need my social security for my business and my taxes and I don’t know how that would work as well. Also, just feeling safe here – if you go outside and you talk to a police officer, are they going to have your back?”

Elsy Segovia said she was speaking for herself and her brother who recently passed away.

“I have been here since I was nine and I don’t remember Mexico but this country has given me a sense of keeping going and now I’m in my third year of college so with the help of my brothers and sisters in DACA we have made one step forward but now with this announcement we’ve gone two steps back.”

Segovia nonetheless said the fight has just begun.

“It’s time to contact every single person, the congress and even the president because we cannot make ourselves invisible.”

The action by the president on Tuesday means young undocumented immigrants will lose protections from deportation unless congress and the president can come up with a new plan to keep them here. There are 17,000 DACA enrollees in Colorado and 800,000 nationwide.

Before passing a resolution in support of DACA recipients, council heard a group of children attending had created for the occasion. The children said they were there to support and help empower the Dreamers.