Colorado DACA recipient to attend State of the Union address as guest of Jared Polis

The State of the Union address will be given on Tuesday February 28th, and many Democrats are inviting members of marginalized communities to be their guest. Their hope is that Donald Trump gets to see the human face of those directly impacted by his executive orders.

Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado’s second congressional district will have as his guest Oscar Juarez Luna, a Longmont resident who has shared his story of being brought to the US as a child, in a monologue that he performs as part of the MOTUS theater production Do you Know Who I Am?

“I thought it was very important to help educate President Trump and for him to be able to look up into the gallery and see the faces of those his policies will impact.”

Juarez Luna says there is a climate of fear in immigrant communities around Colorado. “It’s definitely really concerning to see everything that’s been happening across the country. It’s really sad for me and I know it’s really sad for my community members, including my family that we have to be looking over our shoulders and really fear that deportation.”

Juarez Luna is a DACA recipient. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created by President Barack Obama to allow some undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children to be eligible for work permits and get deferments of deportation proceedings. President Trump has said that he would like to roll back the program and recently a DACA recipient was arrested in Washington state.

Congressman Polis says that with Republican control of the House and the Senate, Democrats have reduced legislative powers but he says they should still raise their voices in opposition to the Executive Orders around immigration.

“We can use our soapbox to object, to show a better path forward for the American people, to demonstrate that in fact our immigrant communities are a great asset to our country, they’re an important part of making our country great.”