Below is the speech given at the labor caucus at the Democratic National Convention by Olivia Vazquez from Juntos.
My name is Olivia Vazquez. I’m here as an undocumented immigrant and a youth organizer at Juntos. Even though I’m here to talk to you as a DACA recipient, I am also here to talk to you as someone from a family of workers and I want you to see me as that.
My mother has worked in restaurants for 15 years. Read more
Puro Philadelphia #Not1More #DNCinPHL pic.twitter.com/iitidzR7T3
— Not1More (@Not1_More) July 25, 2016
On the first day of the DNC, 500 people marched to demand Democrats be the “anti-Trump” on immigration. That means the candidates calling for an immediate moratorium on deportations, DHS shutting down the Berks family detention center 60 miles west of Philadelphia, and the President dismantling the expansion of ICE to actively demonstrate their expressed commitment to immigrant rights and to stand in sharp contrast to the attacks launched by Clinton’s opponent during his acceptance speech.
Before it was an issue taken up by candidates, immigrant rights groups were already pushing the President to make immigration policy more humane. After the Supreme Court allowed the injunction on the deferred action deportation relief program to continue in US vs Texas, the national #Not1More campaign launched a petition that now has over 50,000 individual signatures calling on the President to act on immigration and issue a moratorium on deportations. Read more
The #Not1More campaign sent the following letter to members of the DNC platform committee asking them to ensure that mass incarceration does not exclude people from future immigration reforms. While on the one hand, the administration discusses a “nation of second chances,” it criminalizes with saying it deports “felons not families” on the other.
The party has the opportunity to reconcile that contradiction and make sure that criminal justice reforms are applied to immigration policy as well.