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Immigration Advocates Ramping up Protest in Response to Lawsuit Aimed at Blocking Changes

LaToya Dennis

In just a few weeks, President Obama will tell five million undocumented immigrants what they must do to avoid deportation. He plans to take executive action because Congress has failed to address the issue. But the President’s plan may never see the light of day. About two-dozen states, including Wisconsin, are suing to block him from acting alone. Both sides are ramping up action to advocate their cause.  

Around 20 supporters of immigration reform rallied a few days ago, on the steps of the federal building in downtown Milwaukee. They picked the location because of one Wisconsin Senator who has an office inside.

One demonstrator is Alma Lopez. She says she qualified for the federal program known as DACA – it allows certain immigrants who arrived in the country before their 16th birthday, to avoid deportation. But Lopez says she remains fearful for her mother.

“There was actually one time where she got detained by the police, and there was a possibility that she could be deported. And so at that time I was a senior in high school, and I was really scared that she was going to be deported and I was going to be left alone with my brother who’s seven-years-old, and my sister who’s 12.  And I was really close to dropping out of school,” Lopez says.

As Lopez spoke tears filled her eyes.

“We’re not trying to drain away resources as some people would say. We only come here for a better life. If we wouldn’t have come here I have no idea where we would have ended, because there aren’t as many opportunities in Mexico and we’re not as valued as we are here, especially women.

Lopez says she hopes her mother can gain the same freedoms the teen now has. She can work here legally, obtain a driver’s license and travel freely.

Not much is yet known about how President Obama’s executive order will work. But Jose Antonio Vargas says undocumented immigrants may soon have to make a decision.

“The first weeks in January is where we’re going to get all kind of where people can figure out how they can apply and what the process is and all of that. And we haven’t even discussed the level of fear. Can you imagine you’ve been here for decades and all of a sudden the government says oh, come forward!” Vargas says.

Vargas lives in San Francisco, but is originally from the Philippines. He’s an immigration activist and journalist, and he came to town to give the keynote address at gala the group Voces de la Frontera organized.

“I outed myself as undocumented three and a half years ago. I keep waiting for someone to knock on my door and deport me. No one has done that,” Vargas says.

Vargas says U.S. leaders must tackle the issue.

“What are we going to do? Are we going to keep separating these families? We all know we drive on the same freeway. We all know your economy won’t survive without us. You all know we’re here. So what do you want to do with us? If you want to deport us, tell us that. But you really don’t want to do that. The president made a move, it’s a first move, but it’s the right move,” Vargas says.

One person who absolutely does not believe the President’s executive order is the right move is Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. Johnson will soon become chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He says the country’s first move must be to secure its borders from people entering illegally.

“I’m dedicated to passing a border security and enforcement bill, which is the first step in any immigration reform that would actually work. Happy to do that, but President Obama just made that much more difficult internally here by taking this unilateral action,” Johnson says.

Johnson says President Obama’s executive order is outside the bounds of precedent and probably his legal authority.

“It’s really harmful to our constitutional form of government,” Johnson says.

The state government’s response has been to join the lawsuit more than 20 states have filed against the President’s action.

Gov. Walker instructed the Attorney General to sign onto the suit. Walker has said the case is about checking government powers, not resolving the issues facing undocumented immigrants.

LaToya was a reporter with WUWM from 2006 to 2021.