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CT Immigrant Supporters Head to DC to Rally in Support of DACA

Hours before Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration will rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has protected undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from being deported, immigrant supporters in Connecticut were gearing up for a fight.

Hoping to sway political leaders, around 20 DACA recipients and supporters left Connecticut Tuesday and headed for a rally in Washington D.C.

“Everyone has a right to live in the best way possible. It shouldn’t matter what country you come from. We as immigrants have given a lot to every country in the world. We shouldn’t be treated any way different,” said Amy Ansah, of Hartford.

Many DACA recipients were brought into the country by their parents as very young children and don't remember anything else.

Some fear on Tuesday President Trump will announce the wind down of the DACA program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from being deported, and immigrant supports in Connecticut are gearing up for a fight.

“This is all I’ve known. I want to continue to fight for this because this is my home,” Vania Galicia, a DACA recipient, said.

For Galicia the future now seems uncertain. The 19-year-old is protected by the DACA program, along with nearly 800,000 other undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children.

Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said that "no current beneficiaries will be impacted before March 5, 2018, nearly six months from now, so Congress can have time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions." 

“The whole feeling and emotion process is a lot of limbo in your mind. You’re not sure what’s going to go on,” Galicia said.

Galicia – now a freshman at Eastern Connecticut State University – arrived here at age 3 with her parents from Mexico.

It’s estimated more than 10,000 people in Connecticut are in a similar position.

“There are a lot of kids here in this state. Many came as very young children. This is the only country they’ve ever known,” Rep. Elizabeth Esty, 5th District, said.

Congress could save the safeguards of DACA.

“We are going down to take action down in D.C. to show that undocumented youth despite all this still have power and that we are not just going to let DACA be taken away,” Stefan Keller, of CT Students for a Dream, said.

On the campus of Eastern, students will rally Tuesday afternoon.

“Making sure all the stuff that my parents got through and that my parents brought me here for pays off. Because at the end of the day that’s what it was for our future to be better than theirs,” Galicia said.

Not everyone supports the DACA program, however.

Greg Somers, a CCSU sophomore, thinks the president should end the program.

"I'm not saying it's their fault, I'm not saying I dislike them for it or anything, I'm just saying they shouldn't be in this country," Somers told NBC Connecticut.

That event at Eastern will take place around 2 p.m. Tuesday outside the Fine Arts Center. There will also be a rally at Trump Parc in Stamford.

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