California candidate arrested at DACA protest

On December 5, Green congressional candidate Angelica Dueñas was detained by police, after demonstrating in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Los Angeles office in support of permanent protection for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. Dueñas made a statement about DACA and her detention:

The current presidential administration is on the path of destroying millions of people’s lives — including by taking away DACA protection from over 800,000 Dreamers, putting them at risk to lose everything that they are working for. Breaking up families and destroying homes. And robbing us all of the rich contributions Dreamers have to offer.

I and several others went to Senator Feinstein’s office today to exercise our First Amendment rights, in order to highlight the importance of protecting our DACA recipient sisters and brothers’ right to stay in the country they call home.

We condemn President Trump’s repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and we call for Congress to immediately pass legislation to permanently protect young immigrants who came here as children without legal status. We also call for Congress to immediately begin the process for comprehensive immigration reform towards a legal path to citizenship for all NOW.

We chose Senator Feinstein’s office to highlight her role and responsibility as a senior Senator from California, a state with the most Dreamers in the country.

While we were prepared to be arrested if necessary to promote this issue, we were shocked when we were detained and escorted off the property in handcuffs by police officers within seconds! This suggests insufficient interest in the Senator’s office in hearing our concerns.

We believe that our elected officials are public servants. Their role is to make their constituents’ voices heard and fight for our issues. We also believe that it is our responsibility as community members that our representatives hear our demands. With the 2018 elections approaching, it is time to identify who stands with the People — and vote accordingly.

That’s why we took the step of getting arrested in order to highlight the inactivity of our elected officials. We hope our message gets through to Senator Feinstein and that she supports a Clean Dream Act to give permanent protection to the Dreamers.

I know that this is what our constituents want in CA 29.

In solidarity,Angelica Duenas for Congress
angelica4congress.com.

For the Green Party of Los Angeles County Statement on DACA go to:
In English: losangeles.cagreens.org/issues/daca-nov-2017.
In Spanish: losangeles.cagreens.org/issues/daca-nov-2017-esp