{"id":482313,"date":"2017-12-13T13:29:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T20:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=482313"},"modified":"2017-12-13T13:29:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T20:29:53","slug":"heinrich-udall-need-to-do-more-than-oppose-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/12\/heinrich-udall-need-to-do-more-than-oppose-border-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Heinrich, Udall need to do more than oppose border wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> On Nov. 30 my fellow DREAMers were in front of Senator Heinrich and Senator Udall\u2019s office — calling on them to publicly reject President Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security budget to protect our families, lands and values, and to pass a clean DREAM Act.<\/p>\n

\"Brandon\"

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Brandon<\/p><\/div>\n

But that\u2019s not all we\u2019ve done. Earlier in the month, I and fellow DREAMers went to the offices of Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., in Washington, D.C. and urged them to protect undocumented families by rejecting President Trump\u2019s budget for DHS. His budget would expand funding for Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), border enforcement and detention beds.<\/p>\n

As someone who has lived in the shadows for far too long, I need my senators to clearly stand with me and my family. This means I need more from them than opposition to a border wall. I need them to oppose funding for more Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and funding to increase the number of immigration detention beds.<\/p>\n

Separating families is wrong, and I know my family \u2013 and many others \u2013 deserve every opportunity to thrive in the place we now call home. We can\u2019t do this if President Trump expands his deportation machine.<\/p>\n

For me, this fight is personal. Seeking a better life, my mother brought me and my older brother to the United States when I was 2 years old, and we have lived here ever since. She was born without ears and endured many hardships before coming to America, but managed to raise us by herself.<\/p>\n

My mother is the reason I stay in college. I\u2019m set to graduate in May. Most people ready to graduate would be looking to find a job or applying to go to a four-year university \u2013 but I can\u2019t, because unlike my peers, I\u2019m a DREAMer, and my DACA is going to expire in April, a month before I\u2019m set to receive my degree.<\/p>\n

My mother is also the reason I am fighting against additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol, and more detention beds. Increasing the number of Border Patrol agents will only put more fear in our lives. More beds in detention centers will make more money for private prisons, but it will also be the home for many undocumented immigrants\u00a0\u2013 like me and my family. Those beds are encouraging ICE to deport more people like me.<\/p>\n

I am also supporting a \u201cclean\u201d Dream Act \u2014 a law that would protect thousands of young immigrants without adding funding for a border wall or increased immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Every day I fear for my life when I see Border Patrol posted everywhere I go\u00a0\u2014 on the way to school, to the park, downtown. Even when I\u2019m in class, I can barely concentrate for thinking that I\u2019m the one they\u2019re looking for, that I\u2019m some kind of runaway criminal because of them.<\/p>\n

People like me and my family deserve to live calmly and not have to be afraid of having their families be torn apart by ICE or Border Patrol.<\/p>\n

Instead of investing money in more detention centers and more beds for immigrant families, we should get back to being the kind of country my mother came to \u2013 where neighbors welcomed her as a newcomer and her disability didn\u2019t keep her from working hard, making a contribution, and raising two kids who hope to finish college.<\/p>\n

Every person has the right to live freely, in community and with family, without fear of being separated as soon as they leave their front door.<\/p>\n

Brandon is a 20-year-old DREAMer and DACA recipient who lives in New Mexico, surrounded by checkpoints. He\u2019s earning his associate\u2019s degree in architecture from Do\u00f1a Ana Community College.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone who has lived in the shadows for far too long, I need my senators to clearly stand with me and my family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":482350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[140,3332,3317,116],"class_list":["post-482313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-martin-heinrich","tag-tom-udall","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}