Giselle Mendez came to get answers.
MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK / Giselle Mendez, a high school sophomore, took on her congressman during a weekend forum.
The sophomore at Port Richmond High School on New York’s Staten Island asked her congressman, Dan Donovan (R-NY), a hard-hitting question during a town hall forum on Sunday afternoon. Mendez introduced herself as a youth leader of the organization Make The Road New York, an organization that fights for Latinx and immigrant rights.
“Myself and many students here have knocked on your constituents’ doors and talked to registered voters all over Staten Island and many from the South Shore to tell our stories and talk to them about the importance of having a clean Dream Act,” Mendez said in front of a crowd of about 200 people.
She referred to the push for a bill that would create a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers ― undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children ― without including provisions for a wall on the border with Mexico or other immigration matters.
About two months ago, President Donald Trump announced that he was ending that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, put in place by former President Barack Obama, that had protected Dreamers from deportation. Trump’s move left nearly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants at risk of losing jobs and being deported when their protections expire. He has urged Congress to craft legislation that would create new protections from deportation for many Dreamers, but he also wants the additional provisions in the measure.