'This Is My Home': Immigrant Rights Activists Stage Sit-In To Protest Threats To DACA

KUT 90.5 | By KUT Staff

Published July 26, 2017 at 3:03 PM CDT

DACA recipient Catalina Santiago from Homestead, Fla., is arrested alongside fellow immigrants rights protesters outside the Texas State Capitol.

Fifteen immigrant rights activists were arrested Wednesday after blocking traffic at the intersection of 15th Street and Congress Avenue during a sit-in to protest Attorney General Ken Paxton's push to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

The Obama-era program protects undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, known as "Dreamers," from deportation. Last month, Paxton and nine other attorneys general asking it to phase out the program.

鈥淣ot my crime. Not my fault. I have nowhere to go," DACA recipient Oscar Galindo said during the demonstration. The Austin resident said he was brought to the country when he was 4. "This is my home. I don鈥檛 understand why a lot of politicians want to get rid of us."

As police began arresting the demonstrators who were blocking the road, others called out: " Aguanta, el pueblo se levanta," which translates to "Endure, the people are rising."

Organizers called the march and sit-in the 鈥渇irst and largest undocumented-led direct action since Trump鈥檚 inauguration.鈥�