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Call your member of Congress and support your local Dreamers by backing DACA

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August 28, 2017, 10:38 am
alex trujillo 1 080317

Alex Trujillo in Avon (David O. Williams photo).

Editor’s note: The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it will end DACA in six months.

I got some great response to an article I wrote recently on local Dreamer, early college grad, Battle Mountain Husky standout and former SOS Sherpa Alex Trujillo. The story was in the context of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program facing an arbitrary Sept. 5 deadline.

If you don’t know, DACA was put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and allows more than 750,000 immigrants who were brought here at a very young age by their parents to legally work and study in the United States without being targeted for deportation.

It’s a rigorous program that requires registering with the federal government and staying out of legal trouble, but some Republican states attorney generals want President Donald Trump to rescind the program or face legal challenges that the administration may choose not to fight in federal court.

Trump on the campaign trail last year promised to end DACA, but then after winning the election he promised to “show great heart” in dealing with DACA recipients, many of whom have never been back to their country of birth and know no other nation than the United States. The program enjoys bipartisan support and is the focus of multiple legislative solutions that would provide paths to citizenship.

With ICE arrests on the rise nationally and locally, some Dreamers are fearful that they’ll be easier to target than immigrants who remained in the shadows. And some GOP lawmakers are signalling they want to use the DACA program as a bargaining chip in a broader effort to crackdown on illegal immigration and perhaps even build Trump’s border wall.

That would be morally and economically wrong, in my opinion, and anyone who cares about this issue needs to contact Colorado’s congressional delegation immediately (see contact list below) and express their support for DACA and opposition to hard-line anti-immigration elements looking to oust Americans who came here without any choice but have stayed out of trouble and contributed to society ever since.

While running my training route for Saturday’s Eric Spry Memorial 5K — the awesome Battle Mountain home cross country meet at Beaver Creek on Saturday that includes a can’t-miss citizen’s race — I literally almost ran into Huskies state champion soccer coach Dave Cope and his dad Allen.

Cope tweeted support for my article over the weekend, and reminded me on Sunday that Alex Trujillo was part of that 2012 state championship soccer team, among his many other accomplishments at such a young age. Cope’s tweet is below.

And please find your lawmaker below that — for most of us here in Eagle County it’s either Jared Polis or Scott Tipton — to weigh in on DACA. Tipton, in particular, needs to hear from people on the Western Slope who support our local Dreamers.

Senate

Michael Bennet, Democrat

261 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

(202) 224-5852

Contact: www.bennet.senate.gov/?p=contact

Cory Gardner, Republican

354 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

(202) 224-5941

Contact: www.gardner.senate.gov/contact-cory/email-cory

House of Representatives

District 1 – Diane DeGette, Democrat

2111 Rayburn House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-4431

Contact: https://degette.house.gov/contact

District 2 – Jared Polis, Democrat

1727 Longworth House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-2161

Contact: https://polis.house.gov/contact/

District 3 – Scott Tipton, Republican

218 Cannon House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-4761

Contact: https://tipton.house.gov/contact/email

District 4 – Ken Buck, Republican

1130 Longworth House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-4676

Contact: https://buck.house.gov/contact

District 5 – Doug Lamborn, Republican

2402 Rayburn House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-4422

Contact: https://lamborn.house.gov/contact/

District 6 – Mike Coffman, Republican

2443 Rayburn House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-7882

Contacts: https://coffman.house.gov/contact/

District 7 – Ed Perlmutter, Democrat

1410 Longworth House Office Building

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-2645

Contacts: https://perlmutter.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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