WASHINGTON — This past Saturday, United We Dream Action (UWDA) executive director and immigrant rights leader, Greisa Martinez Rosas, went on American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s latest anti-immigrant order to empower law enforcement in the state to target immigrants.
To view the full interview, click here.
From Greisa Martinez Rosas:
- “Greg Abbott’s anti-immigrant actions are deadly. His actions have real world impact on millions of people like myself. I know what it feels like, I grew up in Texas, I had my father deported from Farmer’s Ranch, Texas and haven’t seen him and been able to grow up with him. So Republicans like Greg Abbott, like Ducey in Arizona, [DeSantis] in Florida — they’re trying to divide us.”
- “It’s clear that their actions and using and exerting power from their executive offices are trying to create conditions where immigrants like myself and millions of others — asylum seekers, refugee seekers, children — are finding not open arms or a welcoming [country,] but actually death. We saw what happened in San Antonio, and it’s not going to stop until we collectively ensure that this country has an immigration system that welcomes us.”
- “Greg Abbott [and Texas] has led the fight against DACA recipients …all across the country… There are 700,000 undocumented people like myself who have built families, who have built homes, businesses and have given everything of themselves into this country. And now what Republicans are trying to do in the U.S. is get us to be detained and deported.”
- “What is at stake is not only what happens to DACA recipients, whether we’re deported or we gain a pathway to citizenship. It’s also to those High School students, those undocumented kids that did not get the chance to have DACA. He’s cutting a lifeline to our communities and to those kids, so what we’re doing at United We Dream is we’re standing up — we’re not allowing for any one of these actions to go uncontested and we are clear that Latinos and immigrants are here to stay.”