TODEC Monarcas Luchadoras Youth Teams defending DACA
"Right now more than ever we have to be united. We have to be united so we could resist together.” This statement comes from Luz Gallegos, Community Programs Director with TODEC.
The Supreme Court takes on the case of DACA recipients tomorrow, November 12. TODEC youth groups spent the day going door to door to talk about the importance of the policy.
The youth group spoke about how DACA gives people who were brought here when they were little a second chance.
Gallegos says, “This is their country, this is their country because it’s all they know. They were brought as young kids. Even if they were deported to another country, it wouldn’t feel they were home because this is their home.”
These young groups through the Coachella Valley and Inland Empire are speaking about the importance to vote. In this political climate, Gallegos says, “We are going to play politics as well. We are going to continue engaging our kids and our community to register to vote and actually go out and vote.”
She also expresses hope for the generation of leaders that are right now taking it upon themselves to create social change.
This group walked door to door with wings on monarch butterflies on their backs because of the migration pattern of these butterflies. Romeo Pleitz, TODEC Youth Leader, expresses the symbol of the monarch butterfly by saying, “We wear these wings celebrating the Hispanic people that immigrate from other countries to over here to make a better living.”
Some are fueled by their personal experiences of friends and family dealing with the fear of deportation. One of the youth leaders, Luzclarizza Chavez, talks about her friend committing suicide because he was so scared his parents would be deported.
One TODEC Legal Center is located in the city of Coachella. They seek to empower disenfranchised immigrant communities to become economically, socially, educationally, and civically self-sufficient while enhancing individual self-esteem and community health. They provide immigration legal services, community education, advocacy, civic engagement, leadership development, citizenship/naturalization, occupational, and remedial services. For more information, you can visit https://www.todec.org/.
Taban Sharifi will have the full story at 5 p.m.
