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May 26, 2016

Activist Sues DHS for Denying DACA Renewal over Her Activism
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And in Chicago, a migrant justice activist is suing the Department of
Homeland Security for refusing to renew her DACA protection because of
her activism. Twenty-nine-year-old Ireri Unzueta Carrasco was granted
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status in 2013. But its renewal
was denied due to her participation in civil disobedience actions. More
than 100 civil and immigrant rights groups have signed on to a letter to
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson calling on the agency to renew her DACA status
and protect the constitutional right to political expression. Ireri has
organized for immigrant rights for years. In 2014, she spoke on
Democracy Now! about receiving DACA protections and her decision to come
out as undocumented.

Ireri Unzueta Carrasco: "Before I had the deferred action, anything
could have put me in deportation proceedings, any small mistake, being
at the wrong place at the wrong time, right? I really wanted to travel,
and traveling isn't something that you can just do, necessarily, right?
And sometimes there are risks involved, and there are, you know,
different ways to get stopped. And so, this is a risk that I was running
every day. To me, when I decided to come out publicly and talk about my
status, it was a decision about that. If this is something that I'm
facing every day, then I need to take this head-on. I need to be able to
show my side of the story publicly, and I need to be able to use that to
benefit the other members of my community."

Topics:Immigrant Rights