DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving
Our Communities Demand A Moratorium on Deportations 

This morning the Supreme Court made a negative decision in Texas vs US, the case of 26 Republican governors suing against the deferred action programs announced in November, blocking the expansion of DACA (DACA+/DAPA) and impacting nearly 5 million of undocumented immigrants. DRUM and immigrant communities across the country are calling on President Obama and DHS to take further action, and for his potential successors to take up their call. As an organization of working-class immigrants, we want to lift up a few perspectives from our membership:

• DACA+/DAPA is not happening, but the original DACA that was passed in 2012 is unaffected. Everything stays the same, and nothing has been lost.
• This ruling is disappointing and hurtful. We fought hard for DACA+/DAPA. DRUM was the most prominent Asian organization in the country & and a lead organization in New York state fighting for administrative relief.
• We remember that our power as people does not depend on the courts. We got DACA from community power and we will use community power to move forward.

Rishi Singh, Director of Organizing of DRUM and Trinidadian, reacted, “Given the recent expansion of raids, the more nearly 3 million deportations in the last 7 years, the on-going abuse in detention, and the spectre of a possible Trump Presidency, it would be reckless for President Obama to pass on the current immigration system onto the next President whoever that will be without taking major steps to halt deportations and address abuse. Even with DAPA, only a fraction of us would be protected. With it now blocked, many more of us still face the threat of the deportation machine that it is incumbent on President Obama to begin to dismantle.”

Nadira Khanum, from Bangladesh, a member of DRUM and one of the many who fought for the campaign to win DACA+/DAPA said, “Today, New York City families are more angry than fearful. We are tired of waiting to have justice in this country. We call on the President and his potential successors to take us out of deportation’s crosshairs. I should not have to worry about my husband being deported every minute of every day. We need a firm end to deportations before the President leaves office.”

Both Rishi and Nadira have family members who would have benefited from the DACA+/DAPA program. As part of the #Not1More campaign, DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving has launched a petition to the President, demanding that he use executive power to halt deportations now in the same way he has used it throughout his term to expand immigrant enforcement and detention. 

For the past 16 years, DRUM has organized low-income South Asian immigrant families, immigrant workers, and youth for real migrant justice that ends the criminalizing of all our communities. DACA may have been taken away, but we are as united as ever--not only as families, but also as immigrant workers, many of whom don't have families in this country but have families who rely on us from across borders. Our whole communities are our families and we must fight for them all.

Tomorrow, DRUM and other immigrant rights groups will be holding a press conference to lift up voices of community members and those directly impacted by the blocking of DACA+/DAPA. Join us tomorrow at 4:30 in Diversity Plaza, Jackson Heights. The press conference will be followed by community meetings in the upcoming weeks to do community education on the ruling, and to develop our strategy for the future.

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