BLSU responds to DACA with advocacy
By Jonina Mignon ’21, Contributing Writer
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, BLSU held one of its bi-weekly phone banks in the Sadove Sun Porch. The current topic that BLSU is holding these calling opportunities for is urging Congressmen to support DACA.
Established by the Obama administration in 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known as DACA, was an immigration policy that would allow some undocumented immigrants, or those who had entered the country as minors, to qualify for a work permit or defer deportation by two years.
Hundreds of thousands of people were a part of the DACA program, but these people, known as the DREAMers, now face uncertain futures with the repeal of DACA under the Trump administration.
BLSU, a group who in the past has stayed proactive on following current events, made DACA no exception. Amari Dumas ’20, BLSU’s historian, gave insight into the creation of the phone bank event, saying, “we started doing this at the beginning of the semester. We had a general meeting about how we wanted to be involved in DACA and reach out and have a voice.
We all brainstormed in the living room what our goals were, who we wanted to reach, and how we wanted to be a part of it. Last year, we hosted phone banks for different issues, and this time we wanted to make the issue more specific because it’s more urgent.”
Dumas continued, “with the devastation of Puerto Rico and other places struck by natural disasters, we can also add this other element, so this is not just DACA, it’s encouraging people who want to call about Puerto Rico and the earthquake in Mexico. If they wanna call about that and press people to make changes, they can have a platform for that.”
When asked about how the calls are made, Dumas introduced 5 Calls, an application that “has issues listed on it. It tells you who your representative is and gives you a script in order to send that message along.”
For those interested in having their voices heard as constituents, or anyone passionate about current events, BLSU holds phone banks every two weeks and meetings every week. As Dumas stated, “when things come up, we have meetings at BLSU dedicated to those topics and allow people to express how they feel. Whenever an issue comes up, we respond to it and we always have a place in current events.”
For those interested in other topically relevant news, BLSU holds phone banks for a wide array of issues.
