SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and South Florida leaders showed support for young immigrants who may be forced to leave the country in the coming months.
During a Monday afternoon roundtable meeting, Wasserman Schultz was joined by community leaders to discuss the future of Haitians who have Temporary Protective Status and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also known as “Dreamers.”
“My goal is to make sure that we continue to shine a spotlight on President Trump’s horrific immigration policy,” said Wasserman Schultz.
“When I think about the students I’ve met, and the ‘Dreamers’ I’ve met, and the ‘Dreamers’ who are going to school with my daughter, it’s insane what’s happening to these children and their families,” said Broward County School Board member Robin Bartleman.
DACA is set to end on March 5.
Trump took to Twitter to express his views on DACA. “Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time. March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!” he wrote in a tweet.
“I’m not willing for none of my children to be deported,” said Broward School Board member Rosalind Osgood. “If it means I have to get churches to make walls or fences around schools, that we have to stack people at homes, we’re going to take a stand,” she said.
Broward School Board members passed the “Safe Space” policy to protect all students.
“Our schools are the safest places for our students to be. No immigration official is going to come into our public schools. That is federal law,” said Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie. “They can’t come into our schools and begin to deport students. That’s not going to happen.”
Implications for Haitian immigrants in the country protected by TPS was another topic of concern at the roundtable meeting.
“Me as an immigrant, not only an immigrant, as a woman, as a black person,” said TPS recipient Farrah Larrieux.
TPS for Haitians in the U.S. is set to be terminated in July of 2019, which makes immigrants very uneasy.
“I’m trying to not stress myself with that,” said Larrieux. “I’m trying to remain optimistic. I’m trying to also remain strong, but I know that not everybody can do it. It’s very depressing. Some days I’m very depressed.”
“It’s absolutely immoral and outrageous, and it is also against everything we stood for in this country for at least 100 years,” said Wasserman Schultz. “That’s how far back this president wishes to turn back our immigration policy, and it’s because he is for the bleaching of America.”
Larrieux added that she’s motivated by the fight for those who remain under TPS.
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