Trump 'Was Insulting Our Humanity,' Says Student Who Went To SOTU

(The following reaction was written last night by Ana Campa Castillo, the Joliet Junior College student invited by Congressman Bill Foster as his special guest for Tuesday night's State of the Union Address by President Trump in Washington, D.C.)

JOLIET, IL - I am very disappointed to have heard the 45th president dismiss my community and I as criminals. I understand that there are many people committing unimaginable crimes and should not be allowed to roam free, but to me the 45th president portrayed immigrants very poorly and reinforced stigmas.

In addition to poor terminology like chain migration instead of family reunification, which does not grant an “unlimited” number of family members citizenship. DREAMers were not really acknowledged in my view. To have been acknowledged would have included taking responsibility for ending DACA and putting Congress in a 6 month deadline, while 122 recipients lose their status a day. He is the major reason why we are asking for a Clean Dream Act Now and cannot wait any longer.

Ana Campa Castillo with Congressman Bill Foster

When he mentioned that Americans are dreamers too, he was insulting our humanity. We are not denying that Americans are dreamers as well. The word “DREAMers” referring to DACA recipient comes from the DREAM Act that was proposed since 2001; development, relied, education, of alien minors. The reality is that we chose this definition because it states that we lack equality. By saying that Americans are dreamers makes us sound as if we were trying to steal their dream, when in fact we are working double time to get a solution for our status and breaking down barriers.

-Ana

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Images via Joliet Junior College