WARSAW — Despite the rainy weather and the holiday, around 90 Kosciusko County residents marched to support DACA on Monday, Sept. 4 at Warsaw’s Central Park.

Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals is a government program that protected nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. President Donald Trump formally announced the end of the program today, Sept. 5. No current beneficiaries will be affected before March 5, 2018, but no new applications are being processed. Congress now has the opportunity to pass a legislative solution.

“I felt it was necessary to organize a rally in Warsaw in order to show solidarity with the local Latino/Hispanic community and also to show the public that Dreamers live in every community across America,” said Brian Smith, chairman of the Kosciusko County Democrats. “They are our neighbors, our coworkers and an integral part of the Warsaw community.”

According to Smith, during the evening, a few recipients of the DACA program spoke about how they finally felt able to come out of the shadows and become part of the Warsaw community. They stated that they will not be going back into the shadows.

“Going forward, we urged rally goers to call our elected Congressional representatives in order to reinstate this program,” said Smith.

Local representatives can be reached at the following numbers:

• Senator Joe Donnelly (574) 288-2780
• Senator Todd Young (317) 226-6700
• Representative Jackie Walorski (574) 204-2645
• Representative Jim Banks (260) 702-4750