Undocumented, unafraid!
Undocumented, unafraid!
A crowd of thirteen or fourteen young, undocumented Latino activists
gathered in the Waffle House parking lot on Hillsborough Road
in Durham yesterday, unveiling a large billboard that targets
Senator Kay Hagan for her record on immigration issues.
The billboard, which is in Spanish, features a picture of Sen. Hagan
and reads:
She started with the licenses, voted against DACA [deferred action for childhood arrivals]—What will she do next? Senator Hagan is anti-immigrant.
*Paid for by Latino families.
Viridiana Martinez, 28, is the Sanford-based co-founder of the
volunteer-run NC DREAM TEAM and the National Immigrant Youth
Alliance. Martinez and many of the speakers drew attention to
Hagan’s record on immigration issues:
- Sen. Hagan voted for a bill that took away licenses in 2006.
- In 2010, she voted against the DREAM Act.
- In 2014, Hagan opposed Obama’s executive action in deportations and then voted with Republicans to defund DACA and block protections for the undocumented. The effort narrowly failed.
She added that the NC DREAM Team had held an event at Sen. Hagan’s office in Greensboro to try to get her to intervene in a deportation of a local woman and her daughters. “Rather than intervening to help, she called the police to have them arrested. That’s why she’s anti-immigrant,” Martinez said.
When asked if she thought Thom Tillis would do a better job, Martinez said, “It doesn’t matter who is in office, we need to hold them accountable. We want to be part of the debate. We have the power to help people win elections, but also lose elections. Hagan needs to be exposed for the anti-immigrant that she is.”