Latino VoicesImmigrationundocumented immigrantsdaca

Why Undocumented Immigrants Are Sharing Their Accomplishments After Trump's Win

The #WithDACA hashtag shows the positive contributions they've made to the U.S.
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By 

Reporter, HuffPost

Undocumented immigrants didn’t have a vote or a voice at the ballot box on Election Day, so many have turned to social media to speak out. 

Immigrants right leader Gaby Pacheco, who became the first undocumented Latina to testify in front of Congress about immigration reform in 2013, understood the pressing need to take action against President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to get rid of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which temporarily shields young undocumented immigrants who were brought illegally into the U.S. from deportation.

“As we start the count down to Trump becoming the president, we need to figure out ways to deter him from his campaign promise to overturn the #DACA program,” Pacheco wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. “We’ve started a grassroots campaign where we are asking all #DACAmented people to share their accomplishments after DACA on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Please use the hashtag #WithDACA and then share what you’ve done after you received your DACA.”

Over 728,000 immigrants have become “DACAmented” since the policy was announced in 2012. DACA allows undocumented immigrants to work, but doesn’t offer a path to citizenship. Pleas to continue the DACA program are particularly important in light of Trump’s recent comments on mass deportation. 

During his first post-election interview, which aired Sunday night, the President-elect said he plans to deport or imprison anywhere from 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants as soon as he takes office. Trump said his focus will be on immigrants with criminal records, though it is unclear whether undocumented immigrants with minor crimes are a part of his tally. 

Take a look at what many undocumented immigrants shared using the #WithDACA hashtag below:  

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Before You Go

How Donald Trump Talks About Undocumented Immigrants
April 2015(01 of11)
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At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: “Everything’s coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. It’s like a big mess. Blah. It’s like vomit.” (credit:Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
June 2015(02 of11)
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At a speech announcing his campaign: "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." (credit:Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
August 2015(03 of11)
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On NBC's "Meet the Press": “We’re going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go." (credit:Steve Pope/Getty Images)
September 2015(04 of11)
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On CBS's "60 Minutes": “We’re rounding ‘em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And they’re going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesn’t sound nice. But not everything is nice.” (credit:David Jolkovski/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
November 2015(05 of11)
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On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": “You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely." (credit:Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
February 2016(06 of11)
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At a GOP primary debate: “We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back ― some will come back, the best, through a process.” (credit:Scott Olson/Getty Images)
March 2016(07 of11)
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At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we don’t. We either have a country or we don’t. We have borders or we don’t have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.” (credit:Scott Olson/Getty Images)
April 2016(08 of11)
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At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": “They’re going to go, and we’re going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... They’re going to go, and then come back and come back legally.” (credit:Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
July 2016(09 of11)
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At the Republican National Convention: "Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied ― and every politician who has denied them ― to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced." (credit:Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
September 2016(10 of11)
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At a rally: “Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don’t have a country.” (credit:Ralph Freso/Getty Images)
September 2016(11 of11)
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On "The Dr. Oz Show": “Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldn’t be in the country. They only come in the country legally.” (credit:Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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