Racine 'DREAMers' on hunger strike as Trump administration plans DACA announcement

RACINE -- President Donald Trump is expected to announce Tuesday, September 5th that he's ending protections for young people brought into the U.S. illegally as children, but giving Congress six months to save the program.

A group of those young people, known as DREAMers, is on a hunger strike in downtown Racine. They said they're terrified about their future and are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan, who represents the area, to reach a legislative solution.

They said they were upbeat about reports that President Trump would give Congress six months to extend the program before it goes away early next year.

"We received this news yesterday. We took it as a victory, for the main reason that now we have six months," said Valaria Ruiz-Lira, 21, who has lived in Racine since she came from Mexico with her parents when she was 3 years old.

Ruiz-Lira got a Social Security number and a driver's license when President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012, allowing her to get a job.

The program requires her to renew her status every two years, and Ruiz-Lira said she's on her third term. She said she wants Congress to make the protections permanent.

"We don't want to keep having to renew and and not knowing if, maybe I was accepted this time, but next time I'm not?" Ruiz-Lira said.

Ryan figures to play a big role. On Friday, September 1st, a Janesville radio host asked whether President Trump should end DACA.

"I actually don`t think he should do that, and I believe this is something that Congress has to fix," Ryan told WCLO/1230 AM. "There are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home."

Ryan said President Obama "didn't have the legislative authority to do what he did."

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore said she wonders whether Congress will follow through on Ryan's plan to create a legislative solution for DREAMers.

"The political damage that this might cause with some of the Republicans' base that are really, really anti-immigrant is something we'll face in the House, so it's a great getting up morning for people like Paul Ryan," said Moore, D-Milwaukee, in an interview.

President Trump would be fulfilling a campaign pledge made in 2016, when he promised to end DACA. But after winning election in November, he said Dreamers "shouldn't be very worried."

There are 800,000 such people nationwide. An estimated 8,000 live in Wisconsin, mostly in Milwaukee County, according to the Migration Policy Institute.