Teddy’s two older sisters aren’t eligible to vote in this year’s election, but he is—and he’s going to cast his ballot to protect his family from deportation. “If DACA were to end,” he says, “I have a chance of losing my family. And who am I without my family?”
But Teddy can’t do it alone, and in a digital new ad from pro-immigrant group United We Dream Action (UWDA) PAC is calling on voters everywhere to help keep his family together by making their voices heard this November.
“My sisters have DACA and Trump wants to deport them,” the 18-year old high school student says in the ad, which shines an important light on the struggles that mixed-status immigrant families are facing due to the Trump administration’s racist policies and its failed response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Right now, both of my parents are unemployed due to COVID-19, and my sister’s the one paying all the bills.”
“I want voters to know that their vote matters,” he continues later in the ad, “and has the power to protect families like mine.”
The digital ad is part of a $700,000 campaign recently launched by UWDA PAC that also includes a number of ads in battleground states targeting Republican senators who have prioritized Donald Trump over the people, including Arizona’s Martha McSally, Colorado’s Cory Gardner, and Texas’ John Cornyn.
“You hear that?” one ad targeting North Carolina’s Thom Tillis asks over the sound of crickets. “That’s Thom Tillis’ silence on Trump’s disastrous COVID-19 response. It’s his silence when Trump destroys our DACA protections.”
According to UWDA PAC, over 2.5 million voters across the U.S. live with someone protected by the DACA program, like Teddy’s sisters Danielle and Luz. Trump has steadily decimated their DACA protections but is holding out on again terminating the popular and successful program until after the election. That is, unless we fight for it.
“[O]ur communities have tremendous power,” UWDA PAC senior marketing and creative director Juanita Monsalve said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “There are large populations of mixed status families like these in states we are targeting like Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Florida and they’ll vote because immigrant youth and our communities are here to stay and here to win.
“My sisters can’t vote to stop Trump,” Teddy continues in the video, “but you and I can.”
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