This Chicago priest is on a hunger strike until the U.S. strikes deal to protect 'Dreamers'
Father Gary Graf hasn't eaten solid food in 12 days.
The Chicago priest is on a hunger strike until U.S. Congress reaches a deal to provide a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
"I'm feeling great," Graf told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann on Friday. "A little tired climbing stairs and a little winded, but other than that, I'm feeling good."
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Graf is living off vitamin water and Powerade until lawmakers replace the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shielded 690,000 young immigrants from deportation.
Barring that, he said he'll stop on March 5 — the deadline U.S. President Donald Trump set in September for Congress to provide legal protections for DACA recipients before they become subject to deportation.
"I'm not going to put my life at risk," Graf, who made headlines 2013 for illegally crossed the border from Mexico to highlight the plight of immigrants, said. "But I'm going to do this as long as I can."
The priest said he's met many undocumented immigrants in his work as a reverend at the Most Blessed Trinity Parish and later the St. Procopius Catholic Church.
About 35,600 DACA beneficiaries live in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports.
"For the majority of them, they are here and it's the only country they know and they are fulfilling all the obligations and responsibilities of a citizen, and so they deserve to receive the rights and privileges of a citizen," he said.
"And that's certainly not amnesty — that's justice."
Republican offer shut down
Senior White House officials outlined an immigration plan on Thursday that would offer a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million young immigrants the U.S.
The plan would apply to the roughly 690,000 DACA recipients, as well as hundreds of thousands of others who independent estimates say qualify for the program, but never applied.
To appeal to Republicans, the plan would slash family sponsorship of immigrants, tighten border security and provide billions of dollars in funding for a border wall with Mexico, one of Trump's signature campaign promises.
Trump's framework was quickly slammed by Democrats as a non-starter. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said it held Dreamers "hostage to a hateful anti-immigrant scheme" and accused the Trump administration of a campaign "to make America white again."
The deal also was panned by both pro-immigration groups, who called the proposal a bad trade-off, and conservative groups, who criticized the expansion of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
Senate Democrats prompted a 69-hour government shutdown earlier this week after they refused to support a funding bill without support for Dreamers. They eventually relented.
'It's not apolitical statement — it's a moral one'
But Graf says protecting Dreamers isn't about politics.
"It's not a political statement — it's a moral one, a humanitarian one," he said.
What's more, he said, it's the U.S. reliance on foreign labour that brought the Dreamers to the country in the first place.
"We've kind of encouraged [undocumented immigrants] not only to come over as men, but to bring their wives and children over also because we needed them to continue to do the work. We became very dependent on them. And that's when those children came across," he said.
"And it's so disingenuous for us to say now, you know, send them back."