Students take over Hart Building in protest for clean DREAM act

Video by Danial Dale

On the 9th of November, an estimated 1,000 students walked out of DC schools and swarmed the Hart Senate Office Building for a loud protest demanding that a clean DREAM act bill be passed. At least one arrest was reported.

Protesters lined the Atrium galleries and dropped banners, demanding a clean bill with no provisions harming other migrants or border communities. Such a bill would protect young migrants brought here as children from being rounded up at deported, in some cases to countries they've never even seen.

Protesters took credit for shutting down business in the Hart Senate Office Building for the duration of the action. The ground floor of the atrium and the balconies were jam-packed with student protesters, meaning it would be difficult for corporate lobbyists and their bagmen even to walk around.

This was one of many coordinated protests across the US for a DREAM act free of provisions to harass other migrants, build a wall, ban immigrants on the basis of religion, or further militarize communities on the US side of the US-Mexico border. The demand is simple: a standalone bill to protect migrants brought here as children with no other provisions. Any "compromise" that protects some migrants while throwing others under the bus is to be refused and rejected. Such "compromises" are the legislative equivalent of "cooperating" plea deals in court.