WASHINGTON, D.C. — Paid digital ads in North Carolina and South Carolina are highlighting the contributions of young undocumented immigrants who are recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The ads target voters across both states as part of a campaign to build support for DACA recipients. They feature the stories of Jose Contreras Rangel and Maria Cervantes Garcia, as told by their teachers and other mentors.
Jose, a Dreamer who was raised in Siler City, North Carolina, is a student at Queens University in Charlotte. Maria,who hails from Newberry, South Carolina, studies at Delaware State University. Both have excelled in school and have influenced their respective communities positively.
“[Maria] is everything I want my children to be. She’s decent, she’s kind, she’s smart and she’s thoughtful. She thinks of others before herself, and I think anyone you talk to would tell you the same thing,” Margaret Sparrow, Maria’s former English as a second language teacher, says in one of the videos.
“Jose is one of the most active, involved scholars that we have,” Kacey Grantham, Executive Director of Golden Door Scholars, says in the other video. “If I had a kid in college myself, I would want him or her to be just like Jose. He’s an amazing human being, an amazing student and an amazing representative of the DACA community.”
“DACA recipients are part of the fabric of Americans’ everyday lives. They study hard. They work hard. They sit in the nearby pews at church,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. “A consensus is growing among conservative leaders in the Carolinas and across the country that we need their contributions. To cut them off would be self-defeating, and we must pursue long-term legislative solutions to address their situation.”
The ads will run on Facebook, YouTube and Google throughout March.
To watch Jose’s story, click here.
To watch Maria’s story, click here.