The #OriginalDreamers Hashtag Honors the Parents Who Gave Up Everything to Start Anew in the US

As politicians and activists continue to fight for the future of the young people who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – a Barack Obama-enacted program shielding undocumented immigrants from deportation – many are employing language that fosters division among this community. While DACA recipients – also known as DREAMers – deserve a chance to thrive in this country, it shouldn’t be because they didn’t have a say in whether they moved to the United States. Logic like this only serves to criminalize the parents who made the difficult decision to leave their native countries behind and start anew in the United States.

As this sort of negative language dominates our feeds, Twitter users have started using the hashtag #OriginalDreamers to combat this narrative. Check out a few touching stories below: