Congressman Thomas Suozzi is set to bring Nelson Melgar, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient and aide to New York State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, to tonight’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill to help advocate for immigrant rights and find a solution to the crisis that has left 800,000 Dreamers in jeopardy of deportation.
Suozzi called Melgar’s background, the quintessential “American story.” They stood in front of the location of the convenience store where Melgar worked one of his several jobs to pay for his college degree in political science and international relations, while earning a 3.6 grade-point average.
“It used to be that you would read in the news about Latvia, Darfur, and other places in the world… and now, I don’t think we can do that anymore,” Melgar said. “Now, everything is centered on what’s going on here. We were focused on the crises of other parts of the world. And now, we’re focused on our own crisis. And, I think that’s a real shame because I grew up in this country admiring the American Dream.”
