Beaufort News
Beaufort rally hopes to draw Sanford’s attention to local immigrant community
Supporters of Beaufort County’s immigrant community hope to start a conversation with Rep. Mark Sanford on Tuesday.
A rally planned at Sanford’s Beaufort office at noon will include the Lowcountry Immigration Coalition, Lowcountry Action Network and local chapters of a recent movement opposing President Donald Trump’s policies. The Republican Congressman will be voting in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, but rally organizers plan to leave a letter with his staff and ask for a later meeting.
The group will assemble about 11:30 a.m. at the congressman’s office at 710 Boundary St. Trump’s recent executive orders supporting the building of a wall at the Mexico border, opening pathways to more deportations and temporarily barring entry to refugees and citizens from some majority-Muslim counties spurred the meeting with Sanford’s staff.
“We thought it was important to re-engage with him,” said Sun City resident George Kanuck, co-chairman of Lowcountry Immigration Coalition and a member of Lowcountry Indivisible, a group formed in recent weeks to fight Trump’s agenda.
Rally organizers want the congressman’s positions on, among other issues, the future of a program offering legal protections for certain undocumented immigrants brought into the country illegally as children. As many as 500 Latino residents in Beaufort County are believed to be here under the program, Kanuck said.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was created by then-president Barack Obama’s executive order in 2012. The program’s future is uncertain as Trump is “sending fearful messages to our Latino community in the Lowcountry,” Kanuck said.
Organizers want Sanford’s thoughts on the border wall, the current refugee vetting process and a proposal by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham protecting those under the DACA program from deportation while Congress works on a more comprehensive immigration plan.
A news release last week said the rally will be “peaceful, respectful, lawful and non-partisan.”
The event will include the nascent Beaufort and Lowcountry chapters of Indivisible, a nationwide effort started by former congressional staffers. The Lowcountry chapter began three weeks ago with 14 members and has grown to a mailing list of more than 300, Bluffton resident and chapter member Mitch Siegel said.
A Facebook group for the Beaufort chapter had 111 members Monday afternoon.
“There is obviously a movement happening, even here in the Lowcountry,” he said. “Here in a very red state, there are people willing to take action and become advocates.”
Stephen Fastenau: 843-706-8182, @IPBG_Stephen
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