On Sept. 5, 2017, Donald Trump ordered an end to the program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive action taken by President Barack Obama that allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the US under the age of 16 to apply for protection from deportation. The order also allowed DACA recipients to get renewable two-year permits to work and study in the U.S. The end of the program threatened deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants that were protected by the program.

Since the announcement, Trump has advocated for a bipartisan immigration bill through Congress. Yet when a bill was proposed by a bipartisan group of senators led by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) in mid-January, Trump rejected the bill. His administration then demanded that the bill include $18 billion for construction and renovations of a wall along the border of Mexico, which had been his core campaign promise. Democrats and some Republicans resisted funding a wall, claiming that illegal immigration over the Mexico border is at record lows.

While the San Francisco-based U.S. District Court judge William Alsup blocked Trump’s end to DACA and ordered the administration to resume accepting renewal applications on Jan. 9, Democrats refused to pass the federal budget without a bill ensuring long term, guaranteed protection of Dreamers, those who are protected by DACA. And so, on midnight of Jan. 20, the government shut down for the first time in four years, and on the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration.

To say that the current political situation is a mess is an understatement. My worry, however, is for those whose lives are on the line. My concern is for the 690,000 young people who might lose their lives in the only place they’ve ever known. These people— who are my friends, fellow students, co-workers and who stand beside me with the intention of making our country a better place— are being used as a weapon for Trump’s own personal gain. And that is unacceptable. 

I am angry at the politicians who are using people’s lives as a political ploy— those who think using human beings as leverage for carrying out campaign promises is acceptable. It is dehumanizing, insulting and cruel. Those protected by DACA are people who have families, friends and careers. They are people who have hopes and dreams, and who are fearful that their life in America will be taken from them. To use that fear as a political weapon is, in my opinion, evil.

And so I ask that we put politics aside for a moment and forget the inconvenience that this government shutdown may have on us, but rather, think about those whose lives are being argued as if they aren’t even real. I ask that we all take the time to make these people real to us. Read their stories, and hear their voices. Reach out to organizations like United We Dream, UndocuMedia and Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. Get involved by donating or volunteering. And lastly, call or write your representatives asking them to remember Dreamers as people rather than a piece of legislation, and to fight for their protection at all costs.