SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Ali-Ruza Torabi traveled to Washington D.C. this week for the second inauguration of President Donald Trump, looking to have meaningful conversations with Trump supporters who want him deported.
“Would you be okay with me being your doctor taking care of you, knowing I'm undocumented?” Ali-Ruza Torabi asked.
“I'd rather not,” one Trump supporter responded.
Torabi is a DACA recipient living in San Diego and applying for his residency in family medicine. He’s worried he’ll lose all of that under the trump administration.
“A bit overwhelming, scary," Torabi said. "But more so it gave me a desire to take a stand. I don’t have a big platform, but to use whatever platform I have to advocate and fight for my community.”
On Thursday, Trump faced his first setback in changing immigration law. When a federal judge temporarily blocked his executive order to end birthright citizenship. The judge said it goes against the Constitution’s 14th amendment, which says any person born on us soil is a citizen.
“I think they’ll keep appealing it until it ends up in the Supreme Court,” said Immigration attorney Jacob Sapochnick.
Sapochnick says this is just the first step in a long journey of litigation. He advises undocumented immigrants to be prepared for laws to change.
“People should start planning: what are we going to do if this happens,” Sapochnick said. “Do we have an alternative way to legalize ourselves?”
Torabi hopes to find a path to citizenship before then. For now, he’s advocating among Trump supporters for the right to stay in the U.S.
