During the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and the lessor known immigration advocate Astrid Silva will speak. The theme of the evening is “United Together.”
Silva came to the United States in 1992, when she was four, with her Mexican parents. They lived in Nevada as illegal immigrants. As a teenager, Silva didn’t understand why her parents continually said no to her requests – when she wanted to try out for cheerleading or apply for a magnet school. It was because her parents “were afraid they’d have to show papers and people would discover we were undocumented,” Silva wrote in an op-ed for USA Today in 2014. Silva has since received a work permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program the Obama administration introduced in 2012. She is currently the organizing director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
