LEWISTON — Children of immigrants who have spent most of their lives in the United States should not be forced to go back to a country they don’t know.

So said a group of students and community members who gathered in Veterans Park on Friday to support the Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors, known as the DREAM Act.

The group rallied with signs and bullhorns near Longley Bridge to voice their support of immigrant children and, in particular, Selvin Arévalo, a 24-year-old Portland man who was born in Guatemala, has lived Maine for the past 10 years, and faces deportation at the end of the month.

Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert was among the speakers at the rally. He said he is a first-generation American citizen, and if he had to go back to Canada after growing up and being educated in the United States, he would have no sense of family or citizenship or community. And that would be fundamentally unfair.

“We need young people to contribute,” Gilbert said. “We need young, educated people. We need people to serve in our military. And the DREAM Act will make that possible.”

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the DREAM Act before the end of the year.