Take Action!

We are continuing to make progress on Change.org. We recently moved from the 15th to the 14th position on the website and are one of the ideas with the most endorsements! Please, don't forget to e-mail your friends and family asking for their support and vote. Also, contact your local organizations and ask for their endorsement and support as well!

Visit DreamACTivist.org for more information on how to get involved!

DREAM Act 2009!

Vote for the DREAM Act on Change.org!

From DreamACTivist.org

The problem: Many American students graduate from college and high school each year, and face a roadblock to their dreams: they can’t drive, can’t work legally, can’t further their education, and can’t pay taxes to contribute to the economy just because they were brought to this country illegally by their parents or lost legal status along the way. It is a classic case of lost potential and broken dreams, and the permanent underclass of youth it creates is detrimental to our economy. Former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has said: “In short, although these children have built their lives here, they have no possibility of achieving and living the American dream. What a tremendous loss for them, and what a tremendous loss to our society.”

The solution: The federal DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), is a bipartisan legislation that would permit these students conditional legal status and eventual citizenship granted that they meet ALL the following requirements:
–if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16, are below the age of 30,
–have lived here continuously for five years,
–graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED
–have good moral character with no criminal record and
–attend college or enlist in the military.

Why should you care? There is no other pathway to citizenship for these students. Besides the injustice of punishing children for the alleged transgressions of their parents, throwing away the talent we have invested in from K-12 and accruing losses in human and financial capital by deporting talented students is bad public policy. The Social Security Administration has recently stated that we need a net increase of 100,000 immigrants each year to ensure Social Security solvency. Passing the DREAM Act would actually help solve the Social Security crisis by creating a larger taxable base of educated Americans that are already in the United States. It would also free some of the backlog that currently plagues the legal immigration system. Also, the DREAM Act in its latest form, does not grant in-state tuition to any student.

Endorsements: Since 2001, almost a 1000 organizations have officially endorsed the bill. Barack Obama has stated that DREAM Act beneficiaries are “American children for all intents and purposes” and has called this a top priority.

Tell President-Elect Obama to pass the DREAM Act in 2009. See DreamActivist.org to get more involved.

From Jan 5 to Jan 15, Change.org has resumed the final round of voting
for ‘Ideas for Change.’ The Top 10 Ideas get presented to Barack Obama
at an event co-hosted with The Case Foundation at the National Press
Club in Washington, DC on January 16th.

Links to vote for the Top 3 ideas in Immigration
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/pass_the_dream_act_now
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/equal_immigration_rights_for_same_sex_binational_couples
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/provide_relief_for_families_of_immigrants

Important - You have 10 votes as a person and as a non-profit /
blogger, it is alright to endorse more than one idea.

ENDORSEMENTS
For bloggers and non-profits, endorsement is quick and easy and you
also get to advertise your site. Click on the “Click Here to Endorse
this Idea” on the right side of each idea you want to endorse, fill in
the details, and submit.

WIDGETS
The code for the widgets is the same — please put those up on your
site.

What I'm Thankful For.

Being undocumented.. well.. sucks. There are many things that have been denied to me because I don't have that little piece of paper. I can't find another job because I know I wouldn't be able to find one legally. I can't drive a car because I'm unable to get a driver's license. But most importantly, I can't go to school full-time because of the super expensive international tuition I have to pay. And let's not forget the awkward conversations that arise from these such as "Why don't you drive?" "You're still in school? Aren't you 21?" "You've been working there for HOW long??"And while all of these things should make me not want to get out of bed in the morning, I can't help but feel optimistic of what next year will bring.

You see, being a DREAMer is not only about being an undocumented student. It is also about being a fighter. Every day, DREAMers across the country are faced with obstacles because of their status. But instead of giving up, we fight. We fight for our right to be considered American. We fight for our right to an education, for our right to live a normal life. Because we deserve it. We've earned it. And while some people believe we shouldn't be in this country, they will never be able to take away the fact that we are Americans. They can't take away the fact that this is our home.

And while this may shock some people, some good things have come out from being undocumented. This is not to say that I'm glad I'm undocumented, I'd much rather be legal. But I am not ashamed of being a DREAMer. As a result of my status, I value education in a way many U.S. college students don't. Instead of wasting my money on going out and partying, I save it in order to pay for school. I study and work hard to make sure I keep my 4.0. And even though I'm going to have to wake up bright and early next semester, I can't wait to go to school because I love learning. I love homework, I love lectures. But not only has being a DREAMer helped me appreciate school, it has also helped me appreciate life. It has helped me appreciate the things I have; a roof over my head, food to eat, a bed to sleep on. Simple things that many people across the country and the world don't have.

Perhaps I would feel the same way if I wasn't a DREAMer, but there's no way of knowing. Being a DREAMer has made me a better person, and for that I am thankful.


Happy holidays, everyone!

Senate Poised to Act Quickly on Key Issues

According to Paul Kane from the Washington Post, the DREAM Act seems to have a very good chance of passing next year.

Civil rights: After the failure of sweeping immigration overhaul, Democrats scaled back their effort to focus on the DREAM Act. The legislation would have halted deportation efforts of children who are here illegally, giving them citizenship opportunities if they entered the country before age 16 and have lived here for five years.

That bill was blocked after receiving 52 votes, but four supporters were not present. For the 111th Congress, seven Democrats will replace Republicans who voted against the bill. Barring a push for broader immigration restructuring by Obama, Senate aides said this smaller measure should have enough support to pass.
Source

Let this provide us with enough motivation to keep fighting to make our DREAMs a reality. Yes, we can. Yes, we will!

Fighting Misinformation - Part I

This is the first installment of the "Fighting Misinformation" series I decided to embark on.

As I mentioned in one of my posts, there is a lot of false information regarding the DREAM Act. This information has been mostly spread by the anti-immigration/anti-DREAM Act crowd. I realize that their minds cannot be changed; however, there are people (U.S citizens included) who would support this piece of legislation if they were aware of the facts surrounding it. One of the goals of this blog is to inform the few readers I might have about DREAM, and I thought this was the best way to do it.

Enough talking. Let's begin.


1) The DREAM Act is not amnesty.

Amnesty (n): an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.

The idea of amnesty does not apply to DREAM Act beneficiaries. Amnesty, as shown above, implies that the person has committed a crime or offense. Students eligible for the DREAM Act did not commit a crime by coming to this country. They were children and infants, brought to the U.S. by their parents. The only "crime" they committed was to follow them.

Furthermore, DREAM Act students will not be "granted" citizenship after the enactment of the act. They will have to complete at least 2 years of college or 2 years in the military in order to be eligible for citizenship. They will also have to continue to show good moral character and have no criminal record in order to qualify. Furthermore, the DREAM Act legislation states that students will only be eligible for citizenship after 6 years have passed since the enactment of the law.

Another easy way to contribute to the passage of the DREAM Act:

Go to Ideas for Changing America and vote for the "Pass the DREAM Act Now" idea. And don't forget to comment on it!

Why is this important?

The "Top 10 Ideas for America" will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day. We will then build a national campaign to advance each idea in Congress, marshaling the resources of Change.org, MySpace, and our dozens of partner organizations and millions of combined members.

Yes, you will need to create an account but it takes literally 30 seconds to do so! So to summarize this long post: visit, register, vote, comment, make a difference. Easy enough.

Update: We currently have 143 votes and are #1 on the whole site! Keep up the good work, everyone!

Obama-Biden Immigration Transition Team

The Obama-Biden transition team has released the names of two leaders working as part of the Policy Working Group on Immigration. The goal of these policy groups is to develop policy proposals and plans for the new Obama-Biden administration. This is good news for the pro-migrant movement as they are both in favor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform and seem to be very intelligent people, especially when it comes to immigration. Here's are their bios, taken from The Obama-Biden Transition Team website.

T. Alexander Aleinikoff has been Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University since July 2004. He has been a member of the Georgetown faculty since 1997. Dean Aleinikoff served as General Counsel and Executive Associate Commissioner for Programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton Administration. From 1997 to 2004 he was a Senior Associate at the Migration Policy Institute, where he now serves on the Board of Trustees. He has written widely on immigration, refugee and citizenship law and constitutional law. Dean Aleinikoff is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Yale Law School.

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar is Professor and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School. His work focuses on how organizations manage complex regulatory, migration, international security, and criminal justice problems. During the Clinton Administration he served at Treasury as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement, where he worked on countering domestic and international financial crime, improving border coordination, and enhancing anti-corruption measures. He has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including Asylum Access and the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation. He has testified before Congress on immigration policy and separation of powers, and was appointed to the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.