Courage

Yesterday July 20th, 2010, over 20 undocumented immigrant youth from all over the country were arrested and risk deportation as they staged peaceful sit-ins at various congressional offices in Washington D.C. in order to urge congressional leadership to take action and pass the DREAM Act.

Our own Arizona Dreamers Dulce and Erika participated on this courageous action were the young professionals confronted their own biggest fear: The fear of identification as an undocumented person, arrest, detention, possible mistreatment in an immigration detention center and possible deportation to homelessness in a strange country away from friends family.

Would you blame them for resorting to peaceful civil disobedience? They have try it all. We have try it all. We have called the attention of Congresspersons and Senators in Arizona and nationally on the difficult human rights situation that the students have confronted for years.

We had face to face meetings, wrote letters, faxed histories, used the media to convey our messages, sought alliances with religious groups, academic groups etc. for years and nothing. Some Congressional offices had choose not to hear what happens in the community and many have misinformed immigration "experts".

Crass political calculations always derail the passage of the DREAM Act year after year. Politicians give more validity to the hysteria of the "illegal is illegal" crowd than real human rights.

One political party criminalizes us immigrants the other makes political calculations of our electoral work, support and vote.

Peaceful civil disobedience seems to me the next logical step.

At least 65,000 undocumented immigrant youth graduate from high schools every year, and many of them struggle to attend institutes of higher education and the military. The DREAM Act will grant youth who immigrated to the United States before the age of 16, a path to legalization contingent on continuous presence in the country, good behavior, and the attainment of at least a two-year university degree or a two-year commitment to the armed forces.

According to recent surveys by First Focus, 70% of the American public supports the DREAM Act,

According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, there are approximately 114,000 DREAM Act-eligible youth in Arizona . For many students, the situation in Arizona is not changing, politicians are not listening, so they have decided to take the cause of their lives to Washington D.C. The immigrant youth participating in today’s action hail from Illinois, Virginia, New York, California, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, and Michigan.