Great Moments in 2011

I corresponded some years ago with "Franko Music", a DREAM act student who wanted information on the Legislation. Years later a friend of his tells me he is in detention. His "crime": not to set a foot on the ground (a complete stop for a motorcyclist) in an intersection. Dulce Matuz, ADAC Chair and I, go around Maricopa County Sheriff Office and ICE- Phoenix to see where he is being held while making calls to coordinate a quick campaign. Genie Zavaleta works the connection with DC. State Legislator Catherine Miranda contacts local ICE officials.

Before attending CPLC Esperanza Awards (all decked up) we get the word he would be released. (Don't even have time to write a constant contact e-mail and start a campaign). Franko is released the same day of our intervention.  You can see Franko here at time of his release.  I always wanted to liberate persons in high heels.  


Tucson DREAMer.

Great team work saves Juan Manuel Munoz from deportation.  Lawyer Jose Penalosa,  always  ready to help DREAMers, provides all the professional help. Thanks to advocates Matt Matera, Yadira Garcia and friends in Tucson we coordinate a quick case.  
I felt so honored to have Congressman Grijalva's office monitoring the situation and offering help.

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During 2011 I was happy to  continue supporting  DREAMers initiatives like Carla Chavarria's  I DREAM  Campaign and Angelica-goes- to-Washington with press releases and pro-bono work by Critical Mass Communications, LLC.

This is More on Carla's  I DREAM  Campaign.

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How can I forget? I owned Paris for two and half weeks ! Thanks MEGA.

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Complete sadness: Maricopa County Community Colleges  (MCCCD) raised their tuition, pricing out DREAMers and some citizens out of higher education. Yes, part of the Pearce legacy. More damaging, they plan to implement an obscure law HB2008 full extent, full force, extreme interpretation. Thanks to hours and hours of pestering the Board, Chancellor and Machiavellic general counsel, Lee Combs with my friend Daniel Rodriguez we managed to tone down some of the implementation of HB2008 (like asking the immigration status of students riding vans to student' congresses). Next semester 5,000+ students dropped out of the Maricopa system. 

If you ask Mr. Combs, he will deny  he intended to ask MCCCD student's immigration status " on a case by case scenario". 
To this date, the press, nobody cares about it. #couldhavebeenevenworse.

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ADAC protests the Maricopa County Community College Boards for pricing out DREAM Act students taking 1 to 2 hours. I run a national campaign to ask the Chancellor to re-consider. Great help from Jackie Mahendra and team from Change.org.  At least we take it national and it is not an unknown pain. Sadness, anger. 

Students paid good money for their education. They will take their money other place. A grear option is State Legislator Catherine Miranda's Manzana Foundation partnering with the Navajo Technical College. 
Potential lost estimated for MCCCD: FTSE 2,265 Revenue $3,222,777.00 ( I think it is even more as now).

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Thanks to educational devastation created by  MCCCD's  Legal Counsel Lee Combs, we kind of figure out there were a lot of things going wrong at the Community Colleges. I replicate the craft of the journalists (my friend Gregory Pratt comes to mind) and I start requesting information to MCCCD invoking Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  It opened a new world of possibilities and learning. POWERFUL tool. Now, I know too much (I should be killed). #Iwanttoknowmore! BUT #nobodycares!

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Carl Hayden Robotics continues kicking robotic butt. So honored to work on their press releases and know in advance how they are going to be profiled on the media. Very proud of student leader Maria Castro (profiled in a CNN special) Dulce Matuz (a robot named after her- welcome to the club!) and all the past, present and future Falcons.

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I got a phone call. An ASU student's best friend is in detention. Did an intensive research in a matter of hours. Great, beautiful young lady. Got really upset since she was about to get transported to Florence or other of the detention holes (I know what might happen there.  If you do not know, read this study by UofA).I get determined to get her out QUICK. Sent my constant contact online petition. Great help from Mohammad Abdollahi to make the petition GO NATIONAL. Nallely is out by the evening. (Michelle Dallacrose has been gaining weight ! Haha).

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Starting 2011, we were able to save Pedro Gutierrez from deportation thanks to Mohammad Abdollahi,  Lawyer Mo Goldman, the great ADAC and Pedro's mentors. Here is one of the many media clips on Pedro and the awesome PR job.
So honored to have coordinated the campaign (even when I was shivering with fever and the flu).

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I'm looking forward 2012 for more advocacy and great times !
Good bless you all, dear readers!

Lift the Torch

Pedro Gutierrez led the crowds and lifted the torch of freedom on the Phoenix Martin Luther King Parade.
He could have been doing so many things that day.. many... like packing his belongings, maybe retreat to his place in shame or bitterness since the following day his deportation had been scheduled, but he decided to attend the Parade. "It was crazy", he said, "I chose to go to the parade".
Lewis and Jane Storey found my name and phone number on Facebook thanks to a lead provided by Luis Avila, hoping I will be able to help Pedro Gutierrez and save him from deportation. The Storeys have been mentoring Pedro for years touched by his story of good behavior in spite of tremendous odds. Being brought undocumented by his grandmother (who had legal status) after his parents wasted their lives lost on drugs. Grandma was later unsuccessful making connections with more relatives in Mexico when she fell gravely ill. When she dies, leaves Pedro at 11 at the care of her African American husband, who abandons him before Pedro becomes an adult.
In spite of the abandonment, Pedro dreams to follow his step grandfather's life in the military and sought recruiters to join. His legal status prevents Pedro to enlist but relentless he "trains" along the new recruits.
Getting all the details on Pedro and his touching story I asked my fellow CADENA members for their permission to use the list of supporters and request their action with phone calls and faxes asking DHS to stop Pedro's deportation. I also connected with Mohammad Abdollahi from dreamactivist network who made possible connections at national level, even finding a terrific Tucson lawyer, Mo Goldman, who took the legal side of Pedro's defense pro-bono. It was an exciting week where we put together a national team with the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition (which took care of the media events and rallies for Pedro), Adam Luna from America's Voice with the social media resources to send on line faxes and extensive distribution list, Mo from Dreamactivist network, CADENA, Lawyer Mo Goldman and the Storeys.
Thanks to the actions of many subscribers to our networks, DHS delayed the deportation date and granted Pedro Gurtierrez eventually deferred action.
Pedro now can be without fear, as long as this administrative procedure is in place.
On Saturday I saw Pedro and the Storeys in Casa Grande along with other students ready to form The Arizona DREAM Act coalition of Pinal County. Hearing Pedro recount of what he thought was his last hours of his life in the USA before being thrown into homelessness, made my own petty life disappointments dwarf by his experience.
"I chose to go to the parade... people recognized me and asked me to lead the Martin Luther King parade...gave me the the torch. What I thought was my last day of my life in the USA was the best day of my life. I could gave everything up for those moments when I had the torch and all would have been worth it".
So I wake up in the middle of the night and I think of Pedro and I get reminded: "live your life like you are going to be deported tomorrow". Lift the torch and lead the parade.

Secrets

As an advocate sometime people share personal information that I need to keep secret.

There are a lot of things that I keep for myself, minding at all time the best interest for the DREAMers and the DREAM Act advocacy.

I have been given the go ahead to reveal one of the many secrets and now I let you all know Oscar Vazquez has enrolled in the army and will finish basic training in June. This is just an example of the sense of patriotic duty the dreamers have in their hearts. If you follow the DREAM Act advocacy in Arizona, you will remember his story.

Oscar Vazquez was member of the team who beat MIT in the MATE underwater robotics competition and was famous around the world thanks to the article "La Vida Robot", by Joshua Davis. The article was the single most clicked article online on Wired Magazine and was reprinted in Readers' Digest editions in several languages in many countries. Read the original article clicking here.

Notoriety followed.

Watch the ABC Nighline video piece on the mighty Falcon robotics here.

After successfully completing a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering, Oscar left the country, self deported, frustrated by the lack of action of the federal government and in search for legal venue for re-entry.

It was a gamble, because there are no legal or administrative roads to officially do this. But Oscar and his young family, Karla and Sammy, where ready to endure the hardships. Please read the AZ Republic article on his self deportation here.

I knew of Oscar departure after some weeks he had been living in Mexico. I knew some persons, including some VIPs, were requesting DHS his re-entry but nothing happened.

I decided to look for support in different congressional offices starting for the obvious in Arizona. I was flatly turned back at Ed Pastor's office where they explained only in cases of extreme hardship (i.e. a citizen wife with a malignant cancer in her head waiting for the re-entry of an undocumented husband to assist her and the children ) will be considered. There was no consideration to economic hardship or separation of father and sons, daughters, husbands and wives.

I turned to Raul Grijalva's offices who were a little more sympathetic and willing to explore the possibility but I do not think anything came from it.

I decided to connect with the office of Senator Richard Durbin from Illinois, mayor proponent of the dream act at the national level. That was when things started to move in the right direction.

I was going back and forth exchanging e-mails with Durbin's excellent staff, which arranged meetings with DHS to petition Oscar.

Although it seemed clear to me the impossible may happen, the "legalization" of Oscar Vazquez, Mohammad Abdollahi from Dreamactivist.org confirmed what I suspected in his characteristic unassuming way. " Hey, Carmen ! do you know that Oscar Vazquez is coming home?", he said.

But the family did not wanted all to know until he was actually here. For weeks that seemed like years I kept the secret. Then he finally came home.

Today, Oscar has been away for basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky; since Feb 1, 2011. He went in as a Specialist (Spc) thanks to his BA in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Cavalry Scout/Infantry.His family will be reunited with him again on April ready to face their new adventure.

Open Lettter To Mohammad Abdollahi

Dear Mohammad,

It’s difficult for me to see the pictures and images of what happened on Monday, May the 17^th , 2010.

I guess you all reached a point of no return. Hearing so many DREAM Act stories makes me understand the depth of your desperation.

Your life and of all the dreamers has been put on hold for so many years that I think you only saw this option available to you. You sat down in a peaceful protest with your friends in front of powerful Senator John McCain's office and you are willing to risk to be deported, all world to witness, because the government of the place you grew up does not let you live freely, when freedom seems to be all around you.

I suppose you all knew I will not approve of this action. We are afraid for your safety (the safety of all dreamers) and afraid that you actually are going to be deported to a place that can mean a death sentence for you. This after being arrested, handcuffed and possibly mistreated. If I do not approve of your action it is not because I’m not proud of you but because I really care about you.

Of all places you chose Arizona to shout your pain to the world. Maybe you did this because Arizona is a dry and often inhospitable place, where people call children, teenagers, and young adults in your situation “illegals” more often than not. Maybe you came to his place because you feel that more immigrants are being criminalized even when are role model human beings, just like you.

Maybe you chose to come here because many people in this place are incapable of imagining what is like to be brought to a country swaddled in desperation and grow up in the shadows of society and, in spite of all, grow up to be a remarkable human being and a leader, like so many of the dreamers. Maybe you chose Arizona because many hearts are hardened by hate and cannot see past their prejudices. Perhaps you came here because you think Arizona is the epicenter of hate, specially after the governor signed sb1070 and you are fighting for all of us.

I really do not know where this is going to take you and all the dreamers. I really hope that your actions will soften some hearts when confronted with the ugly realties of what we have all done to children and young lives like yours in this country.

I pray today for your safety and for the safety of all DREAMers.

Love and hugs,

Carmen Cornejo