Arizona’s Prop 300, its Effect on GED Seekers and Future DACA Applicants

About two years ago I was asked by a non-profit organization to craft an advocacy agenda on education issues since my work for the DREAM Act eligible youth is well known in Arizona, and immigrant youth is such an important part our education system and communities.  One of the issues I brought up to the surprise of my fellow board members was the concern for Arizona’s high dropout rate among Hispanics and the need to make stronger efforts promoting the integration of those individuals through GED certification programs. 

According to a 2010 study by Migration Policy Institute (MPI) around 100,000 undocumented youth live in Arizona, at different educational levels. Currently Arizona has an average High School completion rate of 72.5% being the Hispanic community the one with the highest percentage of High Schools drop outs. One of the factors that without doubt  influence the below national average completion rates for High School is that many of the students attending K-12 education are undocumented and get discouraged to continue their education by  the implementation of anti immigrant laws that put barriers to accessing post-secondary education.

In 2007 the Arizona voters passed Prop. 300, one of the first state anti-immigrant laws to target the education of undocumented students.  Prop 300 denied state funding for undocumented students and practically tripled the tuition to post secondary education for students that could not prove legal status in Arizona. Other of the lesser known educational elements this proposition affected was adult education. 

DREAM Advocates like myself always tried to encourage young immigrants to finish their High School and obtain a diploma since K-12 education has been protected by Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe and our knowledge of the effects of Prop 300 on remedial tools as adult education, GED instruction certification and post secondary education in general.

President Obama’s announcement on June 15^th 2012 granting legal presence to undocumented young immigrants though Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the subsequent guidelines issued brought a new and sudden interest in GED education. Now the minimal educational requirement for DACA applicants is a high school diploma or a GED.  According to USCIS guidelines and interpretation from practicing immigration lawyers, young immigrants can apply to DACA when they can probe they are enrolled in a GED program.

Suddenly this tool for remedial certification became important for many.  Demand overwhelmed the current GED outlets, burdened by the limitations imposed by Prop 300. Institutions and non-profit organizations have been revising their models for offering GED to future DACA applicants and at three months of the DACA announcement, slowly started to increase the number of GED classes On Line and in regular classroom settings.  Institutions have been revising enrollment, funding and id requirements in order to be compliant with prop. 300. Due to Prop. 300 GED programs in Arizona are not being offered for free for people who cannot prove legal status.  State money is not being allocated for these classes.  

The Arizona Department of education has issued guidelines to ID requirements when the GED classes and tests are being paid for. Young immigrants seeking GED instruction and certification in order to apply for DACA have being confronted with unscrupulous organizations or businesses that offer instruction for high price and which accreditation is questionable. Established GED outlets from community colleges and school districts are starting to offer tuition options, some of them making extraordinary efforts to offer instruction for an affordable cost. 

Using social media tools DREAM Act advocates like myself, are communicating these options for GED seekers since we have little to no-resources.

In spite of the obstacles we are determined to integrate more young immigrants to the GED instruction so they can apply to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process and increase the educational level of this segment of the population.  This is an opportunity we all can benefit from.

Follow GED updates on Fabebook searching: GED in Maricopa County.

For some, GED key to avoiding deportation

I'm quoted on this article about the importance of the GED for attaining eligibility on deferred action,  For some, GED key to avoiding deportation

DREAMers Entrepreneurs in Arizona

Arizona DREAMers, after experiencing first harsh immigration laws and policies have found the way to work along with the system, succeed and move ahead.
We have been proactive offering to Arizona DREAM Act Coalition's ( ADAC) members Small Business training  and showcase the new Small Businesses to the group so more are inspired and get ready to start their own.
There is also an emphasis within the group in the creation of high tech businesses.
Thanks to Univision and Ma. Antonieta Collins for meeting with ADAC and share with the nation this story of hope and economic development by young people.

The Importance of Knowing Your Rights and How We Stopped Marco's Deportation

Marco and Gabriella are a young couple.  She is a bright and well spoken American citizen, he is an undocumented immigrant without an accent.  He came as baby to the USA. 
A Scottsdale police in an unmarked vehicle  one night stopped the car where Marco was a passenger. He and his citizen friend were carpooling to work.  
Marco was asked for his I.D. and gave too much information during the street interrogation. (Marco could have been more prepared if he only had read CADENA's Know Your Rights brochure that you can download and print here. I  supervise its content). The police officer let both of them go after getting Marco's job place information.   
Weeks later, the same police officer stops by Marco's work place.
He gets accused of criminal impersonation for using a false Social Security Number.
Gabriella does what most will and puts all her trust on a criminal lawyer who unfortunately was not very informed on immigration law and suggest his client to plea bargain for a reduced  sentence.
In Arizona it is very easy for immigrants to lose immigration opportunities due to a criminal record, since the passing of laws designing to criminalize undocumented workers charge them with the highest penalties possible, making them ineligible for deferred deportation. 
Prosecutors at the Maricopa County Attorneys office tell Gabriella, point blank,  they know what legal tools the federal administration has given the lawyers for releasing immigrants and that they know how to invalidate them.  These legal tools  come with the exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion (PD in legal lingo).  This PD focuses on the  deportation of the criminal element of our communities, not on workers with invented Social Security numbers or broken taillights.
While Marco spends months in detention for the "crime" he plead bargain for, awaiting immediate deportation after his release, Gabriella contacts me and seeks help, realizing the ignorance of their previous lawyer only made certain her husband's deportation.
First move I suggest:  Get a competent immigration lawyer.  I gave her three names of lawyers I trust for their knowledge and for keeping up-to date on latest immigration procedures.  Also they are really good in working on several fronts: the legal and  the advocacy side of the fight.
Second, I put her in contact with Genie Zavaleta who holds the key to our friends in Washington who can present cases in front of ICE for Prosecutorial Discretion to be implemented.
After long days of non-stop negotiations and back and forth, our Washington ICE connections gave up on Marco's case.  The penalties Marco sign up during the plea bargain process were too steep for PD.  I though Marco was a lost case.  
Delia Salvatierra, the expert immigration lawyer Gabriella choose among the names I provided, pulls another legal recourse and after an agonizing day full of bad news, Gabriella announces her husband is being released with  Deferred Action.
I was able to hear through the phone the joy and celebration at Marco and Gabriella's home as the family gathered.  This was a great Christmas present for CADENA.

Please go to CADENA's web-site  www.dreamactaz.org to find information related with Know Your Rights and educational opportunities for DREAMers.

Looking back: Best Idea of 2011

No doubt a great idea was partnering with Reyna Montoya creating YEA! --Youth for Education in Action- that took the most awesome team in the world Reyna Montoya, Maxima Guerrero, Brax Lopez and all the volunteers to participate in the Mesa special election of 2011.

Outcome. Phase 1: 300 + voter registrations, mostly young people. More than 180 voters were registered on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL). Phase 2: More than 3,000 doors were knocked in Mesa District 18 on low propensity precincts inviting people to vote.
We also were on the news several times!    Best outcome of all: Russell Pearce the "creator" of SB1070 and Prop 300 was voted out in spite of sham candidate Olivia Cortes. It seems to me that YEA! will survive time and place and can be a valuable platform of civil engagement.
Click here to see YEA!'s work.

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!

Arizona's Special Election and the Unfolding Everyday Drama

For the first time ever a State Senator President is being recalled and a new election is set for November the 8^{th, 2011.}

The State Senator is not other than Russell Pearce, an early proponent of many anti-immigration l laws that have been copycatted in many states and had devastated Arizona’s economy. He is infamous for pushing SB1070.

Russell Pearce is not only bad for the immigrant and minority population but he had slashed education budgets K to 12, colleges and universities to record lows, affecting all and sabotaging our future In Arizona.

He has introduced the most ridiculous laws like "birthter" bills and made the Colt AZ official’s gun at the time when the economy in the state is in shambles.

Mr. Pearce is notorious for his associations with neo-Nazis groups and recently the media had disclosed his participation on the Fiesta Bowl Scandal where he took illegal gifts and junkets.

State Senator Russell Pearce is one of the most divisive public figures and a well-known bully who intimidates people, even inside his own party, who forces elected officials to follow his extremist agenda. He is notorious to rally support to extremist candidates to eliminate moderate Republican voices from the Legislature.

Now that he has being recalled and the election on Nov the 8^th will take place he has planted, with the help of tea party activist and even members of his own family, a Hispanic woman candidate to divide the vote and confuse Latinos.

Olivia Cortes , has been called to testify on her candidacy and has stated she doesn’t know who paid a petition gathering company to put her in the ballot, does not know the volunteers who are posting signs, or where the supports for her campaign comes from in spite that she handles treasury.

In an unprecedented move probably unique at this time in the nation, and for the sake of the well being of Arizona, the Democratic Party has agreed not to put a candidate in the hopes that a unifying Republican, Mr. Jerry Lewis, can win in which may be one of the most conservative districts in the nation.

New information comes every single day about this election. We are keeping our sights on November the 8th.

If you live in Mesa District 18th participate in this important election. If you are not registered to vote, a group of students will be registering new voters Wednesday October the 5th and Thursday October the 6th at Mesa Community College from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. by the clock tower.