07/25/12 Yesterday, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) took to the stage at the Center for American Progress to launch a new website featuring the lives and stories of DREAMers.  (We live-tweeted the event here.) Durbin has long been one of the foremost advocates of immigration reform and the DREAM Act, first sponsoring the bill to [...]
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07/20/12 Today, United We Dream (UWD), the largest network of immigrant-youth led organizations in the country, announced its campaign to educate 500,000 DREAMers on Obama’s relief policy. They spoke about their plan to educate their communities about the process, the guidelines and documents needed; as well as warned the community of potential notario and other types [...]
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07/18/12 Recently, I wrote about the psychological effects of being undocumented. Now, I wanted to know what other DREAMers were doing to create spaces where undocumented and undocuqueer folk could talk about their experiences. I was led to Imelda Plascencia, who, with the help of the DREAM Resource Center, created a counseling group for DREAMers called [...]
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07/18/12 DREAMers, without a doubt, have transformed the immigrant movement in the U.S. The announcement that they will soon be able to obtain work permits will not only have implications in their own struggle for legalization but also in their role as leaders in the fight for the legalization of their parents and the rest of [...]
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07/16/12 We’ve been publishing a series of posts from the DREAMers of the Campaign for an American DREAM.  Last month, they set off from San Francisco to begin a 3,000-mile, 8-month+ walk to Washington, DC to call attention to the DREAM Act and the need for immigration reform. Today’s post is from Jonatan Martinez, a DREAMer from Georgia who recently [...]
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07/13/12 While much of the reaction to President Obama’s DREAMer relief announcement has focused on political implications and public opinion polling, a new online feature from The Guardian (UK) focuses on the most important part of the President’s announcement: the personal stories, aspirations, testimonials, and dreams of the young people affected.  These DREAMers will soon to be [...]
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07/11/12 By Mandeep Chahal: For my entire life, just two pieces of paper stood between me and my dreams: a social security card and a work permit. Now with Obama’s new immigration policy, which will begin in mid-August, I will be able to apply and benefit from both of these for at least two years. Last [...]
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07/10/12 US News and World Report offers two members of Congress with opposing views on President Obama’s bold move to provide relief to DREAMers. On one side is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who supports the President’s action: If anyone still had any doubts about the legal ground on which the president stands with his recent announcement, he [...]
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07/05/12 On Wednesday, July 4, President Obama held a naturalization ceremony at the White House, welcoming 25 members of the military originally from 17 different countries as new American citizens. Obama’s thoughts via Byron York at Washington Examiner: We’re still perfecting our union, still extending the promise of America. That’s why, as another step forward, we’re [...]
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07/05/12 When President Obama announced his relief plan for DREAM Act-eligible youth last month, the move was applauded as a highly necessary development in the fight to give relief to undocumented youth in the only country they call home. One important thing Obama’s DREAM relief could not include, however, was any mechanism to help DREAMers pay [...]
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06/29/12 Earlier today, there was a report from the right-wing site, NewsMax, where Mitt Romney was talking about his immigration record: As for children of those who came to this country illegally, “I want to make sure they have a permanent answer as to what their status will be.” He then suggested he would go beyond [...]
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06/29/12 Cross-Posted at The Sanctuary: President Barack Obama’s announcement on June 15, 2012 granting deferred action for eligible undocumented youth has lifted DREAMers’ hopes about their ability to obtain work permits and removed the fear of deportation. However, with the excitement comes the need to do whatever it takes to start the application process as soon [...]
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06/28/12 During the closing remarks of the DREAM Act mock graduation ceremony on June 26, 2012, I heard for the first time a real emphasis on the mental health concerns of DREAMers. The student delivering the remarks spoke about Yanelli Serrano Hernandez, an undocumented youth who attempted suicide while being held in a detention center, and [...]
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06/27/12 At the Lutheran Church of Reformation on Tuesday, Dream Activist held its annual mock graduation.  Much of the ceremony proceeded with undocumented youth dressed in caps and gowns and a group of  speakers telling their stories, proclaiming “I’m undocumented and unafraid!” But there was certainly a change of atmosphere this year due to Obama’s recent [...]
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06/26/12 We’ve been publishing a series of posts from the DREAMers of the Campaign for an American DREAM.  Last month, they set off from San Francisco to begin a 3,000-mile, 8-month+ walk to Washington, DC to call attention to the DREAM Act and the need for immigration reform. Today’s post is from Nicolas Gonzalez, a DREAMer from Chicago, Illinois.  Learn [...]
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06/26/12 Many have been surprised these past few weeks.  Not only has immigration dominated the headlines, but President Obama has dominated his opponent Mitt Romney on the issue.  Why?  Because Obama understands the new politics of immigration, while Romney is stuck in the past. As America’s Voice has highlighted, the old conventional wisdom on the politics [...]
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06/22/12 We’ve been publishing a series of posts from the DREAMers of the Campaign for an American DREAM.  Last month, they set off from San Francisco to begin a 3,000-mile, 8-month+ walk to Washington, DC to call attention to the DREAM Act and the need for immigration reform. Today’s post is from Veronica Gomez, a DREAMer from the San [...]
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06/21/12 Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is the latest in a long-line of conservatives who are spewing some anti-immigrant hate directed at the President’s latest move to protect DREAMers from deportation. However, like most people who don’t know what they’re talking about, Rep. Joe Walsh is belligerent thinking that he knows exactly what he’s talking about. At [...]
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06/21/12 In a beautiful new short film simply titled “Illegal Movie,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a number of DREAMers, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a teacher, a pastor, and other advocates discuss the realities of undocumented life and what it means to be a DREAMer. Watch this gorgeous film below:
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06/21/12 As we’ve mentioned, Mitt Romney is going speak at at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) conference in Florida today. The speech will be broadcast live on C-SPAN at 12:30 PM ET. The big question is whether Romney will even talk about immigration. He’s been ducking the issue lately, especially in the [...]
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06/20/12 We know you guys have plenty of questions that need to be answered regarding President Barack Obama’s new DREAM relief policy, and we’ll be doing our best to get you that information as it comes our way. That said, here is a four-pager that we received late yesterday – Via United We DREAM and the [...]
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06/20/12 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will speak at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) conference tomorrow. Since Mitt Romney has refused to discuss immigration in front of Latino audiences or to respond directly to the news of the DREAMer protections announced last Friday, this event is highly anticipated. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [...]
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06/20/12 This afternoon, at a press conference just steps from the White House, over 40 leaders of the United We Dream Network, donning graduation caps and holding banners celebrating “El Poder de Nuestro Pueblo” (the power of our community) and declaring their “Right to Dream,” will announce a massive public education campaign to ensure that the [...]
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06/20/12 It’s commentary on the ridiculousness of the GOP response to President Obama’s DREAM relief announcement as only the Daily Show could do it: complete with a Candyland-esque fantasy sequence and Santa Claus lederhosen. Watch it below: In a six-minute segment last night, the Daily show managed to dissemble many of the ludicrous and flimsy arguments [...]
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06/20/12 For the past eighteen months, Speaker  John Boehner has entrusted immigration policy to three of the most anti-immigrant voices in the GOP caucus: Lamar Smith, Elton Gallegly and Steve King. That trio has held one immigrant bashing hearing after another. Of course, all three of them — and Boehner — voted against the DREAM Act [...]
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06/19/12 New polling shows that the general public, including Latinos and independent voters, are broadly supportive of President Obama’s decision to grant hundreds of thousands of DREAM Act youth relief from deportation.  Yet while the American public has voiced its support, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney continues to avoid the question.  Both after the President’s announcement [...]
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06/19/12 Yesterday, we got word that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the leading anti-immigrant voice in the House of Representatives, had scheduled a press conference on immigration. That wasn’t a surprise. In the wake of President Obama’s bold action to protect DREAMers, we expected the usual backlash from Smith. After all, his partner in immigrant-bashing, Rep. Steve [...]
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