08/17/12 The beginning of deferred action made for quite an historic day yesterday, with tens of thousands of DREAMers lining up from Chicago to El Paso to Los Angeles waiting to receive assistance on their applications.  Yet in the midst of a nationwide celebration and day of victory, there remained the anti-immigrant extremists from the peanut [...]
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08/17/12 Just how far will Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer go? On Wednesday, a day when DREAMers all over the country were celebrating the beginning of President Obama’s deferred action program, Governor Brewer was busy playing the Grinch by issuing an executive order that would prevent local immigrant youth from being able to access state services like [...]
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08/16/12 Yesterday, when Mitt Romney visited Birmingham, Alabama for a fundraising event at the city’s exclusive restaurant — “The Club” — he was met outside by a number of protestors from the Immigrant Youth Leadership Initiative of Alabama. The group chanted “education, not deportation” and held up signs that read “no papers, no fear.” Last year, [...]
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08/16/12 Yesterday’s official launch of the deferred action program for DREAMers offered a reminder about how public policy changes can sometimes directly affect people’s lives.  Unfortunately, yesterday also brought a reminder of the way politics can butt in on even the most celebratory of days, bringing into view the sharp distinctions between the parties on immigration [...]
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08/16/12 As DREAMers lined up to attend events around the country yesterday to learn more about the deferred action process and get help filling out their applications, America’s Voice decided to honor the day by sharing with our list of advocates the true meaning of the day — straight from the DREAMers themselves. With help from [...]
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08/15/12 Today, the first of nearly 1.7 million DREAMers can begin applying for deferred action under a program that was announced by President Obama earlier this year in June. (See the Washington Post article here.) The political impact of this is clear. Over the next month, hundreds of thousands of DREAMers will be seen on  TV, [...]
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08/15/12 The biggest day for immigration in decades is finally here! Following President Obama’s June 15, 2012 announcement that DREAM Act-eligible youth would be able to request deferred action and protection from deportation, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has begun accepting applications from immigrant youth.  Eligible beneficiaries will be given a Social Security number and [...]
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08/14/12 With the DREAMer “Deferred Action” process set to begin accepting applications tomorrow, Mitt Romney still refuses to answer a simple question: on his first day as President, would he keep or revoke this new policy? After bringing on hardline anti-immigrant activists as advisors, and taking hardline immigration positions during the primary, Romney has stuck to the [...]
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08/08/12 On Friday, the Obama Administration released guidelines for the President’s decision to provide qualifying DREAMers with a two year work permit and temporary relief from deportation. This relief is without a doubt the most significant victory our movement has seen in decades.  Now, with less than two weeks to go until August 15th – the [...]
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08/07/12 Today was the launch of United We DREAM’s (UWD) national “We Own the DREAM/¡Unete Al Sueño!” campaign. UWD, along with national allies, held a press conference at the American Immigration Lawyers Association to discuss the new guidelines for deferred action and to assist eligible aspiring citizens with the application process. The campaign will join the resources [...]
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08/03/12 Cross-Posted at Sojourners:  As many as 1.4 million undocumented immigrant youth— aka “DREAMers” — would qualify for temporary work permits and be shielded from deportation once President Obama’s DREAMer relief goes into effect August 15. I am one of these DREAMers. I came to this country from Peru when I was five years old. While I miss my homeland, [...]
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08/03/12 I met Marco almost four years ago. At the time, I was working at Sojourners Magazine and he was one of our interns.  Nobody knew that he was undocumented. For as long as I have known Marco, he has inspired everyone around him. The guy can quote Dr. King like no one I know. In [...]
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08/01/12 Yesterday the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) released a treasure trove of data on DREAM Act-eligible youth, including where they come from and where in the US they tend to live.  The report, entitled “Who and Where the DREAMers Are: A Demographic Profile of Immigrants Who Might Benefit from the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action Initiative,” is [...]
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07/30/12 “No papers, no fear.” That is the slogan that is driving (so to speak) a group of undocumented immigrants and allies of different ages from Arizona to cities where there is heated anti-immigrant sentiment. The group is calling out the injustices toward immigrants that have been taking place throughout the country, especially in states where there [...]
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07/26/12 President Obama’s June announcement (that DREAM Act-eligible youth would be spared from deportation and granted work permits) was widely applauded as a move that would finally grant relief to young immigrants and allow them to move toward legal status.  But a shady, cynical cadre of fraudulent lawyers and notarios has already sprung up, prepared to [...]
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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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07/19/12 Cross-Posted at Jack and Jill Politics: Today, at an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Steve King (R-Peanut Gallery) ominously threatened to sue DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano unless she reversed the Obama Administration’s popular new policy to grant temporary relief to DREAMers. In case you don’t know him, Rep. King is one of [...]
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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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07/11/12 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 Four months before Election Day, and immigration is still a hot topic for Mitt Romney’s campaign.  The way he’s handling the topic, it’s sure to remain a heated question throughout the summer heading toward November. In an already-infamous interview with Newsmax last week, Romney announced what appeared to be a new position on immigration — until his [...]
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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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06/29/12 Post-health care decision analysis from Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg notes that the ruling might provide a short respite for Romney from his ongoing immigration debacle: The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act has saved the Romney campaign from its recent message muddle. Romney ran into turbulence as soon as the U.S. Department of [...]
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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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