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Posts Tagged ‘DREAM act

Call these two numbers:

1: Call LaSal Austin, director of the local DHS in Michigan, at 313-259-8562. Demand that he take legislators’ leads and take immediate action to defer the deportation of Herta Llusho.

2: Call Janet Napolitano, Secretary of DHS, at the comment line 202-732-3000 . Demand that she contact Mr. Austin in the local DHS office and take immediate action to defer Herta’s deportation.

SEIU also has a page where you can send a fax/letter in support of this young woman.

Edited to add more specific info:

Actions:
In order of priority:

1. Call Janet Napolitano, Director of Department of Homeland Security, and leave comments of support for Herta and also ask that DHS stop her deportation: 202-282-8495 **note this is an answering machine, once it is full it is out of commission for day. Fill it up now with Herta calls.
2. Call Assistant Secretary to ICE, John Morton and leave a message urging him to take action and defer Herta’s deportation: 202.732.3000 **Note this is a live comment line, i.e. a human being will pick up and take your message.** Be very polite “I am calling to leave a message of support for Herta Llusho who is being deported tomorrow, . I ask that Director Morton contact Field Director Vincent Clausen and defer Herta’s deportation, she is an asset to this country.”
3. Call LaSal Austin, director of the local DHS in Michigan, at 313-259-8562. Urge him to take legislators’ (Senator Carl Levin and congresswoman Kilpatrick) leads and take immediate action to defer the deportation of Herta Llusho.
4. Join the facebook group for immediate updates: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111108019510
5. Sign petition which will be hand-delivered to targets: http://www.change.org/actions/view/stop_deportation_of_dream_student_herta_llusho
6. Use SEIU Click to Call Action Tool to call DHS: http://call.seiu.org/9/hertadhs
7. Send a FAX to DHS, copy and paste talking points and send: http://action.seiu.org/writeice4herta

For the next calls you need to be very specific about your ask, these members have already voiced their support however now we need them to directly call assistant secretary to ICE John Morton and ask that he defer deportation. If the members call it will make an impact, much more than if their staff or if they call.

So the ASK: “Hi, I know that the member is in support of Herta Llusho’s struggle to stop her deportation, I am now calling to ask that the member DIRECTLY call the assistant secretary to ICE, John Morton, to ask that he stop Herta’s deportation. I know that his staff may have called someone at ICE but I am asking that the member themeselves call John Morton’s office directly. Thanks.”

1. Call Senator Carl Levin at both his DC office – (202) 224-6221 – and his Detroit office – (313) 226-6020.
2. Call Senator Stabenow at both her DC office – (202) 224-4822 – and her Detroit office – (313) 961-4330. **Stabenow herself will be in detroit office today, hit em up!
3. Call Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick at both her DC office – (202) 225-2261 – and her Detroit office – (313) 965-9004.

Call in Script:

I am calling on behalf of Herta Llusho (A#96-139-441), an undocumented student who is facing deportation back to Albania on August 19th. Herta has lived in Detroit since she was 11, she went to Pierce Middle School and Grosse Pointe South High School. Herta excelled in everything during high school, graduating with a 4.05 gpa and she has continued to excel after high school. She has been very active in our community volunteering at homeless shelters, summer day camps, and tutoring programs, in addition to a lot of other things with her church.

Talking points to use (don’t need to use all, pick and choose):

• I’m writing to ask Michigan ICE Field Officer, Vincent Clausen to defer action on Herta Llusho’s deportation and review her case.

• Herta’s case number is A-96-139-441.

• Herta is scheduled to be deported to Albania on August 19th.

• Herta submitted a deferred action in February 2009 and it has yet to be adjudicated.

Saving Walter Lara y the Rest?

3:44 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice| Politics · 3 Comments

2 Jul 2009

20090630inset-lara-soloWhen I wrote about Walter Lara it was in the context of how heavy his case was being pushed while I was hearing little noise from pro-migrant/liberal bloggers about Cirila Baltazar Cruz.

To summarize, Walter was a DREAMer, an immigrant student who was brought to the United States by his undocumented parents. An honor student, he was facing deportation. A massive email, letter writing, phone campaign was launched on his behalf so that he could stay and it looks like there is somewhat of a victory for Walter.

Today, after 48 hours of intense activism by Congressional Leaders, bloggers, and thousands of grassroots activists who made calls and sent letters on Walter Lara’s behalf, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to defer 23-year old Lara’s scheduled deportation back one year until July 3, 2010. In response to DHS’s deferment, Walter Lara issued the following statement:

“Today, words cannot express my gratitude to Secretary Janet Napolitano, Senator Bill Nelson, Representatives Corrine Brown, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and the thousands of grassroots activists whose unified efforts have given me a second chance to live out my American Dream.
“As I look to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends this weekend, I have once again seen what makes America the best country in the world. Americans are fair, just, and kind. When we unite our strength to defend our shared values -opening rather than shutting the doors of opportunity – we can achieve anything. As I have said before, America is the only country I have known and I am an American. I have never been more proud to say that than I am today.

“But even as the dust settles on this tremendous personal victory, my sights are clearly set on the struggle ahead to build a long-term future for me and the more than 2 million like me whose lives may be cut short and dreams deferred.

“The action taken by the leaders in Congress and the Department of Homeland Security is an acknowledgment that our immigration laws are broken. The DREAM Act, if passed, would help people like myself, who came here through no fault of their own, stay in this country, be put on a path to citizenship and contribute to our nation.”

Click Here to read more about Walter Lara or visit http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3608

Read more…

timthumbphpToday hundreds of young people with promising futures will be in the U.S.’s capital to celebrate their achievements but also to demand that their immigration status not act as a roadblock for them to move forward. It’s the National DREAM Graduation ceremony, hosted by the United We Dream Coalition (UWD).

Each year, 65,000 immigrant students who graduate from U.S. high schools are barred from pursuing their dreams of higher education. Advocates will underscore the importance of advancing the “DREAM Act” and the “American Dream Act” to give these youth a chance to attend college and pursue their goals.

I’ve written about the DREAM Act many times, including some discussion of some of the problems with how the DREAM Act is framed in relation to comprehensive immigration reform.

I personally have dear friends and loved ones who are in the middle of this struggle and I think that moving forward on this is an important front in the wider struggle for human rights for all immigrants and their children.

The National Graduation goes down at noon today in DC but there are actions all over the country that people can plus into.

The DREAM Goes Ivy League : Harvard Pres Supports DREAM Act

8:02 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Education| Immigration| boston · Comments Off

21 May 2009

logo_harvardIf Harvard supports the DREAM Act, why aren’t you?

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust yesterday backed federal legislation that would clear the way for illegal immigrant students to apply for legal residency, an endorsement that stunned students and drew criticism for a president who has largely steered clear of fierce debates.

Many organizers on the ground at Harvard deserve much props for their work around this issue, especially Sanctuary editor Kyle , who got his own shout out in the Boston Globe. Harvard now, Congress mañana?

Via / Citizen Orange

banner165newSeems like every org and their mother want to take the recent injustice in the Luis Ramirez murder case and use it for toned down cries for justice separated from the multiple places that breed the kind of hate and disrespect that led to the crossroads we as a community find ourselves at now. This is why The Sanctuary (of which I am a proud member) hoy draws a line in the sand.

The process of defining a subhuman class and institutionalizing discrimination and violence against that group is not new. How quickly and conveniently some of us allow our collective memory to cover its own tracks. Parasite, diseased, leeching, dangerous, over-breeding, vermin. These terms and this imagery have been deployed for ages, on various groups of people, on various pieces of land, in the service of various endeavors; and always to bring about the same ends. To demonize and dehumanize a group of people so that other people come to understand that the social compact with the demonized group is broken; that discrimination and violence against the dehumanized class now carries no moral consequence. That is the meaning of this latest ruling by an all-white jury in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Racial murder of a Mexican carries the same consequence as walking up to a white person and punching them in the belly: simple assault.

Are you down to make the commitment to radical cambio for our lives? Then read the entire post here.

Colorado Fails to Support DREAMers

8:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Colorado| Education| Immigration| Politics| youth · Comments Off

7 Apr 2009

xhzxyuzfvuijpaz-3251Last Week I wrote about how some states were pushing DREAM Act like measures through their legislatures. One of those states was Colorado. However yesterday, the dreams of undocumented students in The Centennial State were squashed thanks to Democrats in the state senate joining with Republicans to vote against the Immigrant Tuition Equity Bill.

Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, said that granting students who are illegal immigrants in-state tuition was like saying “if their parents robbed a bank, their kids could keep the money.”

Though the bill would require students who get the in-state tuition rate to sign an affidavit stating they would seek legal residency, Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, said the affidavit “is worth probably less than the paper it’s printed on.”

In hopes of attracting more Democratic votes, proponents added an amendment that said the bill would only become effective upon passage of the federal DREAM Act. That measure being considered in Congress would provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants who serve in the military or attend college in the United States.

It wasn’t enough. Democratic Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora, Jim Isgar of Hesperus, Moe Keller of Wheat Ridge, Linda Newell of Littleton and Lois Tochtrop of Thornton voted against the bill.

Carroll, after the debate, referred reporters to a statement on her website that said she could not support the bill “in a climate where the state is cutting or eliminating over $1 billion of benefits to the people and is facing a $300 million cut to higher education, which virtually ends higher education as we know it in the state of Colorado.”

Isgar and Tochtrop made similar comments about cuts to colleges, while Keller declined comment on her vote.

Newell, who was elected in November by a razor-thin margin, simply said “I listened to my constituents” when asked about her vote.

Read more…

xhzxyuzfvuijpaz-325I’ve written extensively on the DREAM Act, to the point of getting linked to by right wing locos, I mean pundits, ok I mean locos (yes I’m waving at you Michelle Malkin). Today other pro-migrant bloggers will also be writing about the DREAM Act, a piece of bipartisan legislation that would permit undocumented students brought to the country as children conditional legal status and eventual citizenship.

Movement on the DREAM Act has been strong, with state officials across the country supporting local measures that pretty much do the same thing as the Federal DREAM Act, allow undocumented students access to in-state tuition rates and a path to citizenship in a country they have grown up in and consider home. Take Colorado for example.

In the Senate and House of Representatives the DREAM Act continues to gain new sponsors which I am sure has to do with grassroots efforts that you can be a part of.

Want to do just one thing for the DREAM Act Today?

1. CALL Pick up the phone and call your Senator or Representative today. Dial 202-224-3121 or use the NCLR guide to be connected to your member of Congress and speak out in favor of the DREAM Act.

Sample message – “Hi, I am calling in support of the DREAM Act (S.729 / H.R. 1751). The DREAM Act lays the groundwork for immigration reform and allows immigrant youth of good moral character to make crucial economic contributions to the United States. To not pass the act at a time when this country needs an economic stimulus and a more educated workforce would be great folly. I urge _________ to become a cosponsor of the DREAM Act.”

Please report back on how your call went.
NILC Factsheet on how DREAM benefits the economy
DREAM Act 2009 Talking Points

Need 9 more things to do?

Mas aqui :
Dreams Deferred: Criminalizing Immigrant Youth

Daily Dream: 22 New Cosponsors, 10 Ways to Act

Via / Change.org, My Latino News.com

300_78911On Monday, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s state panel on immigrant policy revealed a decidedly progressive set of recommendations.

For example, Corzine supports undocumented students being able to pay in-state tuition at the state’s public colleges much like the DREAM Act.

Corzine said most of New Jersey’s immigrants are in the state legally, and that the children of the state’s estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants; “are not here because they chose to be, but because of their families, and they should not be discriminated against.”

Corzine wants to reexamine the immigration directive from the New Jersey’s Attorney General ordering police to notify immigration authorities when they arrest someone suspected of being an illegal immigrant and backs a moratorium on federal immigration raids in the state.

Howevere, Corzine is against is undocumented immigrants having driver’s licenses, which the Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy came out in support of.

More than 20 percent of the Garden State’s population is made up of immigrants, the fifth highest immigrant population in the nation.

Via / Newsday

dream-act-rallyYesterday the DREAM Act was reintroduced.

Congressmen Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), announced the reintroduction today of the DREAM Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation will restore the States’ rights to determine residency requirements for higher education benefits – giving states the option to provide in-state tuition. The American DREAM Act seeks to facilitate access to postsecondary educational opportunities for immigrant students in the United States who currently face barriers in pursuing a college education. It also provides a path to U.S. legal residency for students, and military personnel.

Pero I have also been critical of the legislation for it’s inclusion of a military path to citizenship which encourages young people of color to join the military when already, documented or not, young people of color are targeted as the canon fodder of the U.S. military industrial complex.

Perhaps even more disturbing is how laws such as the DREAM Act promote a narrative of good vs bad immigrants, the deserving vs. the undeserving.

That said I am in a privileged position to even be able to look at it from that perspective. I am a born U.S. citizen and I need to acknowledge how that position colors how I view the DREAM Act and other such legislation.

There are ways that we can support the DREAM Act, so that por lo menos some movement is made on the immigration rights front and who knows, quizas pave the way for even greater changes in the current immigration system.

Kyle over at Citizen Orange tells us Five Ways we can support the DREAM Act and the dreams of many undocumented students.

1. CALL – The National Council of La Raza has a page to help you call your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.

2. FAX – America’s Voice has a page to help you fax your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.

3. EMAIL – Change.org has a page to help you email your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.

4. PETITION – Dreamactivist.org has the official petition in support of the DREAM Act.

5. TEXT – Text “Justice” (”Justicia” for Spanish) to 69866 to be the first to know when the DREAM Act is introduced. FIRM’s Mobile Action Network is an excellent way to stay connected and have maximum impact at just the right moment.

Via / Citizen Orange

Today, until 5 pm EST is the last chance for you to vote for change at Change.org.

VivirLatino is an official sponsor of voting for the DREAM Act. So you should vote too, for that and other issues that really will try and make the Obama administration about change.

On Friday Change.org will present the top 10 ideas to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We’ll then connect the winning ideas to leading nonprofits and launch a series of national advocacy campaigns to turn each idea into federal policy.


Hola!

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