United We Dream Reiterates Support for DREAM Act
Changes are unfavorable, but DREAM is closer than ever
DREAM Act leaders from across the country convened over the phone to
discuss the latest changes to the 2010 DREAM Act, and decided to support
the latest version of the bill, despite narrowing amendments meant to
regain past Republican support for the bill.
“Over the last couple of weeks, certain Republicans have been feeding
a lot of misinformation about what the DREAM Act is,” said Carlos
Saavedra, national coordinator of the network. “Dreamers all over the
nation will continue telling the American people the true stories of
their lives and what the DREAM Act means to all of us as members of
society”.
This past week, dreamers have been making thousands of calls to Senate
offices, and held public actions in many different cities. As the 111th
Congress comes to a close, undocumented youth organizations across the
country are organizing by staging hunger strikes, sit-ins, banner drops,
food drives meant to aid local organizations and service members, and
blood drives meant to aid blood banks facing a shortage of donations. In
addition, Dreamers who want to join the military have been visiting
offices in Congress bringing American flags to demonstrate their
commitment and desire to serve in the US Armed Forces.
The latest amendments to the DREAM Act are disappointing, specially the
clause lowering the eligibility age from 35 to 30. Julieta Garibay, a
DREAM Act leader from Texas who would lose her eligibility after these
latest changes, encouraged other members of the network to keep up the
pressure so that the DREAM becomes a reality: “We have been fighting
for the DREAM Act for most of our adult lives. It is the inefficiency
and lack of courage of members of the US Senate that has placed us in
this situation, as we grow older than the original age cap. I specially
urge my state’s senators to leave partisanship aside, and act now to
bring fairness to undocumented youth”.
The United We Dream Network is fully committed regardless of the
outcome to fight for all immigrant youth and their families to receive
full access to college and legal status. Passage of the DREAM Act this
year is a first step to fulfilling this mission.
The United We Dream Network is a national immigrant youth-led
organization committed to achieve equal access to higher education for
all people, regardless of immigration status. We aim to address the
inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and to develop a
sustainable, grassroots movement, led by immigrant youth, documented and undocumented, and children of immigrants. We use leadership development, organizing, policy advocacy, alliance building, training and capacity building to pursue our mission at the local, state and national levels.
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