Dream Act must become True.

The following video will change you. Give it 17 minutes of your attention. May God mold our hearts and minds, and forgive us our debts to humanity. Are we there yet? Are we satisfied Justice? Opportunity? Freeedom? Liberties? Civil Rights? Nooooooo.
Too much indifference, intolerance, and ignorance. I do believe that Mr. King would very proud of how far the nation has come, but he would say that we have far to go. For there will always be those who are judgemental. It is sad but true.

I HAVE A DREAM, I DREAM EVERYDAY, I HAVE HOPE FOR FREEDOM, FOR A DREAM.


FREEDOM OF EDUCATION, DREAM ACT MUST BECOME TRUE.

2:11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:11 RSV

Vote Dream Act. A must. A survival tool.

Today begins the first day of the final round of voting at change.org to pass the Dream Act and support higher education for ALL students. The last day to cast your vote is January 15 by no later than 5:00pm ET. Change.org will present its top 10 "ideas for change" to the Obama administration on January 16th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The fact is many American students graduate from college and high school each year, and face a roadblock to their dreams: they can't drive, can't work legally, can't further their education, and can't pay taxes to contribute to the economy just because they were brought to this country illegally by their parents or lost legal status along the way.
I had attached a video from the speech of Sen. Dick Durbin D Illinios about the Dream Act and Former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch had this to say about the situation affecting these students:
“In short, although these children have built their lives here, they have no possibility of achieving and living the American dream. What a tremendous loss for them, and what a tremendous loss to our society.”
The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), is a bipartisan legislation that would permit these students conditional legal status and eventual citizenship granted that they meet ALL the following requirements:
--if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16, are below the age of 30, --have lived here continuously for five years, --graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED --have good moral character with no criminal record and --attend college or enlist in the military.
For more on the DREAM Act and to cast your vote, visit change.org at this link.
Thanks to Lizbeth Mateo for her encourage and Maria M. the Co-Founder of DreamACTivist.org

Religious Coalition for Human Justice.

There were only a handful of Hispanic faces in the crowd Tuesday, as Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants stood shoulder-to-shoulder to call for acceptance of immigrants, both Undocumented and legal.

The approximately 30 religious leaders and supporters added their voices to a rising chorus of North Carolina residents -- many of them from outside traditional Hispanic advocacy circles -- who are countering the call for a crackdown on Undocumented immigrants. The newly minted advocates say that the only solution to the problem of Undocumented immigration is federal reform.

"As a community, as a state, as a nation, as a world, we have done wrong," Rabbi Eric Solomon, of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, said of the recent treatment of immigrants. "All human beings are made in God's image."

The announcement of a new N.C. Religious Coalition for Justice for Immigrants this week was one of a string of recent pro-immigrant events.

Undergraduates from college campuses across the state have joined to fight a decision to bar Undocumented immigrants from community colleges. A citizens group was formed in Alamance County to protest enforcement efforts in their county. And in Eastern North Carolina, a meeting will convene next week to oppose Beaufort County's efforts to eliminate public programs that serve Undocumented immigrants. Last month, advocates in Johnston County held a rally to protest derogatory comments about Hispanics made by the local sheriff.

The state chapters of the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union have also taken strong stands against anti-immigrant rhetoric.

"People really feel that it's now or never," said Rebecca Headen, racial justice coordinator of the ACLU. "They have to step out of the shadows."

Many were once leery of jumping into a heated topic that could alienate them from their neighbors and open them to attacks from opposing groups. But some say they now feel compelled to get involved, regardless of the backlash they might face.

For the Rev. Richard McBride, a chaplain at Elon University, his call to action was the immigration arrest of a well-liked Alamance County library employee who was brought to the United States as a child. McBride is now part of a group that attends county commissioner meetings to protest Alamance's treatment of immigrants.

"It was the recognition that she had no good options," McBride said. "She was a child. She grew up here. This is the only country she knows. What does she do? I think we have a whole generation of young men and women in this bind."

Collateral damage

Alamance County Commissioner Tim Sutton, who has helped lead the charge for an immigration crackdown, said he considers it his responsibility to tackle a problem that he believes is hurting his county's budget but not provide it a support documentation from his believes. He said Undocumented immigrants commit crimes and burden public services, but he said he still has strong support for his initiatives.

He calls the Undocumented immigrants whose lives are disrupted by enforcement efforts "collateral damage."

"I've laid in bed many a night and prayed that what I was doing was not a sin," Sutton said Tuesday. "But we have to do what we have to do. It's like going to war. Sometimes people are killed."

In May, the N.C. Community College System took the most restrictive stance in the nation by refusing to admit Undocumented immigrants, even at out-of-state tuition rates.

In June, an Alamance County sheriff's deputy arrested a mother during a traffic stop, and her three children were left alone beside the interstate for several hours in the middle of the night.

Ronald Bilbao, a junior majoring in political science at UNC-Chapel Hill, is the head of the newly formed Coalition for College Access. As a mentor to an undocumented high school student who wants to attend college, he said the closing of the community colleges this year was a huge blow.

Bilbao is now helping mobilize students across the UNC System to advocate for re-opening the community colleges, which had been many Undocumented immigrants' only route to higher education.

"The people who are put down are the people who really can't stand up for themselves," said Bilbao, a U.S. citizen whose parents are Undocumented immigrants from Venezuela. "A lot of us who can stand up are now standing up. We're trying to show people that it's not just a Latino issue, that it's really about human rights."

UW student facing deportation able to return for school.



Following her release from federal custody Tuesday, third-year UW-Madison pharmacy student Tope Awe will be able to return to campus within the next few days.

According to the statement released Tuesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, both Awe and her brother Oluwabenga are required to wear ankle monitoring bracelets and check in with ICE periodically while deportation documents are assembled.

“I think the fact that the campus was behind her and that we showed our support may have helped with the decision to release her from Dodge County Jail, so she can come back and finish school while she’s still continuing to fight the legal proceedings,” said Salemawit Zewdie, a close friend of Awe’s.

“Our next goal is for Tope to be able to complete her one-year internship following her graduation from pharmacy school this May,” she said.

Zewdie and Awe served as co-chairs for the African Students Association during the 2006-’07 school year. Zewdie was one of the first students who began assembling petitions and organizing events to rally for Awe’s return to campus.

Zewdie attributed the immense amount of support to Awe’s character as a person and also as a student.

“When we initially started, when we first heard her case, we had 20 petitions and overnight it grew to 1,000,” Zewdie said.

There are now over 3,000 documents of support for the Awe family, not only from UW-Madison students, but also from students across the United States who heard about her case.

“I spoke to Tope when she got back to Milwaukee [after being released from federal custody], and she’s doing well. She’s high-spirited and hoping for the best outcome,” Zewdie said.