Press Release: DREAM Act Students - Young, Dynamic and Gifted

by DREAM Activist

Published June 01, 2009 @ 08:11PM PT

Just wanted to draw attention to this press release from Global Visas:

Minneapolis, MN. (MMD Newswire) June 1, 2009 -- Enquiries from US students have leapt through the roof since President Obama announced his support for the DREAM Act. "I support the Dream Act 100 per cent, in fact, I am fully committed to education, my administration has raised funds to be invested in education because I want more students to have the opportunity to go to college and have better access to resources such as scholarships and loans," - President Barack Obama.

Is this the first clear indication of US immigration reform coming our way?

Globalvisas.com, a world leading Immigration authority, with over a million visitors a year, reports today there has been a significant increase in the number of US students enquiring to study and work in the USA. From just 10 or 20 enquiries a month ago, Globalvisas.com are now receiving in excess of 500 enquiries a week asking about what the future holds for them and the USA.

Motivated students are literally queuing up to take advantage of the  Dream Act if it becomes a reality. Liam Clifford, managing director of Globalvisas.com stated today: "The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act will be the first significant act of U.S. immigration reform in USA Immigration for some time. If this is a sign of things to come in USA Immigration it is a very positive sign. For years USA Immigration legislation has been lagging behind the rest of the world in attracting highly skilled individuals which it has relied on in the past to build the economy."

The DREAM Act is drawing support from industry leaders, high profile officials in the government, legal and education sectors, as well as the military, to name a few.

The DREAM Act has the potential to open doors to an estimated 65,000 kids who moved to the USA before their 16th birthday but are currently excluded from the American way of life because they don't have the right paperwork.

Why should these children be held responsible for the actions of their parents?

Liam Clifford went on to says: "During this time, the USA has consistently produced talent that showcases the American Dream on the world stage, people like Google founder Sergey Brin, from Russia, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, from Taiwan, and Intel co-founder Andy Grove from Hungary. Just imagine what America could be denying itself and the rest of world if we do not support the DREAM Act."

It's a widely known fact children of immigrant parents outperform their counterparts in the education system, instead of holding them back they should be encouraged.

Notes to editors

Global Visas is a world leading authority on immigration, providing visa and immigration services to both individuals and corporate clients worldwide. It has offices in USA, Canada, UK, South Africa and India and provides extensive immigration services globally.

For further information, please contact:

Liam Clifford, director, Global Visas
Phone: 44 (0)207 190 3903
Email: liam.clifford@globalvisas.com
Website: www.globalvisas.com

Media Contact:

Gareth McConnell
GlobalVisas.com
+44 (0)207 190 6583
gareth.mcconnell@globalvisas.com
Globalvisas.com

June 3 - Watch DreamACTivist Live for a KeyNote Address in Washington D.C.

by DREAM Activist

Published June 01, 2009 @ 12:05PM PT

Crossposting this awesome news from DREAMActivist

The Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2009 conference will be showcasing two important and under-recognized civil rights movements of this era– Join the Impact activism on same-sex equality and DreamACTivist organizing for immigrant youth rights on the same platform this coming Wednesday, June 3 2009 in Washington D.C.

What’s similar about the movement for marriage equality and the DREAM Act?

Some might venture to say that both are wedge issues with the electorate. The struggles for same-sex and immigration rights have often been cast as some of the most pressing civil rights issues of our times. The more progressive sphere would dismiss both movements for being ‘niche’ issues that do not address the real problem at hand: marriage being a pre-requisite for citizenship.

For the students that work in the movement, the parallels are more apparent. Both are queer, youth-driven movements that mobilized and built a support base after a setback i.e. the DREAM Act vote in 2007 and the passage of Prop 8 in California last November. And both Join the Impact and DreamACTivist are national Web 2.0 organizing powerhouses as well as actual grassroots organizers.

From the schedule:

10:15 - 10:45 Keynote: Join the Impact and the DREAM Activists: perspectives from the next generation

After the defeat of the DREAM Act in 2007, several undocumented students from around the country decided to come together and launch a real grassroots efforts for the DREAM Act that included both online and offline networking. In December 2008, DREAMActivist.org was appointed as the national communication center for the United We DREAM coalition of over 40 different organizations (both beltway, educators, and student groups) dedicated to the passage of the DREAM Act.

Join the Impact began in early November 2008 with two friends emailing back and forth about the California passage of Proposition 8. What grew out of this was a spirit of netroots activism that led to the 300 city international protests of Proposition 8 on November 15th, 2008. Since then, JTI has evolved into an organization that has called for specific actions every month from city leaders and organizers around the globe.

Both of these movements are founded by younger activists who have grown up with blogs, MySpace, Facebook, wikis, Twitter, and other social media technologies. What can the CFP community learn from their pespectives and experiences?

Willow Witte, co-founder, Join the Impact
Mohammed Abdol, administrator, DREAMActivist.org

To find out more about our work, challenges and successes, you can tune in LIVE at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cfp09 on Wednesday. It is touted as a truly historic moment in youth organizing.

Drawing Lines in the Immigration Debate

by DREAM Activist

Published May 29, 2009 @ 11:35PM PT

Check out this article titled What About Us, DREAM Act? in Miller-McCune:

Bhaskar Chitraju came to the United States from India at the age of 13, and has never been back, living legally in the U.S. for the past 10 years. In Southgate, Mich., he played soccer, excelled at Quiz Bowl, and indulged in Battlestar Galactica marathons with his buddies. High school was easy for him, he remembers, because people accepted him for who he was.

However, the aspiring business owner is as far from American citizenship as the day he stepped off the plane. And two years ago, a clock started ticking down on the only life he knows.

His father, a computer programmer, applied for a green card as soon as he could file the paperwork. Bhaskar would have benefited from that petition, but at 21, he was hit by a provision called "aging out" — a consequence of a visa processing backlog that affects thousands of aspiring Americans a year. He continues to live in the United States on a student visa, but Bhaskar may be legally obligated to leave after he graduates from business school next year.

Bhaskar hopes the DREAM Act will help him, too, even though he has never been undocumented. "I would be so happy," he says. "I could work to pay my tuition. Most of my problems would be solved."

This article is based on some false premises -

1. Legal immigrants can qualify for the DREAM Act i.e. if Bhaskar ages out and/or falls out of status like many of us have already, he would qualify for the DREAM Act.

2. The point of the DREAM Act is to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented minors who have NEVER had that pathway. If one is a legal immigrant in this country, there are several pathways to citizenship including marriage, employment-sponsorship, and non-immigrant visas. Undocumented immigrant students, for the most part, don't have these options.

Just to make clear, I do support the inclusion of all students who have grown up in America under this bill, regardless of what lines the state has drawn, and what category they are currently backlogged in.

I am wondering why I spent over an hour on the phone with this reporter reassuring her that if legal immigrants who meet all other requirements were to fall out of status, they would qualify for the DREAM Act too. With that said, the major theme of this article--the struggle between those immigrants who are classified as 'legal' and those that are deemed 'illegal' is well-explored.  The sad highlight of the piece is this paragraph:

Meanwhile, DREAM Act champion Sen. Durbin also advocates restrictions on the H1-B visa, the prime entry route for skilled immigrant workers. Kapoor sees a pattern. "Sometimes our members feel it would be better to flush their passport down the toilet. At least that way you'll have your champions in Congress," he said.

It is sad that the issue of immigration is often conveyed as a matter of legal vs. 'illegal' immigrants when the lines are constructed and often more blurry. The reverse brain drain of skilled immigrants from the United States is as detrimental to the economy as the exploitation of undocumented workers and the loss of productivity due to raid and deportations.

Fighting each other for visa numbers and categories is counter-productive. The quagmire is part of an outdated and broken immigration policy that needs to be reversed not through 'either/or' policies, but through a careful, nuanced and sensible approach on what is best for this country and the people caught up in this system.

The DREAM Act is just a small step in the right direction; we need comprehensive solutions.

DREAM Act Organizing Interactive Map

by DREAM Activist

Published May 29, 2009 @ 05:55PM PT

Whether you are a blogger or organizer (or both), add yourself to the map!

DREAM Act Organizing - Put Yourself on the Map!

by DREAM Activist

Published May 29, 2009 @ 03:56PM PT

This Web 2.0 map is the painstaking work of students and organizers from New York State Youth Leadership Council working with DreamACTivist to build and extend unprecedented networks of DREAM Act, immigrant youth organizing.

All maps are political for they embody the basis of power relations in society, the marking of territory, resources and identity. Web. 2.0 has made it possible to map alternative and hidden geographies, geographies across arbitrary borders. The map above presents the geography of immigrant youth organizing.

You can make a difference. Put yourself on the map.

If you are part of an organization or group, Join United We DREAM to fight for the passage of the DREAM Act and immigration reform this year.

An Undocumented Student Meets the Vice President

by DREAM Activist

Published May 21, 2009 @ 07:06AM PT

It was certainly a bittersweet day. Hours before she met the Vice-President, I told her about the two students detained at the White House a day earlier. It didn't rattle her nerves. She delivered.

Given the level of my excitement and my growing concern of not being able to ask anything, my voice was unusually loud and clear. "Mr. Vice-President!" I almost shouted. I then went into automatic pilot, as if I've done this a million times over. I stated the issue, gave some numbers and economic stats, and then talked about my own peers at UCLA. I disclosed my efforts as a leader on the issue and also as an advocate for issues students care about as the Southern California Regional Director of the California College Democrats. I was in the process of asking him "the question" when he stopped me mid-sentence. "The answer is YES," he stated. I responded by saying that I knew he was a supporter of the DREAM Act when he was a Senator and was well aware that Obama was a co-sponsor at one point, but that my question was more of a when and how.

Read more at Underground Undergrads

Busted Halo Video Blog

by DREAM Activist

Published May 20, 2009 @ 05:05PM PT

This is a courtesy message and maybe an opportunity for undocumented students who have wanted to document their narratives to get their voices heard to a wider audience.

I was referred to DreamActivist.org site by Miriam at HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society). I am e-mailing you about a great blogging opportunity involving immigration. Busted Halo, a spirituality-based non-profit, is developing a video blog made for and by illegal immigrants to allow Americans to see their lives in a way that hasn't been done on the internet before. Preferably we want interviews or video taped moments (social gatherings, discussions with parents, trying to find a job, figuring out how to pay for college, etc.) in the lives of people with a compelling story. This blog is intended to destroy stereotypes and put a human face to a debate that has been one-sided.

Here is a link to further information on Busted Borders: http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Program/90703-247/c

And this is the website it will be featured on: www.BustedHalo.com

If you are interested, please reply to this post and we'll forward you the contact information.