DREAM With Me.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT The DREAM Act, I want to introduce you to the legislation, fight, and arguments. There’s really no need for me to try and explain it because some compas have poured hours and hours of work into making cases, offering links, and organizing already. I’m just going to write at the moment to say I do support it (despite the fact that I don’t support creating new ways for our war machine to suck up more mexicano—or other—lives) and I’m going to paste some links and writing from Dream Activist as well as Blogmigo Kyle from Citizen Orange.

First, what is “The DREAM Act”?

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (also called “The DREAM Act”) [is] a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that would provide certain immigrant students who graduate from a [U.S. high school], are of good moral character, arrived in the US as children, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.

—Wikipedia ((23 March 2009)

Furthermore, as Kyle notes, The National Immigration Law Center has a basic information sheet (pdf).

Dreamactivist.org introduces it this way:

The federal DREAM Act (S.729 / H.R. 1751) will provide undocumented immigrant youth in the United States with conditional residency and a pathway to citizenship provided they came here before the age of 16 and maintained continuous residence for 5 years, graduate from high school or obtain a GED, attend 2 years of college or join the military and have no criminal records.

If Congress fails to act this year, another entire class of outstanding, law-abiding high school students will graduate without being able to plan for the future, and some will be removed from their homes to countries they barely know. This tragedy will cause America to lose a vital asset: an educated class of promising immigrant students who have demonstrated a commitment to hard work and a strong desire to be contributing members of our society.

Here’s a short video on the DREAM Act. And what bothers me about it is the blurred faces. It’s too perfect a metaphor for what we ask of the undocumented, of how we ask them to live. Without a face, without a self, without an identity.

A post I really recommend if you want to get a full understanding, complete with many links:

65,000 unauthorized migrant youth graduate from U.S. high schools every year. Many were brought to the U.S. before they could remember much else, and most know no other home except for the U.S. The cruel irony of their situation is made all the more apparent by contrasting it with my story. I was born in Guatemala and spent most of my life there. I was given the privilege of U.S. citizenship simply because I was born of U.S. parents. Meanwhile, DREAMers have lived most of their lives in the U.S., but are denied the privilege of U.S. citizenship because they had the misfortune of being born somewhere else.

If I had to sum up the DREAMer struggle in one sentence it would be this: DREAMers don’t even have a right to exist in the only country they know as their home. DREAMers haven’t even gotten to a point where they’re fighting against be considered equal humans, they’re fighting just to be recognized as humans. That’s a huge part of what inspires me about DREAMers. If any nation told me I didn’t have the right to exist, I would hate it, much less want to live in it. I’ve long joked that if I was a DREAMer, I would have started my own version of Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement. The U.S. should be begging for talented youth like this, especially during this time of economic crisis. Astonishingly, DREAMers don’t hate the U.S., they work to better it. Where I probably would have been tearing the U.S. down, DREAMers instead fight to make the U.S. a better and more just place. They embody the essence of what it means to do good in this world.

—Citizen Orange

Actions one can take to help get this legislation passed:

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

http://capwiz.com/nclr/callalert/index.tt?alertid=12988601

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

http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/speakout/DaretoDream

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

http://www.change.org/ideas/932/view_action/ask_your_congressperson_to_support_the_dream_act

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

http://dreamact2009.com/

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.

http://fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/action-join-the-fight-for-immigrant-rights/

—Citizen Orange

Sometimes I find it hard to advocate for things that seem common sense. I don’t know what to say to convince people that everyone should have air, or water, or love, or freedom of movement or opportunities such as this. It seems a win-win to me. Give people room to excel and contribute, give them the homeplace they already feel they belong to and do belong to, increase happiness and productivity all ’round. This can be a nation brimming with good will and joy and community. We just have to believe it is possible and make a few small steps toward that vision.

This is one.