Thread: Pro-Immigrant Congressman Severs Ties With DREAMers; Calls Them Racists

Leading Pro-Immigrant Congressman Severs Ties With DREAMer Groups; Calls Them Manipulative, Racists​

By Elizabeth Llorente
Published November 05, 2013Fox News Latino

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  Dec. 08, 2010 : U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) speaks during a news conference on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also known as DREAM Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (GETTY)
  
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  (PHOTO BY ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES)

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the vocal proponent in Congress for a change in policy that would give undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors a chance to legalize their status, has cut off ties with two groups that have coordinated provocative protests in recent months.

Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, on Monday evening issued a press release announcing that he was no longer going to work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and their affiliated advocates at DREAMActivist.org.

The congressman said the final straw in a series of actions by the groups that he has found unsettling was the secret recording by a NIYA representative of what was to have been a confidential discussion last week between Gutierrez and parents of immigrants who are being held in an immigrant detention center in El Paso, Tex.

It just shows me how dangerous they are. How Nixonian...Why target the leading voices in the Senate and House for immigration reform?

- U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez

"It just shows me how dangerous they are," Gutierrez said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Latino. "How Nixonian...Why target the leading voices in the Senate and House for immigration reform?"

“That meeting was ... recorded surreptitiously by NIYA, without the knowledge of the parents, the Congressman or his staff,” Gutierrez said in a statement sent Monday night to the media. “It is unfortunate that the actions of the advocates in this case are preventing this office from being able to work with parents and family who are understandably and rightly concerned for the safety of their son or daughter.”

NIYA helped coordinate two high-profile protests that involved groups of people who approached U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexican border in July and September, and requested political asylum. The groups – nine were in the first, and about 30 in the second – comprised people who were brought to the United States illegally as minors and who were deported or left on their own.

The two groups staged their actions to protest U.S. immigration policies and to demand an end to all deportations.

All nine immigrants from the first group were released pending a final decision on their asylum claim; some from the second group have been released, others remain detained and one woman was recently deported.

Many advocates of more lenient immigration policies have heralded the risky moves by the protesters, calling them heroes. But critics, among them advocates of more liberal immigration policies, have accused them of staging publicity stunts.

The groups are known as Dream 9 and Dream 30, after the congressional measure, the DREAM Act, which seeks to provide immigrants brought as minors a path to legal status.

Gutierrez has expressed exasperation for months over the high-risk moves of both groups, saying that the provocative nature of these actions undermines his efforts to win support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Gutierrez said the leader of NIYA, Mohammad Abdollahi, who was born in Iran and raised in Michigan, has expressed racist [anti-white] views on the Internet, and bragged about how hard it would be for the United States to deport a gay person to Iran.

Gutierrez said it bothers him that someone who feels no fear of deportation is organizing people who are subject to immigration enforcement for risky encounters with U.S. border officials.

“The leadership is undeportable,” he said, adding that Abdollahi and others who are at low risk are manipulating and exploiting other immigrants.

Efforts to get a response from NIYA were unsuccessful.

"In talking with the families, the congressman and his staff believe that the parents and families were being manipulated by NIYA and its leaders and were not well informed about the law and the legal process," said Gutierrez's statement, which stressed that he will continue to work with the detained immigrants and their parents directly.

"The congressman is warning parents that these actions can hurt the chances that young people will be able to return to the United States or live legally in the United States."

Earlier on Monday, two of the Dream 30 who were released from detention were arrested after refusing to leave the offices of Gutierrez and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, a Texas Democrat, whom the protesters had gone to see about immigration reform.

U.S. Capitol Police confirmed that the immigrants, Marco Pacheco and Marcela Espinoza, were arrested for unlawful entry.

In a press release announcing their plans to hold a “sit-in” in the congressional offices, NIYA said: “They will go to the offices and refuse to leave until the elected officials speak out in support of stopping the deportations of the #Dream30.”

The details of the private conversation that Gutierrez said was “surreptitiously recorded” are unclear.

Gutierrez said that the meeting was very emotional, and the parents discussed things that they haven't told others.

DREAMActivist.org alleged on its Twitter page that Gutierrez, in reference to a founder of the groups, said to one of the parents of the detained activists: "'Did you know he's gay?' - @LuisGutierrez, to #Dream30 parents about 1 of our founders. Guess he hoped subtle homophobia would go a long way”

Gutierrez said to Fox News Latino that his point in asking the question was to make the parents aware that Abdollahi was not making the same personal sacrifice -- and taking the same level of risk -- that his organization had encouraged their children to make.

"I said 'Somebody is putting you at risk who has no risk,'" Gutierrez said."I wanted the parents to understand they're being manipulated by someone who is bullet-proof."

DREAMActivist conceded recording the meeting in a response to a tweet inquiring about it.

The response was: “@latinorebels Well, if a member of Congress can troll our members' Facebook, #Dream30 parents ought to record what he says about their kids.”

Supporters for the Dream 9 and Dream 30 assailed the public denunciation of NIYA and DREAMActivist.org by members of Congress and others. They also criticized the arrests.

Jasmine Mora, communications director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, replied that "fixing our nation's immigration system will require putting pressure on Republican members and senators. In the past, (Hinojosa's) staff has met multiple times with the DREAM 30 group to hear their concerns."

Meanwhile, many in the immigration reform movement have watched the growing rift within it with concern.

R. Andrew Free, an immigration attorney in Tennessee, tweeted: "Today's #BringThemHome beef between @LuisGutierrez and @TheNIYA and @DreamAct should prompt soul-searching critical reflection in our mvmt"

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...e-undermining/

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/2-immigrati...ffices-291421/

Gutierrez said the leader of NIYA, Mohammad Abdollahi, who was born in Iran and raised in Michigan, has expressed racist [anti-white] views on the Internet, and bragged about how hard it would be for the United States to deport a gay person to Iran.

Hmmmm.....

Luis Gutierrez calling the Dream Amnesty activists "manipulative racists' ??? Well if that aint the pot calling the kettle brown then I don't know what is! lol

W

National Mexican American Voter Group Blasts DREAM Activist / NIYA; Supports Reps. Cuellar and Gutierrez for kicking out pseudo activists from office

by Dee Dee Garcia Blase on Nov. 05, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Election Day — November 5, 2013,
Communications

National Mexican American Voter Group Blasts DREAM Activist / NIYA and Latino Rebels; We Support Reps. Cuellar and Gutierrez For Kicking Out Pseudo Activists From Office


Phoenix, AZ — Founders of DreamActivist.org via Mohammad Abdollahi and Prerna Lal have no agency or authority to speak on behalf of Mexican American voters. Somos Independents is a national group of key swing registered independent voters led by Mexican American women. We believe in voting on the issue — not Party politics. That said, it appears DreamActivist.org and the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) are spreading more misinformation with regard to (TX-D) Representative Henry Cuellar and (IL-D) Representative Luis Gutierrez. Rep. Cuellar was the first to kick out DreamActivist / NIYA pseudo immigrant activists out of his office, and we later learnt Rep. Gutierrez kicked out the same supporter last week. We applaud the actions of Reps. Cuellar and Gutierrez.

Shirl Mora James, Civil Rights and Immigration lawyer also co-founder of SOMOS INDEPENDENTS formerly Tequila Party states:

“DreamActivist.org leaders and their actions are similar to tea party tactics when it comes to immigration reform because both extremist groups and their actions are hindering the passage of comprehensive immigration reform that will benefit all Americans.”

Co-founders of DreamActivist via Prerna Lal and Mohammad solicit donations. Authorities say no such thing as legal coyote work.

Here are the facts:

1) Pseudo immigration activists wanted to kill comprehensive immigration reform and solicited thousands in the name of “legal coyote” work.

2) One of the lawyers via David Bennion did not discourage the DREAM 9 self deport cause and gave guidance and legal advice to DREAM 30. Bennion is related to the Mitt Romney family and even went so much to say in an oped how Mormons can teach immigrants. David Bennion who is guiding these groups led by an Iranian and Fijian immigrant has been one of Obama’s most vocal critics regarding immigration, but was not as vocal against Mitt Romney’s self-deportation views and receiving advice from Kris Kobach(who is the legal architect behind many of these anti-immigrant laws). We believe Bennion was not objective and as vocal against Mitt Romney because of family ties. More importantly, David Bennion supports unreasonable open border views and he should not support chasing pipeline dreams knowing full well the Republican-led House of Representatives will not stand for this.

3) Mohammad is quoted in news stories for wanting to bring back all 1.7 million undocumented deported immigrants. This is unreasonable and Republicans will not stand for this.

4) DreamActivist/NIYA’s efforts wasted more American tax payer dollars in our already bloated detention centers with their publicity stunts.

5) Dream 9 / DreamActivist and NIYA supporters have been working with A.N.S.W.E.R. who is listed in ADL’s top 10 anti-Israel groups and Mexican Americans have been repudiating that tie.

6) Leaders of DreamActivist are of Iranian or Fijian descent and they do not have any agency to speak on behalf of Mexican American voters. Mexicans make up almost 70% of the entire Latino population pie and we take issue with Mohammad and Prerna who have tried to hijack the immigration rights movement that affects millions of Mexicans.

7) Mohammd Abdollahi who has been much of the media face to Dream9 and Dream30 is from Michigan. He does not live in a border state. Prerna Lal is currently living in Washington D.C.

We sought the advice of nationally syndicated radio show host and political analysit via Carlos Galindo where he encouraged following the money and motives of the above forementioned pseudo immigration activist groups.
Below are reactions from Arizona immigration rights activists.
Angel Garcia, Arizona Immigration Rights Advocate:

The author (Mo) insinuates that the Honorable Mr. Gutierrez is unable to understand the struggles of an undocumented Mexican immigrant simply because he is an affluent Congressman, or maybe he is implying it is because he is Puerto Rican. Either way this is a failed argument and has no logic. What makes me laugh is the author of the article is himself not of Mexican descent. I find it funny the author fails to see the irony in attacking someone for ‘exploiting’ Mexicans when the author of this article is engaging in the same behaviors. How many non-Mexicans has NIYA or DREAM ACTIVIST asked to self-deport? I can understand why the author would support self-deportation, because I have on more than one occasion seen this author post anti-American sentiments. If you hate America so much then how about you self-deport and stop making money off the backs of the people who want nothing more to be a part of the ‘American Dream.’

Viva Ramirez, Chicano Activist / Former Arizona Voto Latino Director:

Comments released by Dreamactivist.org today re Congressman Luis Gutierrez amount to little more than a flailing ideological tantrum through which they demonstrate once again that they possess only a vague, elementary understanding of the way this country works. They proceed to alienate Gutierrez (and every other voting American in earshot) by saying he couldn’t understand them, and then they say he wasn’t their Champion anyway.

Lou Show, Founder of First Jewish Chicano Show in the Nation:

Mohammed Abdollahi is an embarrassment to the Undocumented community, advocating actions that give the community a black eye. No Right Leaning legislator (and there’s a lot of them) is going to be as convinced of the humanitarian argument to stop breaking families apart than by the economic argument of recognizing the Undocumented as a positive, tax-paying, human resource . . . so these tricks of convincing a Dreamer to leave the country and try to get back in is akin to asking someone to fall on their sword. Abdollahi is on record with the goal to prevent the passage of CIR and his organization’s actions are nothing less than irresponsible. I applaud Illinois Representative Guiterrez for distancing his office from NIYA and Community Disorganizer Mohammed Abdollahi.

Gail Mokry Shoultes, Arizona Immigration Rights Activist states:

“I’m happy to learn that Rep. Luis Guiterrez has denounced the practices of DreamActivist. A man of his caliber shouldn’t fall for the amateurish stunts of people who’s agenda is to derail CIR.”

Richard Hornos, a South Carolina Immigration Rights Activist reacted and states:

“I think he opened his eyes on time. I can see comments where people are surprised.”

Haime Badillo, a California Immigration rights Activist states:

“I’m glad to see Rep. Gutierrez pay attention to people’s voices regarding the pseudo immigration activists. Such good actions are reflected in a very positive way within the CIR movement. The ideals should be focused in the good faith of the people and Justice.”

Thurman Williams, a Kansas supporter of Immigration Rights states:

“It’s important that those who did the actual work to get immigration reform on the agenda more than a decade ago, reclaim it from those who would co-opt it for an agenda unrelated to the people who have lived and worked as model United States Citizens over those who advocate for predators of children to remain here.”

Mohammad does not have any agency to speak on behalf of the Mexican American community, and we take issue with him making a mockery out of President Obama and Democratic offices. His agenda can be disastrous to the years of immigration reform we have all been working for. More importantly, his leaders and cohorts have been telling reporters the Tea Party Republicans are not the real enemy to CIR efforts and we believe that is not true considering Senator Ted Cruz (Tea Party favorite) has not supported fixing the broken immigration system via the Gang of Eight CIR bill. We also want to condemn the acts of Puerto Rican American Julio Varela, of Latino Rebels (now working with Al Jazeera) in what we perceive as his cheerleading with regard to the dastardly immigration deeds conducted by DreamActivist and NIYA when Mohammad wanted to “creatively and productively kill” CIR.

###

Somos Independents is a national group of key swing independent registered Independent voters led by Mexican-American women who support bipartisanship in our government that will help solve tough issues. We know the immigration issue is a federal matter and we rely on our Congress to fix the broken immigration system soon with legal immigration reform.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/hispanic-po...s-from-office/

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