Thread: Group of young immigrants plans next move in light of recent

Group of young immigrants plans next move in light of recent ease of federal deportation proceedings
By: BERTRAND M. GUTIERREZ | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: August 24, 2011
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YADKINVILLE --
They're young, educated — and not authorized to be in the United States.
Tuesday evening, three of them and several supporters — all between ages 16 and 21 — had a meeting in downtown Yadkinville to decide the next steps for their community group, El Cambio (meaning "change" in Spanish), in light of President Barack Obama's recent statement that immigration authorities would ease deportation proceedings involving noncriminal cases.
On the to-do list are the customary tasks: raise money, apply for grants and raise awareness about young illegal immigrants who want to get an education. One of the big items involves organizing support for a rally that immigrant-advocacy organizations are planning to hold in Charlotte on Sept. 6, a year before the Democratic National Convention.
Silvia Rodriguez is prepared to go.
She was born in the U.S., but her brother, Martin, was 2 when their parents moved to the country.
"That's why I'm here," said Rodriguez, 18.
Her brother, 20, is prepared to go, too.
"Have you ever heard of the Greensboro Four?" he asked the group, referring to the 1960 sit-in demonstrations in Greensboro. "They tested Jim Crow laws back then. In the same way, we are testing what Obama just stated. We are showing our human dignity. We are students who have committed no crime."
A star student, he graduated early from Starmount High School and went on to take one semester of classes at N.C. State University, but he stopped going because he couldn't afford the out-of-state tuition that illegal immigrants must pay.
With options becoming limited, he said, fear is not much of a factor as he thinks about next month's demonstration.
"We are running out of ideas of what to do next, so I don't mind getting involved," he said.
Life is limited also for Moises Serrano, who arrived as a child from Mexico and graduated at the top of his class at Starmount High School. When a teacher once tried to get him to apply for a job, he declined because he didn't have a driver's license and can't get one.
At the meeting, he got on his laptop and read what an immigration attorney said about Obama's statement. Last week, Obama said immigration authorities would give higher priority to processing deportation cases that involve criminals (being in the U.S. without authorization is a civil offense, not a criminal offense).
The policy does not currently apply to Serrano because he does not have a deportation case weighing against him.
Views about immigrants who are not authorized to be in the U.S. differ sharply in North Carolina and the United States. Though some believe immigration laws should be relaxed, others believe just the opposite: that the people without authorization to be in the U.S. should be deported back to their native country and that the borders should be tightly secured.
As much as Obama's statement might seem like a relief, thousands of immigrants who similarly grew up in the U.S. want to go to college, and have bigger ambitions.
They call themselves "DREAMers," after legislation that has been discussed in Congress for years.
In May, the latest version of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act, was introduced in both chambers of Congress.
It would give young immigrants such as Serrano and Rodriguez a pathway to legal status, under certain conditions. Among them, the immigrant must have a clean record, must have been 15 or younger upon arriving in the U.S., must have lived in the U.S. for five consecutive years, must have been accepted into an institution of higher learning or must have earned a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma.
"It's as simple as wanting a normal life," Serrano, 21, said in a phone interview. "If I could flip a magic wand, I would do away with racism. Right now I feel like I'm being segregated from American society, the country I love."
bgutierrez@wsjournal.com (336) 727-7278

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/au ... r-1325707/

On the to-do list are the customary tasks: raise money, apply for grants and raise awareness about young illegal immigrants who want to get an education. One of the big items involves organizing support for a rally that immigrant-advocacy organizations are planning to hold in Charlotte on Sept. 6, a year before the Democratic National Convention.

Oh, so they're not engineers and scientists. Coulda fooled me.....

Because our own farmers, employers and Chamber of Commerce have sought to maximize profits, they have for years, not only refused to enforce our United States laws and , in fact, have deliberately worked to to support illegal immigration.

We are now at ,in my opinion, the make or break stage for the country we are going to be for the future. It is perfectly understandable why the young illegals would stand and fight foe whatever they can get from the world's greatest welfare state. Understandable, but not legal. Does the rule of law mean anything anymore in our country??

What kind of politicians do we have that put their tenure before the liberty and freedom of their fellow citizens?? (Those same people who re-elect them?)

I had always thought that one of the great freedoms we possess as citizens is to do or be what we wish in terms of our what we do with the working part of our lives. One could become a carpenter , even though one possessed an advanced degree from college because we found out the=at was what made us happy. Free choice, to live the way we want, doing what we want within our rules of law.

Illegal immigration have taken those freedoms away. There is little opportunity for a young man or woman yo enter the trades and make a good living. The jobs have been given to those with lesser skills. Those lesser skills equate to lesser paychecks and a wage downgrade for a huge number of middle income jobs.

Freedom has many aspects to it and the continued support of the unarmed invasion of America is beyond understanding. Is every society in history doomed to destroy itself?? What kind of reasoning has so many supposed leaders , so willing to speed our country into third world status?

The class divide is at an all time high. The racial divide is returning. Those most severely impacted by this invasion are our young black citizens with an 20% plus unemployment rate. The job problem along with the types of movies and TV shows propel these young folks into an entirely different representation of American citizen than we have had in the past.

Stemming the tide of illegal entry, deportation of all illegals, starting with criminal offenders, will begin to move us in the direction of restoring America to its once, great place to have been born or allowed to enter.

Until then, illegal people walk our streets, protest publicly without fear of arrest or deportation while the Democrat administration protects their interests over those of our own citizens.