Thread: Youth Being Mobilized Around Immigration Debate

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=61216

Youth Being Mobilized Around Immigration Debate; Trainings Build Capacity, Enable Students to Advocate for Access to Higher Education

2/20/2006 10:57:00 AM


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To: National Desk, Education Reporter

Contact: Germonique Jones of Center for Community Change, 202-339-9331 or gjones@communitychange.org ; Web: http://www.communitychange.org

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Less than a year since national news coverage of a rare one year deferred deportation for one undocumented student and public spokesperson for the DREAM Act, young people from around the country are mobilizing to fight the anti-immigrant climate on Capitol Hill and in legislatures around the country. Hundreds of dynamic young people are strengthening their organizing and leadership skills through regional youth trainings beginning Saturday, February 25 in Chicago, Ill.

"The young people whose futures are at stake will no longer standby in the immigrant rights struggle. Passing the DREAM Act is a no brainer and shouldn't be caught up in the broader immigration debate," says Cristina Lopez, deputy executive director, Center for Community Change. "This bill is a positive first step to fixing our country's badly broken immigration system."

Chicago is the first of five regional trainings that will connect young people together and build power in their communities for immigrant rights. Following the Chicago training, students will stage a "Diplomas Not Death" vigil outside the district office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert in Batavia, Ill., shedding light on the numerous deaths along the border and the lack of opportunities for undocumented high school graduates. The students will carry 417 crosses representing the 417 border deaths this year and call on Mr. Hastert, a former high school teacher and coach, to ensure passage of the DREAM Act.

The Chicago training will draw students from Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. One of these students is Diana, a 20-year-old who arrived in Chicago at age 5. She is now a senior at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she enrolled after the state legislature passed a law that enabled her to pay in-state tuition fees like a regular resident. But she still faces an uncertain future.

"I am worried," said Diana, who is pursuing a double major in Political Science and Economics. "I don't know what will happen when I graduate. Will I get a job? Am I going to be able to go to grad school? The DREAM Act would be my only solution."

Every year some 65,000 undocumented students are adversely affected by the federal government's refusal to acknowledge their potential. Instead, the authorities are bent on seeking deportations and conducting border patrols as the only ways to address immigration. The DREAM Act would remove barriers to going to college for undocumented children who have lived in the US for at least five years and have graduated from American high schools, and would provide a path to obtaining legal status.

The two day trainings are coordinated by Center for Community Change and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and will galvanize young people from all walks of life. Students will lead a grassroots campaign to reach out to the public through press conferences, op-ed articles in the media and grassroots actions.

Additional trainings are taking place in Newark, Phoenix, Portland and Nashville on weekends through early May.

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The Center for Community Change is a nonprofit, nonpartisan low income advocacy group that promotes the development of community organizing as a national force for social and economic justice. FIRM (Fair Immigration Reform Movement) is a coalition of grassroots community organizations nationwide, working on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform and immigrant rights.

For nearly four decades, the Center for Community Change has helped thousands of urban and rural communities nationwide organize for positive change by uniting low income people across lines of race, ethnicity, geography and gender to equip them with the tools to change public policies and demand public attention for issues of social and economic justice.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.

No one cares. They can trot to Washington, they can dance in the streets. It won't matter. No one cares.

Americans care about Americans.

That's our job. That's our duty. And by God, we're gonna do it and deport these people and secure our borders and NEVER EVER let something like this happen again in the United States. NEVER!

So, save your money, kids, and start packin' 'cuz you're going home with your parents.

Bye! Bye!