DREAM Act

Dear Dot,

Have you checked today's New York Times yet? There's an incredibly compelling op-ed in today's edition by an undocumented immigrant who happens to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist where he speaks out about his experiences as a student in the United States and calls the country to action on the DREAM Act.

It's really worth a read.

President Obama has the power to stop the deportation of the tens of thousands of young men and women eligible under the DREAM Act. Right now its clear that he isn't doing enough
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Check out excerpts from the piece below and then please call the White House and tell President Obama that the time to act is now--we need an Executive Order to stop the deportation of DREAMers.

Here's where to call:
Pres. Obama - (202) 456-1111

Below are excerpts from Jose Antonio Vargas who came to the United States from the Philippines when he was just 12 years old. You can read the full version here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undocumented-immigrant.

"One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “Baka malamig doon” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a family friend, I was introduced to a man I’d never seen. They told me he was my uncle. He held my hand as I boarded an airplane for the first time. It was 1993, and I was 12.

'My mother wanted to give me a better life, so she sent me thousands of miles away to live with her parents in America — my grandfather (Lolo in Tagalog) and grandmother (Lola). After I arrived in Mountain View, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, I entered sixth grade and quickly grew to love my new home, family and culture...

'One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby D.M.V. office to get my driver’s permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. “This is fake,” she whispered. “Don’t come back here again...”

'I decided then that I could never give anyone reason to doubt I was an American. I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship. I felt I could earn it...

'I’ve tried. Over the past 14 years, I’ve graduated from high school and college and built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country. On the surface, I’ve created a good life. I’ve lived the American dream.

'But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me.

'Last year I read about four students who walked from Miami to Washington to lobby for the Dream Act, a nearly decade-old immigration bill that would provide a path to legal permanent residency for young people who have been educated in this country. At the risk of deportation — the Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years — they are speaking out. Their courage has inspired me.

'There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. We’re not always who you think we are. Some pick your strawberries or care for your children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read. I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.

'I’m done running. I’m exhausted. I don’t want that life anymore."

Thanks and ¡adelante!
Laurie, Favianna, Felipe, Carlos and the rest of the Presente.org Team