Students in California Fight Back Tuition Hikes

by Prerna Lal

category: News

Published November 20, 2009 @ 05:07PM PT

In response to the failed anti-immigrant tea parties last week, more than 60,000 people joined the call for immigration reform with Rep. Luis Gutierrez this past Wednesday. The momentum is clearly on the side for reforming America's broken immigration system.

Rep. Gutierrez reiterated his support for immigrant youth and even though he has yet to co-sponsor the DREAM Act, he clarified that his immigration reform bill would strengthen the DREAM Act, making it quicker and easier for undocumented students to legalize their status.

In the long run, undocumented youth don't just need legalization; all American students need access to affordable and quality public education. And that is why student activists across California occupied their schools this week to present a list of demands in response to the rising costs of public education, specifically the 32% tuition hike approved by the UC Regents.

AT UCLA, cops tasered and hit students with batons. The actions were repeated at Wheeler Hall in UC Berkeley. Reportedly, well over a hundred students have been arrested for protesting.

The majority of the students occupying halls at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Cruz are not undocumented, but providing a safe environment and accesss for undocumented students and workers is also high on the agenda.

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"I Think About Killing Myself Everyday"

by Prerna Lal

category: DREAM Act

Published November 20, 2009 @ 12:21PM PT

[This week's guest Dream Act guest post is written by Lily, an undocumented student whose life took another course when her parents left behind a good life to come to the United States for her sibling.  Visit Dreamactivist.org to find out how you can help pass the Dream Act and give students like Lily an opportunity to contribute to this country].

Back home my Dad was a pilot. My mom was a stay-at-home mother and was treated like a queen. I have a brother who is 14 months older than me. I always knew he was different. When playing hide and seek he could never find anyone, so I remember being loud on purpose so that he would find me. It was obvious he had learning problems, and one day we found out his teachers were beating him in school.

My parents had decided to come to California in order for my brother to have something to do through out his days, because it was obvious he could no longer attend school back home. My parents told my brother and I that we were going on vacation (which we always did.) I was 8 at the time and my brother was 9.

We got on a plane and came to California and we were enrolled in school immediately. I knew we weren't going back anytime soon. Life was hard. My parents hired an attorney to help us get our green cards. Little did we know that this guy was fake and not even an attorney. Things just took a turn for the worse from there.

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Massachusetts Looks to Revive Instate-Tuition

by Prerna Lal

category: News

Published November 19, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT

Governor Deval Patrick is looking at another push to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students in Massachusetts as per the recommendations of a year-long study conducted on how to improve immigrant integration in Massachusetts.

In light of federal inaction on immigration, 11 states with growing immigrant populations have already approved in-state tuition for undocumented students who attend high school in those states.

More than 910,000 immigrants live in Massachusetts, which is 14 percent of the population, and the numbers are increasing. 1 in 5 immigrants—well below the national average—are currently residing in the state without legal status.

Anti-immigrant advocates are furious, given their recent string of dismal losses. They are screaming about the supposed additional tax-burden. In these ignorant spew of copy-paste words, ‘the taxpayer’ is constructed as some mono-lithic, angry, usually white American citizen shouldering the burden of free health care, welfare and now education for those damn ‘illegal aliens.’

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Axelrod Backs Away from Committing to Immigration Reform in 2010

by Prerna Lal

category: Immigration Reform

Published November 18, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT

While we listen to Representative Luis Gutierrez giving yet another talk for immigration reform today, the Obama Administration has slowly backed away from a firm promise, which sends us mixed signals. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is confident that Congress can take up immigration reform in early 2010 but David Axelrod, the top political advisor to President Obama, refused to make any such commitment when he appeared on the State of the Union this past Sunday with John King:

KING: The secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, says you will, early next year, come forward with a plan for comprehensive immigration reform that would have a plan in it, a path in it for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country to have a pathway to status -- to legal status. Will you make the political commitment that no matter what the politics of January and February, the administration will go forward with this early next year?

AXELROD: John, what the president has said is, and he said it to both Republicans and Democratic members of Congress who have worked on this issue is, come to him, let's come together around something that both parties, or at least elements of both parties say they can agree on, so we don't reach the same impasse we've reached before and then he'll be willing to go forward on it.

I think some good work is being done on both sides of the aisle to achieve that. And Secretary Napolitano is getting that done. But what we want is a system that holds everybody responsible and everyone accountable.

[...]

If we can get a group together to give it the momentum to pass in Congress, then we're going to push forward with it.

In other words, don't expect President Obama to show leadership or spine on the issue of immigration reform and work actively to initiate change. He has squarely dropped the ball on Congress, which is unlikely to act without the pressure that DREAM Act-eligible youth, Ju Hong, talks about in this interview.

(Photo Credit: WhiteHouse Flickr PhotoStream, US Government Work)

Korean-American Student Shares More Than Secrets

by Prerna Lal

categories: DREAM Act, Interviews

Published November 17, 2009 @ 07:00PM PT

Ju Hong, an undocumented student at Laney College, just launched his personal website (JoinJu.com) to garner support from the Korean American community for the DREAM Act and immigration reform. He has regularly given powerful speeches in support of this cause, taking grave risks to come out as an undocumented immigrant. Maria at DreamActivist remarks that Ju is not a spectator, but rather a gladiator for the cause. In his circles, Ju is known as 'The Beast.' I'll leave everyone to hear what Ju has to say.

1. What's your theory of change regarding immigration reform? How do you think we can make real change happen?

My theory of changing the course of immigration system is to pressure Senate and President Obama to pass the DREAM Act as well as comprehensive immigration reform. I believe that this is only way to solve our solutions because our representatives are the one who make ultimate decisions. So it’s really up to us how hard we can pressure Senate and President Obama to pass the DREAM Act.

However, this is not going to be easy. It takes time and dedication. There are several ways to pressure Senate and President Obama to make real change happen. One way is to educate other people and the community by having a workshop or a mini conference to bring social awareness and urge them to call/send letter to representatives. Second, share your story. You can always share your story in school, church, or local community to educate about our side of story. Third, join organizations and clubs to advocate about this issue. Lastly, embrace online blogs like facebook, myspace, wordpress, and twitter to reach out people and encourage them to support the DREAM Act. These are very important tactics and great effective ways to bring awareness and pressure senate and president Obama to be on our side. In short, we must come together and start to organize, mobilize, and take collective action to fix our current immigration reform. That’s the only way to make real change happen.

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Anti-Immigration Forces Dwindling

by Prerna Lal

category: Nativism

Published November 17, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT

The anti-immigration movement is in complete disarray. While tea-baggers are fighting other tea-baggers, Jim GilChrist from the Minutemen has continued to distance himself from William Gheen, labeling him as someone who is simply in the anti-immigrant business for money.

In growing desperation, William Gheen, founder of anti-immigration organization called Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC), probably thought that the best way to get more publicity and more than a dozen protesters to an anti-immigration rally was to unite with tea-baggers.

Now the Tea Party Patriots, led by former House Republican leader Dick Armey of Texas, don't really have an official position on the issue of immigration. In fact, Armey has blatantly stated his opposition to anti-immigrant politics noting that it is a divisive issue for the GOP. How does Gheen expect to fit into the picture by driving a wedge into tea-bagging politics?

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Why Hasn't Rep. Loretta Sanchez Co-Sponsored the DREAM Act?

by Prerna Lal

category: DREAM Act

Published November 16, 2009 @ 12:41PM PT

The Orange County DREAM Team has been lobbying Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) for quite a few years to co-sponsor different versions of the DREAM Act. She has refused to do so, stating her preference for comprehensive immigration reform.

I didn't get the memo stating the mutual exclusivity between actively supporting the DREAM Act and wanting comprehensive reforms for the broken immigration system. Did you?

Her flawed logic sends an erroneous message that politicians who do co-sponsor the DREAM Act don't want comprehensive reforms. Really Loretta?

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