By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 9:37am
One year ago, the immigrant youth movement won the most important immigrants' rights victory in recent memory: the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children—or Dreamers—the ability to live and work in the country legally. As of this May, about 365,000 young immigrants have been granted DACA, and are working hard, going to school, and giving back to their communities—a preview of the benefits all of us stand to gain should Congress pass immigration reform this year.
Every movement needs a face – someone whose story transcends traditional dividing lines and has the capacity to change hearts and minds. For immigration reform, it's not just one story, but rather the collective stories of DREAMers, undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as children. By sharing their powerful stories of how they are American in all but paperwork, DREAMers have shifted public opinion in a way that wouldn't have seemed possible a few short years ago: A poll released yesterday found that there is overwhelming bipartisan support for immigration reform (up to 78 percent support in some states).
I recently learned about a group of young people who did something extremely brave. They were invited to lunch with Nebraska's Governor, Dave Heineman...
Today Maryland and Oregon are celebrating the signing of new laws expanding access to driver's licenses to all residents, including undocumented immigrants. We are part of a movement. Our hope is that our success inspires the passage of bills in more than a dozen other states considering similar measures.
In most states today, it is difficult, if not impossible, for people to go about their daily lives without the ability to drive. Simple but essential tasks such as driving kids to school or to extracurricular activities, picking up groceries, going to the doctor, and traveling to workbecome riddled with hardship. As a result, people without access to driver's licenses are faced with the difficult "choice" of either not meeting their basic needs or driving and risking arrest and other negative repercussions.
A Georgia student's story highlights the need for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million people who have become part of the American fabric, and aspire to become citizens, but currently have no way to attain legal status.
I came to the U.S. from India at the age of 7. Living in the U.S. has provided me with a life that I would have never been able to have back in India. The U.S. has always been and will always be my home. I have received a great high school education, which helped me graduate from Georgia Tech, a college that has the second-best program in my chosen field, biomedical engineering.
Jocelyn came to the United States when she was six years old, brought by a single mom who wanted her to go to school and have a better life than she did. Today, at age 14, Jocelyn is an honors student in Alabama, where she hopes to become the first in her family to graduate from high school, and to one day become a doctor. Jocelyn is striving to live the American Dream.
As I stepped off the plane from JFK to Oakland, I admit that I was a bit scared. Normally sitting behind a desk, I was about to embark on a ten-day journey across the United States, sharing a van with eight people I had yet to meet, trying to rally people against the wave of discriminatory “show me your papers” laws in the very states that have adopted them. I was in unfamiliar territory.
By Diana Scholl, Communications Strategist, ACLU at 12:45pm
Another day, another amendment to the Senate immigration reform legislation from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would harm immigrants' civil liberties. Amendment 17, which will be up for consideration this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee's markup of the immigration reform bill, would unwisely (and unconstitutionally) restrict the ability of immigrants to correct erroneous denials of legalization by barring the courthouse door to them.
By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 2:12pm
Alejandro Rodriguez’s parents brought him from Mexico when he was a baby. Prior to his detention, Alejandro earned his green card and lived near his extended family in Los Angeles, working as a dental assistant to support his two U.S. citizen children. The two convictions that gave rise to his detention and deportation case were minor and non-violent— joyriding when he was 19, and a misdemeanor drug possession when he was 24. Alejandro posed no flight risk or danger to the community and yet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) locked Alejandro up for more than three years without a bond hearing. Bond hearings are a basic and guaranteed principle of due process in the American judicial system, but thousands of immigrants like Alejandro are denied this fundamental right on a daily basis.
There are 2.1 million of us. Then, there are our parents, friends, and neighbors—courageous, hardworking undocumented Americans. Together, we are 11.2 million. We’ve met and overcome great hardship.
