Also these 4 Michigan women need your help and support. Make sure you sign the petitions, make a quick call and share them widely!
http://action.dreamactivist.org/michigan/maria/
http://action.dreamactivist.org/michigan/wanda/
Petition to ICE: Release Erika Andiola's Mom & Brother- Detained in Arizona Home Raid!
On January 10th, 2013, Erika Andiola’s home was raided by ICE agents looking for her mother Maria. Despite Erika telling the agents they did not have permission to enter they proceeded to detain her mother and brother , Heriberto, who was outside at the time.
This raid comes in retaliation for recent traffic tickets from Maricopa County, Arpaio’s territory. This raid goes directly against ICE’s recently released policy against detaining and deporting individuals with just traffic violations.
It’s hard not to see this raid as a form of intimidation towards Erika, an active member of the community and longtime activist. We will not stay silent. We will not let ICE tear apart anymore families.
Sign the petition and demand ICE immediately release Maria and Heriberto from their custody.
Take Action:
1. Sign the petition: HERE
2. Starting 9:00am call ICE and demand they let Maria and Heriberto go! (602) 766-7030
Law Student Prepares For The Trial of Her Life
My name is Prerna Lal. You may know me as one of the founders of DreamActivist or from the Immigrant Rights blog at Change.org where I have worked for the past two years to stop the deportations of several members of our community. I serve as a board member for Immigration Equality and I was the recipient of a Changemaker Award at the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) summit this year.
I am writing to you because I am currently sitting for my first-year law school exams at The George Washington University, and already, I’m facing the trial of my life. The United States government has decided to prosecute and deport me away from my family, friends and community. They sent me a notice to appear for removal proceedings last week.
I just paid $800 to the State of California in business taxes. And I’m expected to appear in an Immigration Court in San Francisco for this trial. That is some heavy taxation without representation. To make matters more complicated, my entire family is American and they have done nothing to deserve this treatment.
My grandparents were U.S. citizens. My legal resident parents brought me here when I was a minor. I grew up in this country. This is my home.
It make no sense for the government to spend thousands of dollars and several years in litigation to remove me from my home. In response to this atrocity, my friends have created a petition to top immigration officials to stop this ridiculous prosecution.
Our goal is to reach 5,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/keep-prerna-home-stop-the-deportation-of-dreamactivistorg-founder-prerna-lal
Your support is invaluable to me. Please sign, facebook, tweet and reblog the petition so that I can keep my family together.
Related articles
- Selective Persecution? The USCIS Green Card Interview From Hell (prernalal.com)
- The Privileged Dreamer (prernalal.com)
- A Deportation Hearing Follows the Gag Order: President Obama Wants To Deport Me (prernalal.com)
Women: Stand with Immigrant Rights!
dreamactivist.orgIt should come as no surprise that when one oppressed group is being targeted, all other oppressed groups are affected. However, it’s really easy to get so caught up in your own activism that you don’t take the time to really address those connections. It’s easy for a women’s rights activist to say: “I have to fight for reproductive justice right now; I don’t have time to worry about immigration. I’m not an immigrant; that has nothing to do with me.”
This is why reproductive justice activists MUST advocate for immigration reform.
My Story: Mari
My parents brought me to the United States when I was 3 years old. I did not realize how different my life was going to be as opposed to my friends, who are all “legal” in this country, until I was 18.
It was horrible for me to realize that I was not going to a university because I did not have the money to do so. I was devastated. Since 2008, after my high school graduation, it has been very difficult for me to live a “normal” life. It has been hard for me to acquire a good job where I can get treated fairly and respected as I deserve to be. I have a lot of potential and can achieve farther in life than just settling as a busgirl.
It is tough to pursue what I really want in life.
My only hope is the DREAM Act.
I am currently working towards my Associates of Arts degree in Business Administration. As soon as I finish this, I will be transferring to obtain my Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management. I want to be a Human Resource manager. Luckily, I have been able to go to school because I am an AB-540 student. Otherwise, it would have been almost impossible for me to go to school. My citizenship status is holding me back enormously. All of my hopes and dreams have been put on hold indefinitely, and right now, I am just frustrated. I do not know what I am going to do. I cannot live like this my whole life.
Something must be done.
The DREAM Act must be passed.
There are so many young and talented people living with the same limitation as me, and these lives are being wasted because of their citizenship. I want to have a career, own a house, own a car, etc…but I cannot.
-Mari
"Rogue ‘Dream’ Immigration Activists Rattle Members"
This article appeared in the Thursday, December 6, 2012 edition of National Journal Daily.
By: Fawn Johnson
Dream Activist demonstrator Ernesto Zumaya, 24, of Los Angeles, leads protestors in a march outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is the latest member of Congress to be targeted by a rogue activist network of “dreamers,” undocumented young-adult immigrants who are angling for legalization and want to stop the Obama administration’s deportations.
Aides on Capitol Hill are worried that the group, Dream Activist, will be confused with United We Dream, the national network of teens that has worked intensively and productively with members of Congress on the Dream Act, which would legalize undocumented youths. By contrast, the group Dream Activist is a loose collaboration of students and recent graduates who stage sit-ins and street protests. Dream Activist has a significant social-media presence (17,000 Twitter followers and almost 10,000 “likes” on Facebook) and an attitude.
“We take no prisoners,” said Juan Escalante, who runs communications for Dream Activist when he is not at his regular job at an ice-cream shop.
Nelson’s office has been flooded in the past year with calls about a variety of immigration cases, and at least one protester has been arrested in Nelson’s Miami office. Last week, the group accused Nelson of “attacking” a 13-year-old girl calling the office on behalf of her father, who is slated to be deported. Staffers told the girl that they preferred to talk to an adult about his case.
Dream Activist is well-known in immigration circles for its unflinching protest tactics on behalf of those in detention facilities and seeking passage of the Dream Act. In 2010, activists staged a sit-in in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office as he was angling to bring the Dream Act to the Senate floor for a vote. (It did not get the requisite 60 votes to pass.) Other targets include die-hard immigration-reform advocates such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Democrats worry the protests will stir up trouble on an already-controversial issue just as President Obama is about to launch a major push for a path to citizenship for all qualified undocumented immigrants. Dreamers have become the “face” of the immigration-reform movement, and any indication of splintering within their numbers could make it easier for opponents to kill the effort for sweeping overhaul. Democratic aides say Dream Activist has burned bridges in many congressional offices for their unwillingness to bend on their requests and harassing tactics.
Nelson’s situation mirrors that of many elected officials. His constituent-services staff deals with some 17,000 requests per year, many of them related to immigration. His staff has worked on all the cases brought to them by Dream Activist and resolved several of them. Some cases that aren’t resolved are referred to other offices, while others are beyond the senator’s reach because, for example, the detainees have criminal records. The trouble stirred up by Dream Activist can hurt Nelson’s advocacy work for other cases, aides say.
“We have a very good working relationship with both state and national immigration groups,” Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said. “We can’t say that about this particular group.”
Dream Activist: Drop the ICE hold on Alma, Single Mother of Four!
action.dreamactivist.org
Alma Prado, single mother of 4 U.S. citizen children was returning home from taking her children to the doctor’s office for a checkup when her car malfunctioned and was thrust into a minor traffic accident. Cobb County, Georgia sheriffs arrived on the scene and arrested her for two misdemeanors – driving without a license and improper stop.
Despite the fact that Alma as been in the U.S. for 10 years, has U.S. citizen children who will suffer if she is deported, and has no criminal history, ICE has placed a hold on her while her children and she suffer.
Alma is the sole provider and caretaker for her children, ages 18, 15, 9, and 8. Release the ICE hold on Alma Prado and release her to take care of her family immediately.
TAKE ACTION - MAKE A CALL:
Cobb County Jail (ask to be transferred to the 287g officer):
770-499-4200
Atlanta ICE Office: 404-893-1210
“I am calling to ask that you remove the ICE hold on Alma Prado (Inmate # 001-008-747) and release her immediately back to the care of her family. Alma is a single mother – sole provider and caretaker – for 4 U.S. citizen children. She has no criminal history and qualifies for release under the 2011 Morton Memo. Please release Alma Prado from Cobb County Jail immediately!”
PS This is my friend’s aunt. Please, please sign call and share! We can’t let ICE get away with this!
#CIR vs. #DREAM vs. #STEM vs....
In the grand scheme of things asking for an immigration reform today is like having a crime victim apologize to their perpetrator for having been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Think about it, immigration advocates: it is the United States who invades other nations, occasionally drops a bomb, drone or two, kills certain civilians sometimes, destroys ecosystems, and wrecks economies first. If you had to come here within the past 10-20 years, most likely the U.S., World Bank or IMF (which are run by the U.S) did something horrible to your country, and your parents had no choice but to bring you or else you’d probably be dead, poor, starving, or fighting in a war you did not wage.
YOU were slapped.
YOU are now asking the hand the slapped you to forgive YOU.
The math is incorrect in this equation.
I thought about this today because this movement is divided and there is no point in pretending these divisions don’t exist. A divided house will never win. And although I don’t expect anyone to ever sing Kumbaya any time soon, I wish the house would realize that IT does not need to apologize, IT deserves and must demand an apology for the scarred lives, the broken families, the survival of the detention centers that are equal to the Gulag (if one was lucky enough to even survive). Because it isn’t enough to have your dreams crushed, your family divided, your face being used as a scapegoat, YOU must now apologize to the imperialist for existing.
Unacceptable.
