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NYT: DREAMers Say It's Obama's Time to Act

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It’s been an amazing year for DREAMers, who won protection from deportation this year when President Obama announced his deferred action (DACA) program, and became a national political story when they helped to mobilize record numbers of the Latino vote in last month’s elections.  Today–as DREAMers from all over the nation are gathering in Kansas City, Missouri to lay the groundwork for next year’s political battles–Julia Preston has this awesome article at the New York Times chronicling the struggles of DREAMers this last year, and what their hopes are for the future.  Here’s how it begins:

Their protests and pressure helped push President Obama to offer many of them reprieves from deportation. So far about 310,000 youths have emerged from the shadows to apply, with numbers rising rapidly.

Door-knocking campaigns led by those immigrants, who could not vote, mobilized many Latinos who could, based in no small part on the popularity of the reprieve program. After Latinos rewarded Mr. Obama with 71 percent of their votes, the president said one of the first items on his agenda next year would be a bill to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, which would offer a path to citizenship for young people.

Behind the political momentum, administration officials and advocates say, is an extensive and surprisingly adroit movement of youthful immigrants. Because of their illegal status, however, they have often been more influential than they have been visible. In the past two years, they pursued their goal of legal recognition through a calibrated strategy of quiet negotiations, public “coming-out” events where youths declared their status, and escalating street protests.

Now, movement leaders say, it is payback time. When Congress last debated broad reform, in 2007, populist energy was on the side of those opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Angry resistance from Republicans defeated a legalization proposal by President George W. Bush.

This time the young immigrants are the rising force, and they seek legislation to give them a direct and permanent path to citizenship. But recalling that Mr. Obama also promised at the start of his first term to move swiftly on immigration overhaul, they say their attitude toward him is wait-and-see.

Please click here to read the full story at the New York Times.