Editor’s note: CNN reports on today’s DC DREAM Act mobilization, in “Students Lobby to Become Citizens.” America’s Voice is a proud founding partner of the new DREAM Now letter series, which launched today, July 19th, 2010. We expect this campaign to educate the public and our leaders in Washington about the urgent need to legalize qualified immigrant youth, who are Americans in all but paperwork. Please get involved by cross-posting DREAM Now letters to your blog, sharing them on facebook, or tweeting about them and including “@BarackObama” and “#dreamletters.” While we have a very real shot at passing this critical legislation, we can’t do this alone — please do your part and help spread the word!
—Jackie
The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, havegood moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
The “DREAM Now” letter series is inspired by a similar campaign started by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Every Monday and Wednesday DREAM-eligible youth will publish letters to the President, and each Friday there will be a DREAM wrap-up. If you’re interested in getting involved or posting these stories on your site, please email Kyle de Beausset at: kyle at citizenorange dot com.
The first letter:
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Mohammad Abdollahi and I am an undocumented immigrant. Two months ago I made history.
On May 17, according to the New York Times, I become one of the first undocumented students, along with two others, to “have directly risked deportation in an effort to prompt Congress to take up [the DREAM Act].” Risking deportation was no small act for me. Not only did I risk being forcibly removed from United States, the only country I know as my home, to Iran, where I don’t know the culture or the language. I also happen to be gay. In Iran, people like me are tortured and executed. I am still at risk of deportation and execution, right now, and I will continue to be at risk until the DREAM Act is passed.
