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North Carolina DREAM Team—Hungry for Reform

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Three young women in North Carolina are starving for the DREAM Act. Viridiana, Loida and Rosario – known as the “North Carolina Dream Team” — are on day eight of their hunger strike, and will continue with it until Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) publicly endorses this common-sense piece of legislation.

With the stroke of a pen, Senator Hagan can right an obvious wrong and can better the lives of North Carolina’s undocumented youths.

Sadly, the stories of Virdiana, Loida and Rosario are not unlike the other 1.5 million undocumented young people who would be eligible for the DREAM Act in the United States today. From the North Carolina Dream Team:

Over a decade ago, our parents were forced to make decisions beyond our control and understanding. They decided to migrate to the land of opportunity, the United States of America, in search of a better future for their family. Throughout the years, we have overcome many barriers. We managed to learn a new language and culture as our own; we are bilingual and bicultural. We have attended schools in a country that we love. We pay taxes. We have given back to our communities through tireless volunteering. However, we have become members of a society that does not recognize us as fully human – we are labeled as illegal aliens and denied equal access to higher education.

For anyone unfamiliar with the DREAM Act, it was introduced in early 2009 and would provide high school graduates — those who have arrived in the United States before age 16 and who have good moral standing — the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency by either attending college for at least two years, or enlisting in military service for the same amount of time.