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America’s Voice Education Fund Supportive of New “Right to DREAM” Campaign

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Today, leaders from the United We Dream network launched a new nationwide campaign calling for increased protections from the Obama Administration in light of continued enforcement against DREAM Act eligible young people.  The new “Right to DREAM” campaign will feature an array of local activities in states throughout the nation calling on the Obama Administration to provide relief for all DREAMers and for President Obama to “use his executive power to stop tearing immigrant families apart and provide real and lasting relief for DREAM Act eligible youth.”

According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, “We support the DREAM movement in their ongoing efforts to win administrative relief.  While the President has rightly called on executive branch immigration enforcement agencies to target serious criminals and not low priorities such as young people eligible for the DREAM Act, it’s now clear that the gap between the enlightened White House policy and poor DHS implementation can only be bridged by decisive White House action.  It makes no sense for DHS to put DREAMers in deportation proceedings when it’s only a matter of time before the DREAM Act is enacted.  Ensuring that talented young people are able to remain in the only country they know as home is an important goal that would provide a lasting benefit to communities throughout the nation.”

Despite having strong majority support from the American people, passing the House of Representatives, and receiving 55 votes in the Senate in 2010, the DREAM Act has failed to become law.  In light of continued legislative obstruction, the DREAM movement has called for administrative protections, a concept that has received the support of leading policymakers and legal experts.  For example, in 2011, 22 Senators wrote a letter to President Obama expressing support for measures to grant relief to qualified DREAM students, in light of continued obstruction preventing DREAM legislation from passing Congress.

Today, in addition to a national press call to launch the campaign, on which United We Dream leaders and several DREAM Act-eligible young people caught in deportation and END case proceedings laid out the campaign goals, local events are occurring in Phoenix, AZ; Fayetteville and Springdale, AR; Los Angeles and Orange County, CA; Indiantown, Miami, and Orlando, FL; Vancleave, MS; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK; Austin and Houston, TX; and Milwaukee, WI.

America’s Voice Education Fund — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.

www.americasvoiceonline.org

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