Labor & Employment Law

Immigrant Students Fight for the American DREAM

By James Parks

Just as young workers and students were the energy of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, immigrant students are becoming a strong force in the drive for comprehensive immigration reform that will allow them to pursue the American Dream. On Monday, five undocumented college students staged a sit-in at Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) office in Tucson (see video). Three of the protestors were arrested and face possible deportation.

The students were demanding McCain support the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would give conditional legal status and eventual citizenship to undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools, are of good moral character, arrived in the United States as minors and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment.

As some 100 supporters outside the office shouted, “Education, Not Deportation,” one of the protestors, Tania Unzueta, 25, said the students simply want to pursue the American Dream:

Throughout the country, there are a lot of laws criminalizing young people, students, our lives, our history, our parents. It’s important that we fight for laws that represent the needs of our community and represent the values of U.S. society?hard work and education, contribution to our communities?and that is our dream.

Another protestor, Mohammad Abdollahi, an immigrant from Iran who also is gay, is one of the three who may be deported. Brought into the country by his parents when he was three years old, the Ann Arbor, Mich., resident says he fears for his life if he is returned to Iran where homosexuality is a capital crime. He told ABC News:

It’s not only Sen. McCain we’re looking for and holding accountable, there [are] senators all across the country we’re holding accountable. We’re telling them you’ve been asking for a long time for somebody to step up and take leadership on this?none of you have been willing to do so?so, as non-citizens, we’ve taken that lead.

The sit-ins came just two days after the tragic deaths of two promising leaders of the DREAM Act  movement, Tam Ngoo Tran and Cinthya Felix, both graduates of the University of California-Los Angeles, who were killed in a car crash.

John Delloro, president of the AFL-CIO constituency group Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), said of the two activists:

We at APALA are devastated by the loss of Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix. They represented the best and brightest of this generation, leaving behind a legacy to advance the rights of undocumented students.

Kent Wong, APALA’s founding president, said:

Although we mourn the passing of Tam Tran and Cinthya Felix, we celebrate their lives and their spirit with a new commitment to pass the DREAM Act

Tran, who was born in Germany to Vietnamese refugees, was a doctoral candidate at Brown University, testified before Congress on the DREAM Act, and had to go into hiding after immigration officials detained her parents. She spoke at last year’s APALA convention and participated in the first National Asian Pacific American Workers Rights Hearing.

Both families are accepting donations here. You also may send flowers or cards to: 220 Westwood Boulevard, Community Programs Office 105, Student Activity Center, 106C Los Angeles, CA 90095-1454.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).