A few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Gaby Pacheco, one of the Trail of DREAMS walkers, who is on a journey from Miami to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness for the DREAM Act and humane immigration reform. Gaby was kind enough to take a few minutes out of her day to share her thoughts and ideas about what can be done to help bring undocumented youth out of the shadows and regularized into society.

Two questions kept running through my mind as I spoke to Gaby. One is: Why would we not want these motivated young people in our society? The other question is: Why should we limit young people who have persevered despite the odds being stacked against them?

As I have explained previously, DREAM Act students are undocumented individuals, who were brought to this country as children. They didn’t have any choice in the matter, but their parents were seeking a better future. Some may have been legal at one point and their status lapsed, and others may have entered the country illegally. However, children traveling with their parents are rarely ever in the driver’s seat. They travel with their caregivers, similar to how other youngsters have been traveling throughout time.

Gaby Pacheco has completed three degrees at Miami Dade College. She holds two associates degrees and a bachelor’s degree in education. She told me that if the DREAM Act became law tomorrow that she would apply for her master’s or another graduate program that would allow her to continue on to earn a Ph.D. so that she could practice music therapy. More specifically, Gaby wants to work with autistic children to teach them how to survive and be productive in the world. In expressing her dream, Gaby told me, “I want to teach them how to live. When I was in 12th grade, I saw a lot of kids in group homes who didn’t need to be there.”

It’s obvious that Gaby has the motivation and existing education to achieve a graduate degree, but her undocumented status is holding her back. In trying to figure out why the US would not want a motivated young person like Gaby fully contributing to our country, I did a little research on special education teachers with some data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment for special education teachers is expected to increase faster than average for all occupations because there is a shortage of people who specialize in working with youth who are disabled. Gaby could most certainly work with special needs children, but she could also train others to work with this population as well if she had her graduate degree(s).
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The following is a guest blog post by Aracely Panameño:

I have been banking since I started working at the age of 16. My first account was with Burke & Herbert in Crystal City, a small community bank in Virginia that has been in business for over 100 years. I started with checking and savings accounts. There were times when I was at risk of bouncing a check. I was lucky though, as the bank manager would call and tell me that I could authorize him to transfer the necessary funds from my savings and all would be fine, no insufficient funds, no overdraft, and no penalty fees. Yes, this was before PC banking, cell phones, text messages, and automatic overdraft protection plans.

A few years later, I moved to Woodbridge, Virginia where Burke & Herbert did not have branches and decided to transfer my accounts to another community bank with branches near my home. Through mergers and acquisitions, I ended up with Bank of America where today I am fully banked. There is something to be said about the benefits the bank offered me for agreeing to do more business with them -– free checks, no monthly fees, a safe deposit box, no-closing-cost mortgage refinance, and branch offices all over the country and abroad. The problem was I went from a valued customer at the bank where the branch manager knew my name and looked out for my interests to just being one in an infinite number of consumers who as individuals are insignificant.
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As the clock continues to tick and the number of deportations, detentions, and immigrant prosecutions continue in much the same fashion that occurred under the previous administration, Latino and immigrant rights groups are beginning to express their frustration publicly with the lack of leadership from the White House on this issue. The Department of Homeland Security has requested a more enforcement heavy budget for FY 2011. And the continued deportation policy has proven to not be very cost effective. Actually, back in 2005, the Center for American Progress conducted a cost analysis of a mass deportation policy and found this:

“Well, the Center for American Progress today released the first-ever cost assessment of a mass deportation policy for the 10 million undocumented persons currently in the country and the 500,000 that successfully cross the border each year. And guess what? It would essentially drain the Treasury. The data analysis estimates the cost to be at least $206 billion over 5 years ($41.2 billion annually), and could be as high as $230 billion. We arrived at this number even after assuming that 2 million of the 10 million would leave on their own–a pretty large assumption.”

Back when he was candidate Obama, we were led to believe that he would not walk away from the 12 million undocumented people living in the shadows here in the United States and that there would be a “humane and comprehensive” immigration reform. You can see that here:

And now here we are in March 2010, and the raids continue, but today the Department of Homeland Security tells us that it overstated the number of deportations during President Obama’s first year in office. It’s rather convenient that DHS chooses to correct its deportation numbers on the day that multi-ethnic, immigrant rights groups hold the following press conference. Please do watch the press conference on immigration reform on this C-SPAN link and share your thoughts. It definitely is a compelling news conference.

My thought is that President Obama could stop the raids at a minimum before enacting comprehensive immigration reform, but I’m not holding my breath. However, there is something we all can do if we are bothered by the continued raids and lack of movement on immigration reform, we can contact the White House online. I’m going to do it, and I encourage you to do so as well. Comments on this blog only go so far, but a comment directly into the White House will have a stronger impact.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez pulled papers to run for state treasurer in 2014. I speculated that whether we see Fabian Nuñez re-emerge in elected office will depend largely upon what happens with his son’s murder trail, which is scheduled to begin in May. Well, another one of his Esteban Nuñez’s friends has decided to testify against him according to the Los Angeles Weekly. Writer Christine Pelisek has been following this story, and she hit the nail on the head with this:

“Here’s why the political elite in California are watching this tragic murder case involving alleged killers who come from private schools and lives of power and privilege:

The case has elicited the involvement of California’s Democratic Party political stars, from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to County Federation of Labor chief Maria Elena Durazo — all rallying around the accused while doing nothing to support the family of the widely-loved dead young man, who went, simply, by the name Lu.”

I think that Villaraigosa, Durazo, Romero, and De Leon should have said nothing publicly about Fabian Nuñez’s kid, Esteban and his trials and tribulations, especially without expressing sympathy for the real victim in this case, a deceased young man, Lu Santos. Politically a “no comment on this pending case” would probably have served all of these leaders better than expressing sympathy for Fabian Nuñez and his child, who is out on bail, in my view.

One topic that Seneca and I have addressed on the blog is the plight of the DREAM Act students, undocumented young people who were brought to the US as children and who seek to become regularized so that they can realize their dreams of attending college (actually some do make it through college despite their status), finding work, and contributing to society. In Florida, four young DREAM Act students, those who would benefit from its passage, have undertaken a brave, character-building and awareness raising walk from their home in Miami, Florida to Washington, D.C., which is a 1500 mile trek. Their walk is called “The Trail of DREAMS.”

Last week these brave young adults encountered the KKK as they walked through Georgia. Later today these DREAMers will enter Gwinnett County, Georgia and ask to meet with Sheriff R.L. “Butch” Conway, who runs a 287(g) program in a similarly oppressive fashion to Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona. In essence, those localities that have been allowed to enforce immigration laws under the 287(g) program have done so by profiling, intimidating, and in many instances terrorizing local Latino communities. Sheriff Conway, a proponent of the 287(g) program, has led an effort to deport hundreds of immigrants from Gwinnett County in the past three months. The DREAMers are requesting to meet with the Sheriff in person to explain the hardship that his actions are causing to families like their own.

Juan Rodriguez, one of the walkers, has offered this statement:

“We’re not afraid of unjust laws. We’re not scared of Sheriff Conway. We actually hope to share our own experiences as immigrant students with him, and to explain the fear and pain that detentions and deportations cause within families. Local enforcement of federal policies like the one Sheriff Conway is proudly implementing are proof of the need for real immigration reform. These policies have the long-term effect of criminalizing immigrants – the vast majority of whom are here only to work hard and provide for their families.”

Rodriguez and the other walkers have been asking to meet with Sheriff Conway, but their requests have been denied. It is easier to turn the other way and ignore the issue than to engage in a healthy dialogue, but today when the students request a meeting with Sheriff Conway in person, they will be accompanied by attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and other legal advocacy organizations in case they are detained. Additionally, these legal observers will be able to witness what happens.

I ask those of you who support the DREAM Act and humane, comprehensive immigration reform to follow what these brave young people will be doing today on Twitter and/or on Facebook. Also, check the national news for any stories about this, and spread the word among your friends. There are students here in the US with legalized status who not even consider influencing public policy in such an audacious manner, but these DREAM activists are persisting in spite of their undocumented status. These students are definitely giving their documented counterparts a run for the money in the political engagement department.

Finally, if you are able, please consider donating to the Trail of Dreams Walkers. They need funds for food, water, and shoes.