Two DREAMers Jonathan Perez and Isaac Barrera challenged ICE directly in Mobile, Alabama and have been detained. Check out the clip below:

“Obama later visited the Spanish-style mansion of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith for what promoters billed as “the first ever Latino fundraiser” for the president.

Actress Eva Longoria, one of the stars of television’s Desperate Housewives, introduced Obama by saying he “speaks to the Latino community because he knows he’s the president of all Americans.”

“And we applaud you from our community,” Longoria told Obama. “We thank you for everything you’re doing.””

Meanwhile on the immigration front, which is a key issue that Candidate Obama touted on the campaign trail in 2008 when he was in front of Latino audiences, we have continued to see record breaking deportations and even suggestions that those same tough enforcement policies will continue. Last week an important documentary aired on PBS’s Frontline, Lost in Detention, in which an Obama official, Cecilia Muñoz said, ““As long as Congress gives us the money to deport 400,000 people a year, that’s what the administration is going to do.”

Watch Lost in Detention on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Understandably, immigration rights advocates are upset, and some people feel a disconnect between the administration’s courting of the celebrity wing of the Latino community versus the needs and desires of the grassroots. Presente.org even has a petition for Cecelia Muñoz to “set the record straight.”

Going into the 2012 election cycle, which message do you think will resonate with Latino voters? Will people support the President because some of our high profile celebrities are lining up behind Team Obama or will the Latino community simply not vote for a candidate for President as Professor Gary Segura of Stanford implies in the documentary?

My name is Chih Tsung Kao.  I am 24 years old and am now currently living in Taipei, Taiwan awaiting military service.  This is not what I had planned for my life as I entered high school, but it was drastically altered when I found out that I was undocumented at 17.

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, have good 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!

[Editor's Note from Kyle de Beausset: I'm publishing this letter in Spanish without translation in compliance with the wishes of Matias Ramos.  For the nativists who bristle in the proximity of anything that isn't in English I say: This is America! Learn more than one language!]

Estimado Presidente:

Lo saludo con respeto y admiración, pero también con una queja y un pedido.

En Abril del 2010, empaqué mi ropa en dos bolsos y deje a mi familia y amigos en California para trabajar tiempo completo en el DREAM Act, un proyecto de ley que usted conoce bien y por el cual he esperado por muchos años. En ese entonces no tenía donde vivir, pero un amigo me presto su sillón por varios meses hasta que pude rentar una habitación. Washington es muy diferente a Los Angeles, en la cultura y el ritmo de la vida cotidiana. La adaptación fue dificultosa, pero recibí mucho apoyo desde todas partes del país de parte de muchas personas que comparten el mismo sueño que yo: ser ciudadanos legales de los Estados Unidos de América.

Cuando empecé a involucrarme con organizaciones de estudiantes indocumentados, no sabía hasta donde me iba a llevar, ni como me apasionaría este movimiento. Pero me motivo porque he visto el talento, el carácter, y la capacidad de esta generación de inmigrantes que ha crecido con recursos muy limitados, pero con potencial tremendo. Miles de soñadores han salido a las calles para demandar sus derechos.  Al expresar públicamente que son indocumentados, han arriesgado todo, incluyendo uno de los males más temidos en nuestra comunidad: la deportación. Sin papeles, pero sin miedo, hemos marchado, cantado, y visitado a cada uno de nuestros representantes en el Congreso. También hemos creado una organización nacional llamada United We Dream.  

Conocí a muchos de ellos en Febrero, cuando decidimos reunirnos para planear el año. Ya en ese entonces, estábamos muy decepcionados con usted. Parecía que la audacia de la campaña presidencial había sido reemplazada por una timidez y abandono del tema de inmigración. En el discurso presidencial de enero, usted solo dijo 38 palabras acerca del tema que domina nuestras vidas.  Al mismo tiempo, su departamento de seguridad nacional autorizaba más deportaciones que nunca, y los líderes demócratas del Congreso no se decidían cuando habría un voto para crear nuevos programas de legalización. Ese día decidimos, en un grupo que incluía inmigrantes indocumentados de 17 estados, que era tiempo de que ya no esperaríamos más.

Por esas cosas de la vida, un día después fui arrestado en el aeropuerto de Minneapolis/ St. Paul por autoridades de inmigración. Ese mismo día, los oficiales de ICE me entregaron papeles de deportación. Gracias al trabajo del movimiento juvenil, me liberaron y transfirieron a Washington, DC. Dos semanas más tarde, recibí una prórroga de un año en mi deportación. El episodio me afectó mucho, ya que nunca había sido esposado ni encadenado en mi vida. También, porque compartí las historias de muchos que no tuvieron la misma dicha que yo. En sí, conocí algunos hombres buenos  que estaban siendo deportados. Y pensé también que usted los estaba deportando.

Me acuerdo haberlo visto en Los Angeles, a principio del año 2008. En ese entonces, la mayoría de la gente no lo conocía y nadie esperaba que pudiera ganar la elección. Pero su mensaje de unidad verdaderamente me inspiró, por eso registré votantes en California y Nevada, y les pedí a muchos amigos que votaran por usted. Algunos me han preguntado por que partido deberían votar ahora que vienen nuevas elecciones. Honestamente, no sé.

Lo importante es que voten. Que voten por algunos Demócratas. Que voten por el Partido Verde. Que voten en blanco.  Que salgan todos a votar para que nos escuchen de una vez por todas. Pero que no le regalen a ningún político lo que no se merece.

El hecho de que no puedo volver a mi barrio y decirle a la gente que tenga confianza en ninguno de los miembros del Congreso debería recordarle que las promesas que hizo tenían un significado especial. Tener papeles, para millones de Americanos, es un sueño que significaría perder el miedo y ganarse el respeto. Quedan pocas oportunidades de cambiar la corriente anti-inmigrante antes de las elecciones. El DREAM Act (S.729/H.R.1751) es la mejor.

Sinceramente,
Matias Ramos
Alien Number 089708376
United We Dream Network, Board Member

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.  The letters are produced by Kyle de Beausset at Citizen Orange with the assistance of America’s Voice.  Every Monday and Wednesday DREAM-eligible youth will publish letters to the President, and each Friday there will be a DREAM Now recap. 

1. Sign the DREAM Act Petition
2. Join the DREAM Act Facebook Cause
3. Send a fax in support of the DREAM Act
4. Call your Senator and ask them to pass the DREAM Act now.
5. Email kyle at citizenorange dot com to get more involved

Below is a list of previous entries in the DREAM Now Series:

Mohammad Abdollahi (19 July 2010)
Yahaira Carrillo (21 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – Tell Harry Reid You Want the DREAM Act Now (23 July 2010)
Wendy (26 July 2010)
Matias Ramos (28 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – The CHC Has To Stand With Migrant Youth Not Against Us (30 July 2010)
Tania Unzueta (2 August 2010)
Marlen Moreno (4 August 2010)
Weekly Recap – The Ghost of Virgil Goode Possesses the Republican Party (9 August 2010)
David Cho (9 August 2010)
Ivan Nikolov (11 August 2010)
Yves Gomes (16 August 2010)
Selvin Arevalo (18 August 2010)
Weekly Recap – Latino, LGBT, Migrant Youth, and Progressive Bloggers Lead For the DREAM Act (20 August 2010)
Carlos A. Roa, Jr. (23 August 2010)
Myrna Orozco (25 August 2010)
Lizbeth Mateo (30 August 2010)
Saad Nabeel (1 September 2010)

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Saad Nabeel and I am writing to you from Bangladesh. Prior to my arrival in this nation, I lived in the United States for 15 years. My parents brought me to America at age three. It is the only home I know. I used to attend the University of Texas at Arlington with a full scholarship in Electrical Engineering. Through no fault of my own, I was forced to leave my home, friends, possessions, and most importantly, my education behind.

November 3rd 2009 is a day I will never forget. My mother called me and told me that my father had been detained by ICE and that we needed to leave immediately to Canada to seek refugee status. Being an only child, I had to take care of my mother and go with her.

My mother and I were denied entrance into Canada and sent back to the USA as if we were common criminals. I was separated from my mother and sent to a detention facility where I was forced to live with 60 men, many of whom were hardened criminals. There was no privacy and I was forced to use the facilities and showers while fully exposed. I lived in constant fear of being abused. I was without food for upwards of 14 hours a day and received little to no medical attention. When I asked for legal counsel I was threatened with criminal charges and jail time in a Federal Penitentiary. To this day I still have nightmares about being detained. Everything my parents taught me about human decency was replaced with humiliation. Mr. President I hope you are as outraged as I am hurt by this ordeal.

Bangladesh is extremely hot and humid. We have no air conditioning as the power goes out every day. These power outages can last twelve hours or more. The air is heavily polluted and I get food poisoning every week from the poor quality of food here. Raw sewage flows in open drains in front of our apartment. I see people outside with mangled bodies dying on the street because of the heat and starvation. I see mothers practically giving their children away because they are unable to feed them.

I do not know the language and I fear going outside because I am different from everyone else. Speaking in English is an easy way to be targeted here. We cannot afford to live in a safer area. I have not left the apartment for 8 months. It simply is too dangerous for me to leave the apartment unless my parents go with me. I cannot attend school due to the language barrier. I do not know anyone in Bangladesh.

On top of all this, my parents are both ill and have been for months. My father suffers severe asthma attacks that make him bedridden on most days. My mother has post traumatic stress and cannot accept the fact that she is not at our home in Texas.

These events transpired after we were approved to receive our Green Cards. ICE forced my family to leave knowing that Green Cards were available to us. We have been waiting for our Green Cards for 15 years now.

Mr. President, you are the most powerful man in the world, all I ask from you is to bring me home. All I ever wanted was an education so I could become an engineer. I just want to go home and go back to college. Please don’t keep me exiled any longer. Please bring me home.

Sincerely,
Saad Nabeel

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.  The letters are produced by Kyle de Beausset at Citizen Orange with the assistance of America’s Voice.  Every Monday and Wednesday DREAM-eligible youth will publish letters to the President, and each Friday there will be a DREAM Now recap. 

1. Sign the DREAM Act Petition
2. Join the DREAM Act Facebook Cause
3. Send a fax in support of the DREAM Act
4. Call your Senator and ask them to pass the DREAM Act now.
5. Email kyle at citizenorange dot com to get more involved

Below is a list of previous entries in the DREAM Now Series:

Mohammad Abdollahi (19 July 2010)
Yahaira Carrillo (21 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – Tell Harry Reid You Want the DREAM Act Now (23 July 2010)
Wendy (26 July 2010)
Matias Ramos (28 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – The CHC Has To Stand With Migrant Youth Not Against Us (30 July 2010)
Tania Unzueta (2 August 2010)
Marlen Moreno (4 August 2010)
Weekly Recap – The Ghost of Virgil Goode Possesses the Republican Party (9 August 2010)
David Cho (9 August 2010)
Ivan Nikolov (11 August 2010)
Yves Gomes (16 August 2010)
Selvin Arevalo (18 August 2010)
Weekly Recap – Latino, LGBT, Migrant Youth, and Progressive Bloggers Lead For the DREAM Act (20 August 2010)
Carlos A. Roa, Jr. (23 August 2010)
Myrna Orozco (25 August 2010)
Lizbeth Mateo (30 August 2010)

By Kyle de Beausset

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, have good 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!

It’s been one month since the DREAM Now Series started, and it’s been far more successful than I had ever imagined.  DREAM Now Letters have been cross-posted and mentioned by a wide selection of bloggers.  Those blog posts, in turn, have been viewed, shared and retweeted tens of thousands of times.

As always when it comes to pro-migrant blogging, Latin@ blogs are at the vanguard led mostly by the strong and talented Latina bloggers at Latino Politics Blog, Latina Lista, and Vivir Latino.  Time and time again, Adriana Maestas, Maegan “La Mamita Mala” Ortiz, and Marisa Treviño have stood on the side of migrant youth when few others would.  They have gone above and beyond in cross-posting the letters of migrant youth.

It is within the pro-migrant online spaces largely created by Latin@s that undocumented youth bloggers have been able to thrive, connect, and organize.  Though I haven’t had as much time to reach out to DREAMers to cross-post these letters online, and many DREAMers are too busy organizing to blog and tweet these days, I love that both of the migrant youth blogs Life By DREAM and Migrant Headlines have been cross-posting the DREAM Now Letters, regularly.

There’s a new group of pro-migrant bloggers that have recently been added to this coalition for the DREAM Act.  As any migrant youth leader will tell you, just as racism is inextricable from nativism, so is the LGBT movement inextricable from the migrant youth movement.  A disproportionate number of migrant youth leaders identify as queer.

So while national immigration reform groups have sometimes made the “strategic” decision to downplay LGBT immigration concerns in order to appeal to the religious right, that has simply never been an option for the migrant youth movement.  Doing so would mean neglecting the very souls of some of our strongest leaders: among them Mario Rodas, Mohammad Abdollahi, Tania Unzueta, and Yahaira Carrillo.

That’s why I’m happy to report that the decision to model these DREAM Now Letters after a similar campaign by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to raise awareness around repealing the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy has been graciously received.  Above all, the greatest honor of this campaign, has been the fact that Pam Spaulding at Pam’s House Blend has been consistently front-paging the DREAM Now Letters.  Pam is easily one of the best bloggers on the web and her support of the DREAM Now Letters is huge.  Finally, a lasting symbol of the unity between the migrant youth movement and the LGBT movement will always be the demonstrations by both Lt. Dan Choi and four DREAMers during Harry Reid’s speech at Netroots Nation.

Last but not least, the broader progressive blogosphere has also been supporting the DREAM Now Letters in a way that would have been unthinkable only a couple of years ago.  Crooks and Liars has been leading the Progressive blogosphere with their support of the DREAM Now Letters. Daily Kos has linked to DREAM Now Letters diaries on their front-page.  While Firedoglake has not front-paged any DREAM Now Letters, FDL has consistently been the mainstream progressive blog that is most supportive of migrant youth through their publication original pro-migrant content. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the progressive blogosphere.  Progressive blogs, arguably, have the largest audience that needs to be educated about the DREAM Act.

Now is not the time to fall off.  A month has gone but we still have as much as a month and a half to go before we have a chance at getting a vote on the DREAM Act.  The DREAM Now Letters have become crucial in flooding the internet with content about the DREAM Act and informing others who otherwise might not have heard of it.  I have a to do a better job at both consistency and outreach, and I’ve think I’ve started to get to a point where that’s going to be easier for me to do.  Any and all help from others is appreciated.

Below is a list of everyone who has consistently published or linked to DREAM Now Letters.

DREAM Letters Publishers:
America’s Voice
Crooks and Liars
Culture Kitchen
Democracia Ahora
Docudharma Doing My Part For The Left
Latina Lista
Latino Politics Blog
Life By DREAM
Migrant Headlines My Latino News
Nuestra Voice
Pam’s House Blend
The Kite
Vivir Latino

DREAM Letters Mentions:
Change.org
Daily Kos
Deportee’s Wife
Hispanic tips
House of Grant
Imagine 2050
Immigration Talk With A Mexican American
La Frontera Times
Michigan Liberal
Michigan Messenger
Mom’s Rising
Mother Talkers
Para Justicia Y Libertad
PolitiFi
Regator
Restore Fairness
Roots Wire
TV Realist

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.  The letters are produced by Kyle de Beausset at Citizen Orange with the assistance of America’s Voice.  Every Monday and Wednesday DREAM-eligible youth will publish letters to the President, and each Friday there will be a DREAM Now recap.

1. Sign the DREAM Act Petition
2. Join the DREAM Act Facebook Cause
3. Send a fax in support of the DREAM Act
4. Call your Senator and ask them to pass the DREAM Act now.
5. Email kyle at citizenorange dot com to get more involved

Below is a list of previous entries in the DREAM Now Series:

Mohammad Abdollahi (19 July 2010)
Yahaira Carrillo (21 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – Tell Harry Reid You Want the DREAM Act Now (23 July 2010)
Wendy (26 July 2010)
Matias Ramos (28 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – The CHC Has To Stand With Migrant Youth Not Against Us (30 July 2010)
Tania Unzueta (2 August 2010)
Marlen Moreno (4 August 2010)
Weekly Recap – The Ghost of Virgil Goode Possesses the Republican Party (9 August 2010)
David Cho (9 August 2010)
Ivan Nikolov (11 August 2010)
Yves Gomes (16 August 2010)
Selvin Arevalo (18 August 2010)

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Marlen Moreno and I am undocumented. I am also a possible beneficiary of the DREAM Act.  On Sunday, August 8, I will be deported. I was born in Nacozari, Mexico in 1984. My parents brought me to the United States when I was only 13 years old. We were searching for a better life and we found it in Tucson, Arizona. Despite being born in Mexico, I don’t consider myself Mexican. I have been living in this country for over thirteen years. The United States is my country and Arizona is my home.

My parents have always told me to value education. I remember them telling me that they came to the United States, “the country of opportunity,” so I could live a better life than they did. I never took their sacrifice for granted. In 2002, I became the first and only member of my family to graduate from high school. I was proud of my achievements but scared that I could not go any further. Because of my status, I was not able to continue with my education. My goal is to become a pre-school teacher, because I believe education is the key to success. I want to help children achieve their full potential from a young age, so they can continue to excel in every aspect of their lives.

Despite my goals of higher education, I was forced to put them aside and work as an assistant cleaning houses and a maid in a hotel. This was not what I wanted to do with my life, but I was thankful for any job I was able to get. For four years, I worked hard to support myself and help my family financially knowing that someday I would be able to live out the American Dream.

In 2007, my first son was born, Freddy Alan. Thanks to him, I came to know what it means to be a mother. I never knew I could be this happy or love someone as much as I love him. I went back to work soon after his birth because I wanted to provide him with everything he deserved.

On March 28, 2008, my son and I were awakened by a loud bang on our door. Before I could fully figure out what was happening, ten heavily armed deputies came into my house and arrested me because I am undocumented. I was taken to jail and held without bail.

I was detained for over four months, when I was finally released and allowed to reunite with my son once again. When I came home, after four and a half months, I realized how much I had missed. My son had turned one and he had learned how to walk while I was in jail. It pains me to know that I never saw his first crawl, the first time he sat up, learned to play, his first bites of real food, or when he took his first steps. But what pains me the most is the fact that he didn’t recognize me, his own mother, after I got out of jail. It still brings tears to my eyes knowing my own son didn’t know who I was. It took us months to come back together, like we had been before we were separated.

I try not to think about the way I was treated during this time. I had been treated like a criminal, as if I had robbed a bank when all I was doing was working to provide for my son and my family. It was not the same America I had grown up knowing.

In 2009, I met my husband and we married. He came into my life at a time when I needed him the most. He provided the support and love that I needed, and I will never forget that. In November of 2009, I had my second son, Leobardo Jr. My husband is a Lawful Permanent Resident and both of my sons are citizens. I am the only person in my family who is undocumented, but I still cannot legalize my status.

For the past year I have been fighting my deportation but now I am at the end of that fight and I am being told I must leave the United States by August 8th. I cannot think about being separated from my husband and my sons. I don’t want to think about going back to Mexico, a place I don’t consider my home.

I consider myself an American. This is where my husband and my children are and I don’t want to be separated from them. I want to continue living my life in this country and I want to contribute back. I am not a criminal. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter. I am a human being.

Please act to stop my deportation and to pass the DREAM Act now so that I can have a chance at a life in the only country I know as my home, later.  I only have 3 days before I’m deported.  This is what I need most urgently from you.  Please:

1. Sign the petition for asking for me to stay
2. Send a fax to DHS to ask them to allow me to stay
3. Call Janet Napolitano, Director of DHS at 202-282-8495 and leave a message in support of me.  This is an answering machine that fills up by the end of the day, so please fill it up with support for me.
4. Call John Morton, Director of ICE, at 202-732-3000 leave a message urging him to take action and defer my deportation.  This is a live comment line that will be picked up by a real human being so please be very polite

For both calls you can say something along the lines of:

“I am calling to leave a message of support for Marlen Moreno (A#88-771-833) who is being deported on August 8th, I ask that Director Morton please step in to defer her deportation, she is an asset to this country.  Thank you.”

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.

1. Sign the DREAM Act Petition
2. Join the DREAM Act Facebook Cause
3. Send a fax in support of the DREAM Act
4. Call your Senator and ask them to pass the DREAM Act now.
5. Email kyle at citizenorange dot com to get more involved

Below is a list of previous entries in the DREAM Now Series:

Mohammad Abdollahi (19 July 2010)
Yahaira Carrillo (21 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – Tell Harry Reid You Want the DREAM Act Now (23 July 2010)
Wendy (26 July 2010)
Matias Ramos (28 July 2010)
Weekly Recap – The CHC Has To Stand With Migrant Youth Not Against Us (30 July 2010)
Tania Unzueta (2 August 2010)

On 11 February 2009, Celia Alejandra Alvarez-Herrera was arrested by a sheriff’s deputy in a workplace raid during which her jaw was dislocated against a wall.  Regrettably, my notes are obscured by a teardrop that escaped me as she described being beaten with a clipboard for crying out for medical treatment while in Sheriff Joe Arapaio’s custody.

Tears were status quo yesterday afternoon in the packed committee room in the Longworth building on Capitol Hill.  Some staunch stoics (like me) fought them.  Other impassioned advocates (like Rep. Jared Polis) did not.

“They called me bitch,” Alvarez-Herrera testified, in Spanish, about her detention. “They called me ‘doggie.’”  They told her to go back to Mexico, she said.  They also threw her Bible in a trash can and would not give it back, she continued, in Spanish, in tears.

“It’s true that we’re migrants,” Herrera-Alvarez admitted, in Spanish, during her testimony, “but why don’t they ask us why we migrated?”

“Why do they ask us for papers to work but not to go to war?” she cried.

Alvarez-Herrera’s arrest separated her from her four children, she testified, the youngest being only three months-old at the time of her arrest.  Her five year-old son, she continued, nearly died during his mother’s detainment, from complications due to asthma.

Before she was arrested, Alvarez-Herrera worked as a street cleaner in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jurisdiction — one of millions of employment opportunities just-indignant-enough during Boom Times to require brown staffers.  Once in the Arpaio’s custody, Herrera-Alvarez “never received medical attention,” according to her biography distributed to press at the hearing.  “Now, she requires continued medical treatment due to this negligence.”

Herrera-Alvarez did not come to Capitol Hill alone.  She did not testify alone before our congress.  Silvia Rodriguez testified alongside her.  Rodriguez, 23, “was left homeless when her family decided to move to another state due to the increasing anti-migratory laws in Arizona.”  At the time, Silvia was a student at Arizona State University studying for dual bachelors degrees in political science and Chicano studies.  Nevertheless, she graduated Cum Laude and has been accepted to study at the Harvard Education School this autumn.

“A group of benefactors offered to pay her tuition,” according to Rodriguez’ biography, “but may rescind the offer because of language in SB 1070 about retaliation against those who help anyone who is undocumented.”  She too fell to tears during her testimony.  “The state I call home criminalizes me,” Rodriguez said. “I did not have control over where I was born.”

Rodriguez was 2 years-old when her family immigrated to Arizona.

Perhaps the most heart-wrenching of the day’s testimony came from Katherine Figueroa, 9, whose parents were arrested by Arpaio’s deputies in a workplace raid and detained for three months.  Katherine spoke of nightmares she has in which “they” come to arrest her other relatives, as well.  “Please tell President Obama to stop putting our parents in jail,” she pleaded, in English, in tears.  “All they want is a better life for us!”

A better life, too, was why Alma Mendoza came to testify before our congress.  “My children and I survived domestic violence for 15 years,” Mendoza said, in a press release distributed at the hearing.  “Now with SB1070, women will be afraid to call the police.  They will suffer in silence.”

Rep. Judy Chu, from Los Angeles, noted that already women from Arizona are coming to California seeking services resulting from domestic abuse.

Congresspersons Chu, Luis Gutierrez, Gwen Moore, and Hank Johnson made statements, but only Rep. Raúl M. Grijavla, chairman of the ad-hoc hearing on “The Impact of Arizona’s SB1070 on Women and Children”, and Rep. Polis, stayed for the full hearing.

You can also read Ali Noorani’s statement about today. He is the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum and was at the White House meeting.

Angelica Salas, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, offered this after the meeting with the President:

“We believe that his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is real, but we also know we want results and so that’s what we’ll be expecting within the next couple of weeks.”

And President Obama issued the following statement today via the Office of the Press Secretary:

“Today I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system. I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems. I also heard from a diverse group of grassroots leaders from around the country about the growing coalition that is working to build momentum for this critical issue. I am optimistic that their efforts will contribute to a favorable climate for moving forward. I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort.”

My thought is that the President is going to have to show some strong leadership to maneuver immigration reform in the Congress. He cannot be as ‘hands-off’ as he appeared in the initial stages of the health care debate because it stumbled and stalled, and we are still struggling to finish health care reform. I’m skeptical that we will see a comprehensive immigration reform before the summer, as it is going to take massive engagement in our communities and with our allies. Plus, the case for any immigration reform becomes more difficult to make in a recession, but we do have glimmers of hope and some very committed advocates. Certainly, if those of us who want immigration reform apply a full-court press in how we defend our positions and proposed policies, in addition to working on people who might be on the fence now, we have a better chance of making some real progress. My hope is that President Obama can do something to improve the immigration system through executive order, including remedying some of the situations with detention. And I’m still encouraged that we could see passage of the DREAM Act if the comprehensive approach does not come to fruition.

On a related note, I do like what DREAM Activist Prerna Lal has to say about the all or nothing approach to comprehensive immigration reform:

“If you believe in the one large comprehensive immigration reform bill or NOTHING, congratulations, you are a dinosaur. But you are also on your way to extinction, most likely through natural causes. So it’s not long till human beings will take over–get ready for the ‘invasion.’”

At the very least, passage of the DREAM Act would be a great beginning.