Today marks the completion of the second week of the DREAM Now series. I am sorry I was not able to get a letter out on Wednesday.  Too much travel and not enough sleep led me to come down with a soar throat and a fever on Tuesday.  Thankfully, I’m starting to recover, today.  If you’re not getting enough of your DREAM Now fix I recommend reading Matias Ramos’ post on why he stood up during Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) speech at Netroots Nation.

Thanks in part to the supporters of the DREAM Now Series,  Reid is now on board with pushing DREAM Act this year.  Most of the credit for turning Reid, of course, should go to courageous undocumented youth activists for their civil disobedience in Reid’s office and making their presence known during his appearance at Netroots Nation.  While Reid still needs to be pushed, most of our efforts to get the DREAM Act enacted, this year, should now shift towards securing the last few mostly Republican Senate votes we need.  The National Council of La Raza has a list of Senators who have not yet publicly committed to voting for the DREAM Act.  If your Senator is on that list, you better start getting to work.

Before all of our efforts move towards securing mostly Republican votes for the DREAM Act in the Senate, however, there is one last set of important supposed “allies” that have yet to voice their support for passing the DREAM Act this year and, according to Congressional leadership, are actually obstructing it from happening: the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).

Those of us in the migrant youth movement have long known that the CHC has been a barrier to passing the DREAM Act on its own.  The supposed defenders of migrant rights in Congress can, in fact, be an enemy of migrant youth.  This uncomfortable fact was spotlighted for the entire progressive blogosphere to see during Nancy Pelosi’s remarks on the DREAM Act to Netroots Nation:

You mentioned the DREAM Act…There is a difference of opinion about how we go forward on that.  In our House we are committed to comprehensive immigration reform.  Our Congressional Hispanic Caucus doesn’t want us taking one piece, you know, taking a piece that might be appealing and leaving the undocumented behind.

So we–our principles are secure our border, enforce our laws, protect our workers, don’t exploit workers coming in, but have a path to legalization for those who are here, not fully documented.  And if we take off some of the rosier pieces of it, the thought is that it would diminish the prospect for comprehensive immigration reform.

Others have a different view, “let’s just run with it if we can get it passed.”  That’s a debate we have.  But our Hispanic Caucus is of the comp–[rehensive view?]–and I support that…That’s why we haven’t, while we’re all co-sponsors and all support the DREAM Act don’t want it to diminish our prospects for dealing with the undocumenteds in our country.

Nancy Pelosi – Netroots Nation (24 July 2010)

Every time someone says the whole thing cannot pass, only part of it, it weakens us, it divides us, it confuses us, it scatters us all over the place. we once had a united movement for comprehensive immigration reform, now we don’t have a united movement, and that is causing, that is detrimental to the movement for all of us.

Luis Gutierrez – The DREAM Is Coming (20 July 2010)

There is a lot to dissect here but the most important points are the following.

First of all, to force another generation of unauthorized migrant youth to give up their lives for the broader movement is exploitation, pure and simple.  This is especially true when undocumented youth themselves and many of their undocumented family members are against it.  Politicians using undocumented youth as the engines for comprehensive immigration reform are no better than the exploitative employers of undocumented workers.

Second, not only is it exploitative to make this argument, but it is strategically wrong.  Getting the DREAM Act passed this year will not weaken the fight for immigration reform, it will strengthen it.  No one questions the fact that undocumented youth are the strongest and most sympathetic leaders of the migrant rights movement.  Why not allow them to earn legal status so that they can fight even harder for their family members and communities?  I know I’m not leaving this fight after the DREAM Act is passed and I can say that for just about everyone that I know whom I consider a leader of the undocumented youth movement.

Finally, and this is a point that no one else talks about, everyday that we wait to pass the DREAM Act is another day where potential migrant youth leaders are being deported, lost to “attrition”, or even to death or suicide.  Anyone who stands in the way of some sort of relief from this violence, now, is not an ally, but an enemy.

Within those three simple truths there is a lot of complexity, part of which I will try to address here.

First, I will address Luis Gutierrez, specifically, since I quoted him as being representative of the CHC, and on immigration, for the most, part he is.  While I believe the CHC can be an enemy of migrant youth, as a whole, I don’t yet consider Luis Gutierrez, personally, an enemy of migrant youth.  I say this because there is no politician currently in U.S. Congress that has done more to advance the cause of migrant rights.  When he introduced CIRASAP he also co-sponsored the DREAM Act, a major nod to the migrant youth movement which I was appreciative of.  After some pressure, he also ended up doing the right thing by saying he’ll inclue LGBT families in CIR.  Many undocumented youth leaders also identify as queer.

Because of these extremely important steps, I’m willing to give Gutierrez some leeway, but I have to say that he was wrong in trying to talk down undocumented youth in the middle of a historic action.  His implication that undocumented youth are dividing the movement is also wrong.  Mohammad Abdollahi said it best:

Congressman Gutierrez, my name is Mohammad, I was one of the youth that was in the sit-in in Senator McCain’s office, on May 17 in AZ, as a result I have been placed in deportation proceedings so for you to sit here and talk to these 5, 6 youth that are sitting in this office, and to put them down, and to constantly tell them instead of supporting them, is a shame. You need to stand up for this community, this is going to continue to happen, and you need to be their ally.

Mohammad Abdollahi – The DREAM is Coming (20 July 2010)

Just because I am willing to give Gutierrez some leeway, however, does not mean that the rest of the CHC is off the hook.  This is especially true of Nydia Velasquez, the current chairwoman of the CHC who has refused to co-sponsor the DREAM Act.  It is absolutely ridiculous that the migrant youth movement has had to expend energy over this past year and a half trying to get CHC members to co-sponsor the DREAM Act when that energy could have been much better spent elsewhere.

I would like the CHC, as a whole, to come out with a statement in support of moving the DREAM Act on it’s own this year, but with all the egos involved, I doubt that is going to happen.  What we can do, as migrant advocates, though, is make very clear that the CHC does not stand for us when it comes to this issue.  Contrary to Gutierrez’s and Pelosi’s statements, much of the migrant rights movement has already united around pushing the DREAM Act this year.

While asking for a statement from the CHC as a whole might not be the best use of our energy in the short window we have to push the DREAM Act, I do not think it is too much to ask for the chairwoman of the CHC, Nydia Velasquez, to co-sponsor the DREAM Act.  Many CHC members who were previously slow to do so like Joe Baca, Loretta Sanchez and Henry Cuellar, are now co-sponsors of the DREAM Act.  If Nydia Velasquez were to do the same, it would be a huge signal to the migrant youth movement and the public at large that the CHC is ready to allow for the DREAM Act to move on it’s own.

If you haven’t signed the petition, yet, ask Nydia Velasquez to co-sponsor the DREAM Act.

UPDATE: While writing this I asked for a statement from Gutierrez’s office and received the following

From Gutierrez:

It is the whole immigration system that needs fixing, so I will keep fighting for the ten things that need to happen to fix it because I think they fit together and solve things in a holistic manner.  If the Senate or the Speaker tells me we can only get one, I will fight hard for that one thing, but continue to ask for ten because that is what is needed.

Luis Gutierrez (30 July 2010)

From Douglas Rivlin, Press Secretary to Gutierrez (D-IL-04):

The way the Speaker’s remarks were interpreted — that Members of the CHC don’t want DREAM to pass because it would take away power from CIR in the future — doesn’t ring true. I don’t think I have met anyone on the Hill or in the CHC that thinks passing a clean DREAM Act this year hurts CIR significantly.  Maybe a few worry that after any victory, the Democrats will say to the rest of the immigrant community, “okay, come back for more in about 5-10 years.” But that is not a huge concern.

Winning DREAM would not significantly diminish the chances of winning CIR in the future or necessarily help them either.  Losing a vote for the DREAM Act is a different matter.  Losing a vote by a big margin would hurt CIR, especially if Democrats defect, and only a narrow loss in, say, the Senate, would cause no harm and may even help.

Douglas Rivlin (30 July 2010)

This statement from Rivlin is extremely important because it directly contradicts what Nancy Pelosi said at Netroots Nation.  As Rivlin said, passing the DREAM Act will not hurt our chances at passing CIR.  I disagree with Rivlin on other counts, such as the fact that passing the DREAM Act would not help immigration reform in the future, but the statement is still helpful.

It would be even more helpful if the CHC as a whole were to come out with a statement saying that they wouldn’t oppose passing the DREAM Act on it’s own this year.  That way we’re not playing games with politicians intent on passing the blame to one another.  Still, this statement is a good start.

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.

Approximately 65,000 undocumented youth graduate from U.S. high schools every year, who could benefit from passage of the DREAM Act.  Many undocumented youth are brought to the United States before they can even remember much else, and some don’t even realize their undocumented status until they have to get a driver’s license, want to join the military, or apply to college.  DREAM Act youth are American in every sense of the word — except on paper.  It’s been nearly a decade since the DREAM Act was first introduced.  If Congress does not act now, another generation of promising young graduates will be relegated to the shadows and blocked from giving back fully to our great nation.

This is what you can do right now to pass the DREAM Act:

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)

Most observers in Washington and for that matter the whole country too often lack clarity in noting that the Federal Reserve truly is the ultimate policy entity to modify, adjust, and re-define key elements of the world’s richest and most powerful economy. Moreover, the Fed’s board is independent of the Executive branch and is supposed to be free of political influence. The US Congress has oversight responsibility over its actions. The Federal Reserve Board like so many of the regulatory boards in Washington is safeguarded by this independence.

The stated reason for the creation of the federal reserve in 1913 just as Woodrow Wilson took over the presidency: to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible and more stable monetary/financial system. The four duties (areas) of the federal reserve are commonly known as the following:

• conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates
• supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
• maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
• providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system

The Federal Reserve System with Washington as its headquarters has twelve (12) regional banks. Interestingly enough, these regional banks are privately owned but are members of the Federal Reserve System. These include the first among equals (primus inter pares) New York, then Boston, Richmond, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, Minneapolis, San Francisco and St. Louis. Many of these cities or regions have vast numbers of Latinos. Out west, San Francisco is the only regional Federal Reserve Bank west of the Rockies. The next three mid-western regions are Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. The numbers of Latinos in these western states is most impressive and growing. Certainly Dallas, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta have also huge portions of the 46 million Hispanics nationwide. The current census being conducted and analyzed will help provide a clearer picture of the numbers and where they are living. But it can be argued that as of now out west with San Francisco as the only geographically western Federal Reserve Bank, the Hispanic congressional representation breaks down this way: the west has the majority with six in California (Roybal-Allard, Baca, Becerra, Napolitano, the two Sanchez sisters); one each in Colorado (Salazar) and New Mexico (Lujan) and two in Arizona (Grijalva and Pastor) and Dallas region has six (Ortiz, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Cuellar, Hinojosa and Reyes) all in Texas. Chicago region has one Latino congressman (Gutierrez) and the New York region has two (Serrano and Velazquez) plus one congressman (Sires) from Northern New Jersey and the only Latino senator (Menendez) in the country (NJ). Atlanta has three from Florida (two Diaz-Balart brothers and Ros-Lehtinen). Therefore, the San Francisco and Dallas Federal Reserve Regions have over 15 Latino congressmen. Salazar in Colorado belongs to the Kansas City region; Atlanta is the third region to have Latino congressional representation. A closer look at these regional/sub-regional Federal Reserve Banks reveals few if any Latino representation on the regional bank boards.

In examining the composition of the scores of directors of these regional Federal Reserve Boards, only Dallas appears to have more than one Latino director. At the regional level, there is one (Roberto Estrada) of the main Dallas bank and at its sub-regional level San Antonio has four: Jorge Bermudez, Ricardo Romo, Ygnacio Garza and C. Treviño. Atlanta has one, Carol Tome at the regional director level. In the Atlanta region, Miami is touted as the banking center for Latin America, yet only one, Latino director is detected (Carol Tome). San Francisco has none at the regional or sub-regional level. Boston has one Luso-American (Portuguese: Cunha) on the board. Richmond, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Philadelphia don’t have any Latino sounding names on their boards. Interestingly enough, the leader of the regional pack, New York has one at the substantive level of director, Richard Carrion from Puerto Rico’s Banco Popular, but alas no other…More revealing is Kansas City with Lu Cordova from Boulder, Colorado as a key director, but uncertain that this board member is considered to be Hispanic. The sum of Latino representation in the Federal Reserve System’s decision-making circles is at best bleak.

As for the Fed’s board in Washington, the most powerful and key tool in the US economy, there is no Latino and never has been one. Yet, the Hispanic population is estimated now at least to be over 15% of the US overall population. The contribution by the Latino community to the US multi-trillion dollar economy is increasingly significant. It is rarely heard among the Hispanic congressional and Civic leadership on how the Fed affects the community in its operations or implementation of public economic policy. Plainly, the Fed’s actions affecting the money supply, credit, the cost of money, interest rates and how remittances are affected by supervising the flow of money transfers or exchange fluctuations have an increasingly important impact on the Latino community. Perhaps, the Obama administration will discover or find a qualified high-flyer Latino economist or financial type to serve on the Fed’s board. If we continue to wait for the nominal Hispanic leadership or self-styled Latino advocacy groups to discover the wondrous powers of the Federal Reserve, we could be in for a long wait. The growing awareness of the functions of the US economy in the context of the recent financial crisis and housing bubble along with high unemployment rates behooves the Latino community to seek greater representation and participation at the highest levels of the decision-making process.

Recent polling shows that Latinos support health care reform overwhelmingly. Moreover, health care was identified as being more important than immigration. Actually, while immigration was ranked as an important issue in our community, health care reform still beat it by a margin of 3-1. Plainly, the unregulated insurance market has not produced more competitive prices so that more of our people can buy health coverage. People in our community are more likely to be uninsured or vulnerable of losing coverage. So when Latino congressmen in districts with substantial Latino populations decide to roll the dice with this health care reform, I think that they are effectively gambling with their seats.

See what Representative Cuellar said earlier today:

Now take a look at what Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) wrote in the Huffington Post today. This part really caught my attention:

“But last week, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sat down with the president, and he asked us to vote for the health care reform bill — a bill that denies immigrants the opportunity to purchase health care with their own money. It was one more in a string of disappointments for the Hispanic community, and today, I no longer find myself able to confidently say “yes” when President Obama asks me for his support.”

Now I know that many of us are frustrated regarding immigration reform, but it’s going to be the Latinos who are citizens (born here or naturalized), the ones who will benefit from the passage of health care reform, who will be headed to the polls in November to vote. I am fine with the idea that immigrants should be able to pay into the health care system with their own money, but I think that this portion of health care could be handled in a subsequent bill down the line. The chief urgency is health care, as indicated by the polling in our communities.

Among the larger public, people are still largely divided on the health care issue. However, I do want to point out this piece about the popularity of Medicare when it passed in the 1960s. Essentially, the public was divided like it is now, but the program ended up being wildly popular.

If you live in Congressmen Cuellar’s and Gutierrez’s districts, and do support health care, I urge you to call the House of Representatives switchboard (202-224-3121), ask for the appropriate representative and kindly voice your concern. We may not have another opportunity to insure as many people in our communities who are struggling without this reform.

There are three Latinos on the House Homeland Security Committee: Rep. Loretta Sanchez, Rep. Henry Cuellar, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. I have been waiting for one of them to make a speech like the one that Rep. Jared Polis made last week on the House Floor. Check it out for yourself here:

As the immigration reform debate heats up, we are starting to hear more about detention reform from Congressional members, including Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s expressing satisfaction of seeing more funds requested for the development of alternatives to detention. I wonder what exactly the alternative to existing detention will be like. The Democrats have already caved into an extension of the controversial 287G program, which deputizes local law enforcement agents to act as immigration officers. This program has emboldened Sheriff Joe Arpaio, aka “The 21st Century Bull Connor” in Arizona.

In April, the NY Times has also reported on the lack of accountability and oversight in immigrant detention facilities, specifically regarding detainee deaths noting that:

“No central body is required to publicly keep track of deaths in custody in the fragmented detention system. No independent inquiry is mandated. The House recently passed a bill that would require states that receive certain federal funds to report all deaths in custody to their attorneys general. But the measure has yet to be taken up in the Senate, where similar legislation stalled last fall.”

I commend Rep. Polis for his remarks regarding detention reform. Now I hope that Rep. Loretta Sanchez, Rep. Henry Cuellar, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan make similar statements. Lives are literally on the line.

One of the most troubling indicators is the rapid rise in the unemployment rates. In some states, like Michigan, Rhode Island, and California, it is already over 10% unemployment. Many of the country’s top economic analysts predict that the worst is yet to come. President Obama is using a lot of political capital in the so-called ‘stimulus bills’. Yet many economic pundits are noting that the new Administration must try every means to stem the increasing economic threats. Hence, stimulus bills may be a shot in the dark, but most reasonable people submit that it is better than doing nothing.

When one begins to consider the Latino plight in this dire economic situation, it becomes clear that both US Latino citizens and immigrant Latinos are feeling the pangs of this crisis like all other groups. But the real challenge is that even when the times were good, our socio-economic indicators demonstrated that we were fast becoming the underclass in many categories. These indicators included: highest school drop-out rates, higher than average unemployment rates and suggestions of a definite high under-employment rate (informal economy), poverty levels, increasing teenage pregnancies, other health concerns have become alarming with growing obesity and diabetes rates. Yet it can be easily demonstrated that the Latino community has progressed notably in the last two generations: home-ownership increased, two family incomes are increasingly common, vastly increased numbers of college and university graduates, many more small Latino businesses have flourished, infinitely more Latino elected officials at every level and infant mortality figures have dropped. Now this current economic crisis will be equally devastating to both poor and more affluent Latinos. The challenge is how to get our Latino community engaged in the serious discussion of actionable proposals that affect directly the livelihood of the Hispanic population.

The fact that three trillion dollars may be spent on rescuing our economic well-being is almost unfathomable; yet the Latino community needs its Washington leadership in Congress and the Administration to engage full force to make certain that these gargantuan spending bills provide some cover to the Latino community. This must become the primordial concern on the national Latino agenda.

Hispanic Congress-persons on the Appropriations Committee like Jose Serrano, Ed Pastor, Lucille Roybal-Allard and Ciro Rodriguez are in strategic positions to lead the dialogue within the community. Senators like Bob Menendez and Mel Martinez, who are both on the Banking and the Energy Committees, are also key to any effort for Latinos. Senator Menendez is also on Budget Committee. Nydia Velazquez is well-positioned as Chair of the Small Business Committee; and like Luis Gutierrez, Joe Baca, Ruben Hinojosa and Albio Sires, Velazquez is also a member of the Financial Services Committee. Loretta Sanchez has notably served in the powerful Joint Economic Committee of Congress as the only Hispanic and hopefully continues to be an active member. Mario Diaz-Balart even though a minority member serves on three powerful committees: Budget, Science and Technology and Transportation and Infrastructure. Xavier Becerra’s membership on the Budget Committee and the powerful Ways and Means Committee suggest perhaps that he is the lead on this urgent economic discussion affecting the Latino community. Taking up Hispanic educational challenges on Committee on Education and Labor would include Hinojosa, Raul Grijalva and Linda Sanchez. Charlie Gonzalez remains on the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce which oversees the Health care coverage, telecommunications and trade issues. Lastly, the Hispanic members of the important Agriculture Committee taking up the national nutrition issues in the country include Joe Baca (chair of Sub-Committee on Nutrition,) John Salazar and Henry Cuellar. These Congress people mentioned are key in this massive stimulus spending process.

Moreover, Hilda Solis, as Labor Secretary, should take up the mantle as the lead Hispanic in the Administration to ensure that our community gets a fair shake in the recovery efforts being put forth. Solis along with Cecilia Munoz, the Assistant to President Obama for Inter-Governmental Affairs must quickly master the intricacies of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) process in the White House. OMB is the spending  or allocating traffic cop in any administration and has powerful authorities to determine the amounts and who gets the monies and  how they should be spent within the legislative language provided.

The Hispanic advocacy groups like National Council of La Raza, LULAC, the Cuban National Council, the National Puerto Rican Foundation and other Latino national and regional or local advocacy organizations must insist on action. The Hispanic Caucus should immediately form if it has not yet a structured working group within its organization to identify the Latino community needs in this economic crisis, the monies available, the mechanisms involved, and communicating the intricacies of the processes to the local governmental level. Nydia Velazquez the new Caucus Chair should move swiftly to ensure that the Latino representation is effectively felt and that the constituencies’ needs be addressed. A multi-trillion dollar spending program must include the basic and necessary resources for the Latino community to alleviate the impending hardships. A national discussion and consultation process among the Latino community is imperative to provide a better understanding of the deepening recession (for some) and depression (for others). These are extraordinary times, and the Latino leadership must step up to the challenge in an organized and effective manner.

HR 156, the Stop the Congressional Pay Raise Act introduced in the House by Representative Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), will prevent law makers from receiving a $4,700 pay increase this year. You can see the list of 109 co-sponsors here. Note how only one member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (Congressman Cuellar, D-TX) is on this list! This list of co-sponsors might not be completely current, as two weeks ago, it was reported that Congressman John Salazar (D-CO) would also support this legislation to prevent members of congress from receiving pay raises through the end of 2010.

I don’t think that any congressional member should be receiving raises while the economy teeters on edge, especially Latino congressional members who represent people who are among the hardest hit. I want to thank Congressmen Cuellar and Salazar for going on record in supporting the halt on the pay raises, but I want to encourage you to tell the rest of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to get on board with the belt tightening. We should be in this together, and the Caucus could take a real stand by showing us that they will stand in solidarity with working Americans. Let’s see if they will forgo some of their comfort and security to stand with us!