NEWSIMMIGRANT YOUTH

On November 4th, Meghan Wolfe wrote a blog post as she prepared to leave Kenya, where her husband works in a hospital, to head to their hometown in Indiana with their son Andy. National doctor strikes had begun in Kenya, and Meghan was getting ready to give birth in a couple of months. It was a heart-wrenching decision. Meghan would have to leave behind Eden, a baby who had been abandoned in the hospital, and whom the couple were in the process of adopting for more than 2 years.

“You can’t imagine how horrible it feels to separate Eden and Andy. I am so afraid of what that will do to them and their relationship,” Meghan wrote.  “I worry that she will feel abandoned… She might not be there when Grace is born, and she is so excited about helping me with the baby. Ben and I are tired of fighting the US, and we are so sad right now. That leaves us with prayer. “

Although the US government had approved a travel visa for Eden in the past, and the Kenyan government recognized the couple as legal guardians and had approved travel for Eden, US Customs and Immigration Services had not approved a visa for Eden to spend the holidays with her family in Indiana.

But yesterday, after over 35,000 people signed the family's petition on Change.org, Meghan received great news: Baby Eden would be coming home.

Josue was just 11 years old when he arrived in the United States after his family left Mexico. He grew up in Georgia and has no remaining family outside of the United States. He is an American.

Like many of his peers in Warner Robins, Georgia, he graduated from high school with dreams of pursuing higher education. But last year Georgia banned undocumented students like Josue from state universities, and he couldn't afford to attend a private school (how many people can?). Josue went straight from graduation to supporting himself by working full-time. One night while driving home after a long day of work and he was pulled over by local police. The reason? His car had a cracked windshield. He was arrested and held by ICE in Stewart County Detention Center - infamous for being the detention center with the highest number of deportations in the country - for over a month.

But today, Josue is home, fighting his case outside of a jail cell. Victory! On October 26th, Josue was released from detention to the relief of his family and friends. The Georgia Alliance for Human Rights started Josue's petition on Change.org, asking ICE to set Josue's bond and allow him to fight his deportation case from home, with his family by his side. After Josue's lawyer petitioned for his release and hundreds of people signed the petition calling for his bond to be set, ICE relented. His bond was set at $7,500. All of this for a cracked windshield - hardly a criminal offense worthy of such a high price for release.

On Monday, immigrant rights activist and freelance Change.org social media organizer Alonso Chehade put up a petition to stop the deportation of Luis Albizo. It was a tense moment. Luis, a recent college graduate and life-long volunteer who was brought to the U.S. when he was just 5 years old, faced a final hearing and immediate deportation in a matter of days. But that didn’t deter Chehade and the more than 1,600 supporters who mobilized rapidly to sign and share Luis’s petition.

The support was enough to stop Luis’s deportation. “Our local ICE office reviewed Luis’ file and agreed that he is an excellent candidate for prosecutorial discretion,” said his lawyer Chris Christensen. The lifelong volunteer will remain in the country and will be able to continue contributing to the community he has always called home. Victory!

In the picture, a young man smiles and looks down at stacks of papers while a woman holds her hand to his heart and cries tears of happiness. It is DREAMer Ricardo Muniz and his mom, overwhelmed with joyous emotion, at a ceremony where Muniz was presented with a certificate representing the more than 14,600 supporters who signed a petition to stop his deportation started by the California Dream Network on Change.org. And now, thanks in large part to that support, Muniz’s deportation has been cancelled, and he can continue pursuing his dreams of creating environmentally friendly homes and structures. Victory!

Ricardo, who is 22 years old and was brought to the country when he was 7 years old, received a letter of deportation just two days before enrolling in summer school. He immediately turned to the California Dream Network, a project of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), for help.

Last Monday, David Morales stood up in front of a crowd gathered in Salt Lake City and told his story. On his way to Bible college in Louisiana, the aspiring pastor was pulled from his Greyhound bus, questioned by ICE, and thrown in jail for over two weeks. Now, nearly one year later, Morales faces a court date on October 6th that will decide whether he can remain in the community he has given so much to.

Brought to the United States when he was just 9 years old, Morales excelled in school, volunteered in his community, and found a passion for ministry. He was the first person in his family to graduate from high school and his dreams of an even higher degree have been stalled by the injustice of our broken immigration system.

When asked why Morales should be allowed to stay in the United States, Raymi Gutierrez, part of the Salt Lake City Dream Act group that started a petition to keep Morales home, responded: "David is a kind, caring and courageous individual. He has a love for community service. He is a DREAMer and he is not a threat to this country. The U.S. Government needs to stop deporting DREAMers like David, DREAMers who can contribute more to this society if only they were given a chance to start a path towards citizenship to gain higher education."

Part two of the complete California Dream Act, which would ensure undocumented students in the state are able to financially access higher education, has cleared enormous hurdles and passed in both the state Senate and House.

Now, the future of thousands of students—and the future of a better educated and more productive California—rests on a signature from Governor Jerry Brown. And more than 10,500 supporters on Change.org have urged him to sign the legislation immediately.

Last week, student activists from California Dream Network, a project of the  Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA),  sent the governor those stacks of signatures showing broad support for AB 131, which would allow undocumented students to access state financial aid and serve as a complement to AB 130, which cleared challenges to accessing private financial aid and has already been signed into law.

“Legislators in the California Senate and Assembly have evaluated the merits of AB131, and now it’s the governor’s turn to sign it into law. The overwhelming support this bill has received is reflected in the thousands of signatures we [sent] the governor’s way,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA. “California’s most precious asset is its multicultural population.  An educated workforce represents a prosperous future for us all.  AB131 is representative of forward thinking, practical legislation, and wise investment.”

On March 21, 2011, Carlos La Madrid, 19 years old and unarmed, was running from U.S. Border Patrol officers and attempting to cross a ladder into Mexico from Arizona. He was shot in the back four times and passed away.

A sudden flurry of media attention on operations between Border Patrol agents and apprehended subjects followed in the days following the tragic incident and seemed to dissipate almost as quickly. But for the ministry group of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, No More Deaths, documenting abuse on the border since 2006 has been an ongoing, almost daily, and often heart-wrenching fact -- and a new petition by the group on Change.org calls on Border Patrol to address this reality with concrete actions.

The group's new comprehensive report "Culture of Cruelty," produced in collaboration with expert researches who interviewed more than 30,000 migrants who came in contact with Border Patrol, reveals that victims report many of the same patterns of abuse: denial of water and food even when migrants are dangerously dehydrated, denial of access to medical help for severe injuries, verbal abuse and threats of death, separation from family members, denial of due process, no return of personal belongings, intentional funneling of migrants to deadly regions.

The second half of the California Dream Act -- AB 131, which would provide the thousands of undocumented students who graduate from the state’s high school each year access to state financial aid -- passed both the California House and Senate after tireless organizing by student activists.

Students at the California Dream Network started a petition on Change.org that has been signed by nearly 10,500 people.  That's because the the bill would directly translate into a more educated future workforce in California, and it is because of these efforts that the full legislation is very close to becoming law.

Late last week, student activists and teachers gathered to announce the next phase of their organizing in a Thursday press conference. Currently, all AB 131 depends on now is a signature from Governor Jerry Brown—and students are asking that supporters who signed the petition call the governor’s office asking him to sign the bill.

Beneath a banner bearing the phone number of the governor’s office —866-572-7042— representatives from the California Teachers Association (CTA), United Teachers Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Unified School District Board joined students from the California Dream Network and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles to speak about why they support the California Dream Act.

The Obama Administration and Department of Homeland Security have told the public, via new DHS guidelines, that immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and who have no criminal background, are no longer priorities for deportation. Well, Jennifer Lopez is exactly such a case—a 21-year-old who has lived in the U.S. for 10 years, who would be eligible for the DREAM Act, has paid taxes for years, and has never been in trouble with the law.

And yet, just a few weeks after the DHS announcement of its new guidelines, a routine traffic stop in Palm Beach County, Florida, landed Jennifer Lopez in frightening deportation proceedings, facing the prospect of exile away from her entire family -- who are either U.S. citizens or currently in the process of attaining residency.

Jennifer “was in tears” from fear and desperation, her lawyer said, when she was detained and considered what it would be like to leave behind her entire family.  It’s a fear that Manuel Guerra knows well. Another young DREAMer from South Florida, Manuel Guerra was able to fight and win a stay of deportation after nearly 800 Change.org members signed his petition. Now he and his student activist group, Students Working for Immigrant Rights, have started a campaign on Change.org to keep Jennifer at home where she is so critically needed.

A month ago, when the first half of the California Dream Act passed, it seemed like the full package was destined to die a quiet death in the legislature. AB 130, the bill that passed and is now law, makes it easier for a wider number of undocumented students to access private scholarships and grants. But without AB 131, which was stuck in “suspense” in an appropriations committee and would allow students access to state aid, thousands of high school graduates in the state would be unable to continue their educations.

Today, thanks to the hard work of students across the state and their supporters, the full California Dream Act package is closer and closer to becoming reality. On August 31st, the state Senate passed AB 131, and it is now headed to the Assembly floor, where it is likely to pass. If it does, it will head onto the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, whose office has expressed some support for the measure, but who has not said for certain that he will sign it.

Such a brighter outlook for AB 131, which will affect 25,000 high school graduates each year, comes thanks to the round-the-clock work of student activists in California, and more than 9,000 Change.org members who have signed a petition and made phone calls to key senators in the state. In particular, Senators Christine Kehoe and Darrell Steinberg were critical in listening to students’ concerns and helping push AB 131 out of suspense. Voting on AB 131 by the Assembly could take place as early as next week, and advocates are urging supporters to keep the phone calls and letters coming.