NEWSUNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS

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!

Today, thousands of California students woke up and saw possibilities that didn’t exist before: the possibility to become tech sector leaders, environmental problem solvers, business owners, and to forge a better future for the state they call home. This is because the second half of the California Dream Act (AB131) was signed into law on Saturday, allowing undocumented students who have grown up in California a chance to apply for financial aid and attend college.

The measure faced some daunting obstacles—but more than 12,400 people signed the petition on Change.org started by leaders of the California Dream Network—and they followed that up with phone calls, petition deliveries, and rallies. What seemed like a remote possibility just one month ago has become law. Victory!

The passage of the California Dream Act represents a significant investment in the state, which was expecting to face a shortage of one million bachelor’s degree holders by 2025. Coupled with pending federal DREAM Act legislation that would provide pathways to the workforce, we can expect new business leaders that will create jobs and contribute to sectors where college graduates are badly needed.

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.

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.”

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.

When Higinio Agaton graduated from Sacramento State University it was a huge accomplishment. The young immigrant was brought to the U.S. as a teenager, without speaking any English. After mastering the language in only his first year in the country, his school district recognized the youngster for his talents. Agaton pursued a college education but feared that, because the DREAM Act hadn’t passed, he’d have little opportunity after graduation. He didn’t give up. Instead, he delayed graduation by pursuing a second major, in computer engineering. And when he finally neared graduation this Spring, it seemed like everyday his dreams were closer to reality.

Now Agaton's community is fighting tooth and nail for him to remain in  the U.S. When he received a deportation order, Agaton’s fraternity brothers quickly mobilized, starting a petition on Change.org that has received nearly 900 signatures in a matter of days. And with the recent announcement by the Obama administration that immigrants who are not violent criminals or priorities for removal could be spared deportation, Agaton’s chances of remaining in the country and becoming a productive graduate who can give back to his community and family are looking brighter than ever.

Still, it is not sure that the young man will be able to stay with his friends and future here in the U.S.

Progress! Yesterday afternoon, California came one step closer to achieving equal education opportunity. AB 131, the second and most critical part of the California Dream Act, finally made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and moves on to the senate floor for a vote (as early as next week). The bill, which would ensure that thousands upon thousands more high school graduates attend college each year, had been held up in “suspense” in the committee until yesterday.

And it took incredible work from immigrant youth in California to make sure the bill made it out. The past few weeks have seen rallies and "torch lighting" ceremonies across California (one is happening right now), thousands of phone calls to committee chairs, and more than 9,000 Change.org members who have signed a petition calling on California's leaders to make the students' dreams a reality.

This week has marked a wave of action against Secure Communities (S-Comm), the controversial police-ICE fingerprint-sharing program that has led to the mass deportation of people with no criminal backgrounds, as well as those guilty of only minor infractions.

In Los Angeles, undocumented students engaged in a sit-in inside a detention center where many of those caught up in the S-Comm dragnet end up before they are deported. Police arrested five of them. Meanwhile, hundreds marched in Philadelphia against a local "PARS" program referred to by advocates as "S-Comm plus." And in San Jose, California, immigrant rights advocates celebrated a huge victory after they successfully pressured law enforcement to sever ties with ICE.

In one dramatic display of the toll S-Comm is taking on immigrant and minority communities, two Maryland women facing deportation confronted the assistant director of Secure Communities himself, Marc Rapp, during a public hearing in Arlington, Virginia.