Posts tagged deportation
Youth Staging Sit and Hunger Strike At The Obama Campaign
Jun 12th
Undocumented Youth Staging Sit and Hunger Strike At The Obama Campaign Office in Denver to Demand Executive Order Has Triggered National Immigrant Youth Alliance to Take Actions Across The Nation
NIYA to Carry Out Actions of Civil Disobedience This Week at Obama Campaign Offices Nationwide
Denver- Campaign For an American DREAM has triggered The National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) to activate its network to carry out acts of Civil Disobedience in Democratic campaign office across the country from now until the November elections. The Administration has thus far not responded to the demand of two undocumented youth whom have staged a sit in and hunger strike in the Obama for America offices in Denver on Broadway and 9th Avenue. The youth have been in the office since tuesday June 5th and are demanding an Executive Order to stop the deportations of undocumented youth eligible for the DREAM Act. Actions nationwide will begin this week after press conference at 5pm outside OFA 77 W. 9th Avenue.
“ We’ve been ignore in this state but we will be heard across the country, along with many undocumented youth, we will demand an action!” said Veronica Gomez, an undocumented student with Campaign for an American Dream (CAD), which is now on her seventh day without any eating. “The immigrant community nationally needs to know that we have a voice in this country, that we are not criminals, and we deserve a pathway to legalization.”
So far, Organizing for America has avoided discussing the executive order in their responses. Meanwhile, we are being deported. Last week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association released a statement declaring the policy of prosecutorial discretion a “failure”. We have always been skeptical of the policy, and are now demanding something better.
“If they want the Latino vote in Colorado, they must show the community what they are doing for us. We are asking them to stop the deportation of all DREAM eligible youth!” said Javier Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant living in Colorado and CO-founder of Colorado, Organize, Resist, Escalate (COORE).
Hugo Zarate, a young man from Denver who wants to enlist in the armed forces has been denied a request for deferred action, even thought he came here at a young age, is DREAM Act-eligible and does not have a criminal record. Only the strength of an executive order will prevent deportations like his from moving forward.
We will not accept gridlock as an excuse for our deportations when the President can stop them with an executive order. We simply cannot be asked to support a President while we are being deported and our families live in fear.
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CAD’s mission is to walk across the nation from San Francisco to D.C creating dialogue around the passage of the DREAM Act and fixing our broken immigration system, with the values of equality, unity and diversity. CAD believe’s all people are equal, all those who are oppressed should be united, and our daily lives and the Campaign itself highlight diversify.
“A Better Life” A Wonderful Film
Jul 21st
“A Wonderful Film”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A Better Life is a terrific film that deserves as much publicity as it can get, because otherwise audiences will probably overlook it and not give it the attendance it deserves.
It also has a simple story that might not be popular, because it is about the relationship between an undocumented foreigner from Mexico and his teenage son, who live in Los Angeles.
Carlos Galindo has a steady job as a gardener working for another Mexican’s gardening business, and he sleeps on the couch in the living room at home so that his 14-year-old son, Luis, can sleep in the bedroom.
When Carlos finds out that Luis has missed 18 or 19 days of school so far this year, he asks him, “You want to end up like me?” to which Luis answers “No.”
Luis has some resentment toward his father, because he blames Carlos for his mother leaving them, whom Luis never wants to talk about.
Meanwhile, the man for whom Carlos works, Blasco Martinez, wants to retire, and he offers to sell Carlos his beat-up truck so that Carlos can have his own gardening business.
To Carlos, he wouldn’t just be buying a truck. He would be buying the American Dream.
However, not only doesn’t Carlos have the $12,000 that Blasco wants for his truck, but Carlos doesn’t even have a driver’s license, and if he ever gets stopped by the police, he could be deported back to Mexico. That is why Carlos wants to try to stay “invisible.”
Meanwhile, Luis gets suspended from school for fighting, and Carlos is concerned that Luis has a fascination with gangs and might even end up in a gang.
Carlos asks his sister, Anita, for a $12,000 loan, promising to pay the money back and telling her that if it works out, everything is going to change. He won’t have to work on Sunday anymore and can spend more time with Luis, if Luis wants.
Anita loans Carlos the money without telling her husband, who she says is the cheapest man in the world.
So, Carlos buys the truck from Blasco, but his life doesn’t change as he had imagined. Almost immediately, the truck is stolen, and Carlos and Luis have to try to get it back while staying invisible.
A Better Life is a wonderful film.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”