From Jan 5 to Jan 15, Change.org has resumed the final round of voting for ‘Ideas for Change.’ The Top 10 Ideas get presented to Barack Obama at an event co-hosted with The Case Foundation at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 16th.

Links to vote for the Top 3 ideas in Immigration
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/pass_the_dream_act_now
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/equal_immigration_rights_for_same_sex_binational_couples
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/provide_relief_for_families_of_immigrants

Important - You have 10 votes as a person and as a non-profit /blogger, it is alright to endorse more than one idea.

ENDORSEMENTS
For bloggers and non-profits, endorsement is quick and easy and you also get to advertise your site. Click on the “Click Here to Endorse this Idea” on the right side of each idea you want to endorse, fill inthe details, and submit.

WIDGETS
The code for the widgets is the same — please put those up on your site.

Congrats to all DREAMIEs for getting our idea into the second round of voting at Change.org. Voting starts on Monday, Jan 5 so get your contacts, facebook groups, friends and family ready to vote again.

Lets throw our support squarely behind all three ideas.

A special thanks to Quaker for getting this story to our attention.

This one should outrage every American taxpayer.

She served jail time for a conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. She had a detainer placed on her by ICE, so after she was done serving this time, ICE came to the jail and took her to Fairfax, VA to fill out paper-work on September 18, 2008.  She insisted that she wanted to leave as soon as possible and ICE happily agreed to expedite her paperwork to make sure she would be home by her birthday on November 15. They released her with an ankle monitoring bracelet and all was well. Or so they thought …

Her husband reports:

Almost immediately (the next Monday), we hand-delivered my wife’s passport to ICE, as they told us the lack of this document is the only thing that could prevent her from leaving quickly. And then we waited.  After a couple weeks we became a little worried that we’re still here, and so I started calling ICE.  Every day, I called and left messages and even started begging for someone to please do something, as we want to leave.  And we did want to leave.  I had quit my job, and we were coasting on whatever money I saved up for our new life.  The longer we wait, the less money we had. But wait we did.  And then we waited some more.

Why all the waiting? Oops, looks like ICE changed its mind and wanted her back in jail. Why? Well, she certainly was not a flight risk anywhere but back to Europe. They came to get her and put her in detention, not that they knew what they were doing.

No, it’s not a silly Chistmas-themed tween power flick. “Unaccompanied minor” is the stale legal term for a kid or teen that makes the journey over the border by herself. Or the kid or teen that originally came with a parent but ends up on their own somehow before ICE gets ahold of them. We  “repatriate” about 43,000 such persons every year, and according to this report released by the Center for Public Policy Priorities a couple months ago, these detentions and deportations are not done in such a sane humane manner (freudian slip). This isn’t news, considering previous incidents such as this report of sexual and physical abuse at the Hector Garza Treatment Center, which ironicly is described on the Cornell Companies website as a “center [that] offers specialized treatment for clients who have been victims of sexual and/or physical abuse, domestic violence, aggression and skill streaming”. Still, the details that emerge from the CPPP report are disturbing and infuriating.

The big ‘what the fuck’ that the report is after is that, despite the enormous number of undocumented kids being deported each year, there is very little in the way of protocol of how these situations should be handled, and there is nobody assigned to look out for these kids’ best interests.

In clear violation of international and U.S. child welfare standards, our interviews with the Mexican
and Honduran children uncovered troubling claims of child abuse and maltreatment by U.S. Border
Patrol officers, including:
• Inattention to repeated requests for medical attention;
• No access to water while in the border patrol station;
• Having to sleep on the floor without a blanket in a heavily air conditioned cell;
• Not being given any or enough food;
• Not being allowed to contact family;
• Being struck and knocked down by agents;
• Being handcuffed; and
• Being transported “like dogs,” in kennel like compartments.
The children did not identify the following as maltreatment, which speaks to the children’s inability
to seek protection.

One boy described being locked in bathroom at a border patrol substation for hours until

transferred;
• Several children mentioned being laughed at by the Border Patrol who apprehended them;
• One girl said she was threatened at gun point by Border Patrol; and
• Of the six participants who reported being handcuffed7 only one described the experience as
maltreatment.

And yet!

The removal system holds the individual child responsible for triggering protective services. For
example, children are not systematically assessed by U.S. authorities to detect whether they have
been forced into indentured servitude or trafficked. Thus, it falls to the child alone to make his or her
condition/situation known so that relevant protections (such as the application for protective status
or the attainment of counsel) may be put into place.

The report also found a disregard for the safety of the children upon return, a pretty gaping hole in the planning considering that many unaccompanied minors have traveled to the US because of abusive home conditions or sex trafficking. In addition, many kids are being deported with no one on the other end to take them up, be it a parent who can’t afford to come get them or a consulate that wasn’t informed they were being deported in the first place. I guess US immigration authorities figure that since these kids have been on their own before, they must be tough enough to handle such a frightening situation.

One of the situations described in the report, about a little girl named Carolina from Honduras, is indicative of what is so wrong about the immigration system’s view towards minors:

Carolina is a five-year-old girl from Honduras.52 When she was an infant, Carolina’s mother tried
to cross with her into the United States, and both were caught and ordered deported. Several years
after this initial deportation, Carolina’s mother attempted once again to join her husband in the
United States. This time Carolina and her mother crossed the border separately—
Carolina by bridge with a false guardian and her mother by river—a common strategy for parents of young children,

who wish to protect them from drowning. Both she and her mother were apprehended in the United States and detained separately.

U.S. Immigration authorities realized that Carolina had been ordered removed in the past—as an infant.
Immigration agents consider this previous order of removal to mean that Carolina is ineligible to petition
for legal immigration status or release to family in the United States. Carolina was placed with the
Office of Refugee Resettlement. When or , unaware of Carolina’s previous order of removal, reunified
the child with her family in the United States, ice agents referred to the incident as a “breach of
national security.” Given her age and circumstances, however, Carolina was clearly unable to have willingly
violated U.S. administrative code in either instance of her entering the country. To hold Carolina accountable
for immigration violations is either inconsistent with the U.S. application of the principle of mens rea,
or a violation of the concept that children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents.

As A Child Alone and Without Papers describes a little earlier on, one of the methods of removal for minors is deportation, which carries the same consequences for a child as it does for an adult–the dreaded ten year ban. The expedited removal and lack of legal counsel for undocumented Mexican kids can tear kids who have lived in the US since infancy away from the only family and country they know in an instant:

The lack of legal representation for children who have spent the majority of their lives in the United
States, yet are apprehended and removed without their families to a country they may not remember,
is a particularly compelling tragedy. According to dif (Mexico’s Child Protective Services) representatives,
there has been a recent increase in the incidence of Mexican citizen children who have
grown up in the United States and are removed to Mexico without their families.68 dif staff described
cases involving teenagers initially apprehended by local U.S. law enforcement for non-criminal acts,
such as speeding, then removed once a background check failed to substantiate citizenship. In some
instances, the children were reported to have lived in the United States since infancy and to have been
unaware of their immigration status. These children sometimes have no family in Mexico to receive
them, and are unfamiliar with Mexican culture and sometimes even language. dif child welfare experts
report that such cases are very difficult to serve, and that the children do not integrate well into
Mexican society. Access to counsel potentially could provide options for relief to these children.

While Mexican kids are deported without hardly a chance to say “wait a sec…”, kids from non-neighboring countries, mainly Honduras (from which 80,000 unaccompanied minors attempt to immigrate to the US every year), are detained for extended periods of time. As for the methods of return, it depends on the country, but the conditions are disgusting either way.

Most unaccompanied Mexican children are apprehended near the border and are transported via
Customs and Border Protection land vehicles to the nearest port of entry.
Once the child arrives in Mexico, a representative of the Mexican Consulate assumes custody and
physically escorts the child to the INM office on the Mexican side of the border. In some areas
where the port of entry involves a bridge, children are transported by Border Patrol to the middle
of the bridge. There they are met by a Mexican official and the children are escorted the rest of the
way across the bridge on foot, through traffic and mixed with the general population. Children are
typically escorted by only one official from Mexico. This situation presents a number of risks to the
immediate safety of the children. When U.S. officials release their custody of undocumented children,
they return the child’s personal belongings to them, including their shoelaces and belts, in full view
of the public and potential predators. The children must then make their way through traffic and
crowds, pulling up their pants, putting on their shoes, and carrying all of their valuables, with only
one adult to protect them. While this arrangement may be adequate in cases where a single child is
being returned,75 in many instances the single consular agent is escorting multiple children. We found
no regulations related to the escort-to-child ratio on the part of either U.S. or Mexican authorities.

A representative from the Mexican Consulate awaits the release of a group of unaccompanied children from a
USBP perrera. He stands in the middle of an international bridge, between the two countries.
In interviews with the author, Mexican officials from various agencies expressed extreme concern
for the manner in which the U.S. Border Patrol transports children. Consular officials commonly
referred to the Border Patrol’s trucks, in which children ride in a covered bed, as dog kennels, or perreras.
These trucks are regarded by Mexican officials as unsafe and undignified, an opinion shared
by U.S. advocates for child safety.

There are no seatbelts and little overhead clearance to protect the
child from injury when patrol vehicles are off road or on rough roads. Border Patrol agents ride in
the truck’s cab, leaving girls, boys, and unrelated adults commingled with no supervision.
The fact that the agents ride separately is also significant as regards the conditions of the truck beds,
where the children ride. Beds have separate ventilation systems from the cabs. According to a Border
Patrol supervisor this measure is meant to protect agents from airborne diseases. As a consequence,
drivers are not aware of or affected by the passengers’ conditions. We observed the transport of children
in a Border Patrol truck with no rear functioning air conditioning unit, on a day when the temperature
reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, the cargo or transport compartment, where the children rode,
was caked in mud and smelled strongly of urine and waste. Four girls and a boy traveled inside.

The Honduran children who participated in the study were removed via commercial flights, either
individually or in large groups.77 ice claims to also employ a separate means of transportation that is
far more alarming.78 ice reports that it continues to transport unaccompanied children on Justice
Department, or jpat , flights. ice charters Department of Justice planes to deport mixed populations
of adults of both genders and both immigration and criminal offenders. Individuals returned
via jpat flights are shackled and handcuffed throughout the flight, and are uniformly treated as
criminal offenders in every respect. They wear identification tags on their arms and their personal
belongings are transported in clear garbage bags. The removal of children via jpat chartered deportation
flights is wholly unacceptable in consideration of the vulnerability of children.
The author observed children returned by ice via commercial airlines. Honduran statistics confirm
that many children are returned by this method (See Appendix E – Honduras Statistical Data). However,
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did not provide data to enable confirmation of which
method of transport, commercial or JPAT, is more commonly used for non-neighboring children.

If you are inclined to read all 80 pages of the report, be prepared to shed a few tears. On a positive note, the CPPP does provide many strong recommendations on how the system of detention and repatriation of unaccompanied minors and undocumented children in general can be improved.

• Guaranteed Right to Counsel.
• Oversight by Child Welfare Experts.
• Mandatory Assessment and Planning for Child’s Safe Return.
• Standardized Inter-Agency Data Collection and Sharing.
• Establish Safe Child Escort Protocols.
• Establish and Enforce Safe Transportation Standards.
• Return Children to Port-of-Entry Nearest to Home.
• Commit to protecting unaccompanied children through treaties and legislation.
• Establish Bi-National Standards for Data Collection and Sharing.
• Prioritize Most Common Countries of Origin.

This will take effort and money and cooperation both on the part of US immigration authorities and the child welfare authorities in the sending countries. It’s sick and ridiculous that kicking out the illegals is higher on our priority list than child welfare and actually ending the cycle of migration. Please, send a link to the report, a quick sum up, and a plea to your senator. Especially if you’re in a border state. Suggested phrases include “family values”, “for the children”, “damning report”, etc.

 x-posted to The OBL

<font>As of now, December 2008, the following projects are active:

</font> Mailing list / networking

To get on the list send an E-Mail to dream.act.portal@gmail.com with your DAP username.

Stay connected via Twitter

Change.org:

Change.org has pledged to pass on the top 10 ideas on the site to Obama on Inauguration day. They have implemented a two-round voting system, round one ends on January 5th. The top three winners from each category then face off against each other and the top 10 ideas are the winners. In addition to getting the ideas to Obama, change.org has pledged to help in forming a national campaign for the issues.

Round 1 voting is still in progress, the DREAM idea proposed by dreamACTivist is number two on the entire site and so your continued support is very much needed.

Please pass this link on to your friends and family.

<font><font>Round 2 will begin on January 5th,</font></font> voting will start over and so your support will be needed once again.

DREAM Act Postcards:

Last year we sent in more than 600 post cards, lets beat that number this year.

The idea is to write your story as if you are inviting the senator to your graduation party. If, once DREAM becomes a reality, you are planning on going the military route -or you are not in school right now- then frame your invitation as such. Below are two examples from the previous campaign:

Example 1: "You're Cordially Invited To My D.R.E.A.M.: Senator, on Sunday, May 17th, 2009, I will be graduating near the top of my class with a degree in Bioengineering. I hope to use my education to conduct research in the field of cancer medicine. I would love to one day pursue a medical Ph.D and work for the National Institute of Health. None of this can happen without your much needed support. Please help me make D.R.E.A.M. a reality.

Sincerely,

<Signed First Name>

Example 2: Honorable Senator ________: I am a high school graduate. During the last four years of my public education I was very involved in various extracurricular activities such as Students for Environment Action, Animal Rights club, Dance team and key club.
During College, I plan to major in elementary education. My DREAM is to one day become an elementary school teacher and be very involved in volunteering around my community.
Unfortunately, I am unable to do so as a result of my immigration status. This is why I am urging you to support the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act. With you help and support I will be able to realize my DREAM of becoming an active member of society.
Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

<Signed First Name>

Please include where you were born and how long you have been here.

The deadline is as follows:

Stories are due no later than, Monday, December 29th. This should give everyone time to work on a story either after finals week or, if you are normal and you like to procrastinate, after the holidays.

All text submissions must go to mo@dreamactivist.org

The pro-migrant blogosphere is abuzz with posts about the federal DREAM Act -- Check out Immigration Clearinghouse, Citizen Orange and Diverse Education for starters.

Part of this new momentum comes from the Change.org Pass the Dream Act movement launched by your very own DreamActivist. Never underestimate the power of minor acts and inconspicuous actions — They can be the start of something new and powerful and if not, we must acknowledge them for the simple fact that nothing should be lost to history. This minor act has inspired students that are usually down in the dumps to start paying attention and taking action for change.

Free2be is back to making her 'novel'-length posts, Dan at The Political Scoop is keen on casting the DREAM Act as a civil rights issue, Lu001 has just launced A Little Piece of Paper to highlight the ridiculousness of how an arbitrary construct holds her back and Ille-gal plays on the 'illegal alien' term. This is just the beginning.

With this string of activism from DREAM Act students, the fight for DREAM is bound to be different in 2009. Ultimately, we have to wrestle back power and control over our lives -- we can't let immigration restrictionists define us, keep us imprisoned, condition our lives and place obstacles in our path. If they do, we must tear them apart.

Check back in a few days for a slew of new actions and new DREAM bloggers on the web, who will be instrumental in taking this movement forward.

This video was shown at the D.R.E.A.M. Act congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law headed by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) on May 18, 2007.

For more information about the DREAM Act, visit A DREAM Deferred.

After the defeat of the DREAM Act last year, William Gheen, the leader of ALIPAC, who deplores undocumented youth and wants to deport all such students, issued a call for us to stay down: “we should never gloat, but it is time to rub these losses in to our opposition. They need to stay down, instead of forcing us to knock them down again and again.”

These are the values of ALIPAC—immense hatred towards children that were brought here through no choice of their own, American children who want to serve this country, who are the future leaders of this land.

The subaltern has answered Gheen’s coarse demands. In one year since the failure of the DREAM Act, undocumented students have come together in larger numbers than ever before, setting up organizations, networking online, making videos, blogging and petitioning for change.

Youth in the usually-somber waiting rooms of history are bustling with renewed enthusiasm and energy. Trapped as a marginal status, ignored by the mainstream media, with their backs to the wall and everything to lose, undocumented youth are emerging as leaders in their own movement. Take a look at the Ideas for Change campaign at Change.org–the DREAM Act is ahead by a landslide (don’t forget to register and vote), thanks in no part, to the efforts of undocumented students and allies. Following the early success of the Change.org organizing, DreamACTivist will be back with a spree of actions very soon so remember to get on our twitter and the Passage of the DREAM Act application on Facebook. Check out what our ally BAMN is doing as well and get involved.

This just in from CBS News:

Civil rights: After the failure of sweeping immigration overhaul, Democrats scaled back their effort to focus on the DREAM Act. The legislation would have halted deportation efforts of children who are here illegally, giving them citizenship opportunities if they entered the country before age 16 and have lived here for five years.

That bill was blocked after receiving 52 votes, but four supporters were not present. For the 111th Congress, seven Democrats will replace Republicans who voted against the bill. Barring a push for broader immigration restructuring by Obama, Senate aides said this smaller measure should have enough support to pass.

In April, 50 Democrats and six Republicans supported legislation that would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act by allowing more time for workers to file discrimination complaints. Five new Democrats will be replacing Republicans who opposed the legislation named after Lilly Ledbetter, the female employee who lost her suit against Goodyear Tire and Rubber over discrimination claims. The Supreme Court ruled that Ledbetter should have filed her claim within six months of the alleged incidents.

We love the fact that the ‘DREAM Act’ is put under ‘civil rights’ for it is ultimately about the right to education, the right not to be punished and penalized for crimes one has not committed.

Ted Turner give Lou Dobbs a little piece of his mind. "I don't like walls. We need a world without walls."

After the philanthropy of Microsoft and Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich has taken to making a movie on unaccompanied minor children in the United States.

The Guelph Mercury (Canada) reports:

John Malkovich is so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he plans to make a documentary about it. The actor and director says the documentary, which will be titled Triple Crossing, will seek to humanize the issue of illegal migration. Malkovich says the film will be produced by Canana Films, a production company owned by Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. Malkovich, of Burn After Reading, is in Mexico directing the play The Good Canary. Luna, of The Terminal and Y Tu Mama Tambien, interprets the play's lead character, writer Jack Parker. 

A new study released shows that about 43,000 children are removed from the United States annually and a large number are mistreated while in custody, transported home unsafely and denied access to representation.

While unaccompanied minors are not necessarily the target group eligible for the DREAM Act, (which is fueled by the principle that children had no choice in being brought to this country), if they survive detection, detention and deportation, they can also adjust status via the DREAM Act.

Find out more at A DREAM Deferred, and vote for the DREAM Act on Change.org.

 

This is probably one of the best (if not the best) videos made on the DREAM Act, courtesy a group of DREAMers from UCLA.

Check out www.AnUnfinishedDream.com for more information, updates and ways to help with the video.  The Facebook Cause for this group is here.

Find out more at A DREAM Deferred, and vote for the DREAM Act on Change.org.

Ex-dreamer Chip Gilea, whom we wrote about earlier, no longer has to endure the nightmare of separation from his U.S. citizen family.

ICE released him today on the condition that he call-in once per month. His visa will be available on Dec 1:

 

“I want to thank everyone who supported me,” he said. “My family, my neighbors, my church — and people that I don’t even know.”

Thank you for everyone who wrote and called on Chip's behalf.

More on the story here.