DREAM Act Students, Marie Gonzalez, Opinion Piece »

It has been a great week. Walter Lara is no longer in deportation. Marie Gonzalez also received a stay till 2010 yesterday. Wisconsin became the 11th state to officially grant in-state tuition. We have major new endorsements from business, labor and education forces with 23 cosponsors in the Senate and over 80 in the House.

All this comes with a footnote. We are still yearning to breathe freely. We are still in the business of stopping one deportation at a time. We still have to use the ‘honors student’ or ‘wants to serve in the military’ card to justify our right to stay in the United States.

I don’t know about other allies and advocates in the fight for immigration reform but I do personally stand by VivirLatino:

Disturbed at how organizations that want to put families and children first still won’t talk about Cirila Baltazar Cruz, a mother who lost her child because her immigration status and language status was deemed dangerous. Is it because Cirila wasn’t college educated in any language? Or doesn’t feel like an “American” (even though she is since Latin America has been America for longer than the United States of America)?

How about something a little easier, like Brisenia Flores who at 9 years old was deemed dangerous enough to be targeted for murder? Or does the underlying narrative of her father, who was also killed, maybe perhaps having something to so with drugs make that too messy for the orgs to deal with in a comprehensive way?

Countless other immigrant youth and families continue to be ripped apart, separated from their homes, criminalized and detained. It should never come down to speaking English or the number of degrees one has but unfortunately, we are in the business of selling the DREAM Act as the ‘American DREAM.’ In the meantime, the state refuses to grant us a way to legalize our status; it doesn’t want to eliminate the surplus produced through our labor.

I am told I cannot demand or ask, I should plead or beg. I cannot do that for the sake of my dignity–I did nothing wrong. Our families did nothing wrong for trying to better our lives.

I am however, grateful for this day and for every day that we win a tiny victory. But I won’t celebrate till we win human rights for all peoples.

Some parting advice.

1. Don’t open the door to la migra.

2. Don’t sign anything, much less a voluntary departure.

3. Don’t get a DUI or cross the border to celebrate in Tijuana (or Canada)

4. Don’t give up.

5. Send some donations our way so we can continue doing this important work.

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