Mother Jones Magazine is a non-profit magazine that has proudly and loudly presented progressive political viewpoints since 1976. This year, they presented a mini-college-guide that included unusual scholarships, cool campuses, and of course, vibrant youth activism.

As part of the special, they teamed up with Campus Progress and WireTap Magazine to select the “Hellraisers” . In the immigration category, the work of UWD was highlighted:

Under the Dream Act, more than a million undocumented high school grads would become US citizens. The United We Dream Coalition’s mock graduation in Washington, DC, drew hundreds of supporters, and in a PR coup, Harvard students, including several undocumented undergrads, convinced university president Drew Gilpin Faust to officially endorse the bill.

The recognition feels more special when we consider who the magazine is named after. Mary Harris Jones , a.k.a. Mother Jones, was a young immigrant like us, carried to the U.S. on the back of her parents’ American Dream. Her family left Ireland during the great potato famine, and she set her roots in a country that was very unfriendly to Irish people at the time. She grew up to be an important figure in the labor movement, where she galvanized support of women and children to support fair working conditions for all, and to put an end to child labor in the United States. For her radical stance of promoting education for children instead of economic exploitation, she came to be known as “the most dangerous woman in America”.

Today, more than 1 in 5 American whites have an Irish background, according to U.S. census figures. Their ancestors are those who were shut out of education, and pushed to the shadows in the past, just like many undocumented individuals are shut out today. While groups like CIS (the Center for Immigration Slandering) and FAIR-anoia continue to argue that they protect American interests, more and more DreamActivists are standing up to represent American ideals. And the same rhetoric that tried to shut out Mother Jones is not going to succeed against them.

Thank you, Mother Jones Magazine! We’ll be sure to raise hell on our Back to School Day of Action on September 23rd!