Official response from RI4A: ** crickets **

hey dreamactivist, ever think that maybe schumer's LYING like he has been for the past year? I know it's easy to blame RIFA for everything, but unfortunately there are others who are holding us all back, the gentleman from New York included.

what? i can't even believe it. is schumer lying? has there been any confirmation from any of these folks? who are these people anyway. i never heard of them. they sound like trumped up fund-raisers to me, hand-picked. we gotta take back this movement back. meet with them. what do they say?

Deepak Bhargava's response: Any suggestion that the Center for Community Change called for the U.S. Senate not to pass the DREAM Act is categorically false. We specifically said in this meeting with Senator Schumer that we DO strongly support Senate action on the DREAM Act. Our position is detailed very clearly on our web site: http://www.communitychange.org/blog/our-5-point-p….

Mary, so you are saying that Deepak does support the dream act as a stand alone bill? because schumer said at the meeting the ri4a reps were against it.

If that is the case then lets do a quick retraction, "Correction: Deepak supports the DREAM Act as a stand alone bill!"

Yea?

#notbornyesterday

Leave RI4A alone…. *cries*

LMAO.

Mary, did Deepak whisper that to you or do you have a link? Just for laughs though.

still, why are these folks meeting behind students' back? they should at least have some line of communication with the students if they are gonna do that. otherwise, who are they serving?

Daniela: We don't trust either. Schumer is no saint, and it's not the first time we've heard RI4A excluding immigrant youth from the table.

i think Schumer lied. Then why Schumer lied? maybe he wanted to see this posting and comments, Schumer is smart, he wanted us pointing at finger each other and competing one thing over another, 287G, DREAM ACT, Ag JOB, CIR, family immigration, and workforce enforcement…

Nice Day,
If Schumer is lying, then all of these organizations will release statements that state their support for stand-alone DREAM (which they haven't done) and will include immigrant youth at the table when there are discussions with congressional leadership about the DREAM Act (which they haven't done either). We're about to find out. Hopefully we're wrong.

When you print something this ugly about others who are working as hard as they can for legalization you should be able to back it up. Source? …Schumer, while he is arresting people in his office? oh really….? Did you verify?

Or is this the old game of politicians to divide and conquer, and you just walked into it?

Dream Act must be passed. no questions about it. yet, my dream is beyond D.A., my dream includes D.A., AgJob, stop deportation of working parents, family immigration, etc. so comprehensive legalization. if you saying Dream Act only statement, i will hate to see organizations releasing that statement. Anti-Immigrant force is not say "Only Deport parents, not students", they are saying deport all "ILLEGAL", why are we narrowing our dream?

I work at the Center for Community Change. I'm in the communications department. Deepak sent me his response in an email.

Don't you know Mary works for Deepak ..

Yes. That is exactly what Deepak said: He supports the DREAM Act as a stand alone bill.

Both CCC & Americas Voice have put out statements in reaction to this. It’s disconcerting to think that you would believe the words of the proven liar like Chuck Schumer over that of longtime immigrant reform advocates like Deepak and Frank and not event represent their side of the story.

Sidenote – I support DREAM Act as a stand alone bill.

What is going to happen if there is no formal communication between parties? The Dream Act is something that needs to pass now in order for the youth to advance and also bring a Comprehensive Immigration Reform later on.

Hey Nathan, only the email correspondence we got from deepak mentioned the dream act as a stand alone bill. America's voice nor did the post from noorani mention dream as a stand alone.

We have asked for letters on letter head to that effect so that we can approach 'lying' senators in the future.

Thanks for your support!

Sorry josh, the only way to counter it is to get a public statement, a letter specifically, from each of them showing the support dream act as a stand alone.

This is not the first time we have been told this about RI4A. It is the first time we have taken it public. We can't counter it if you all don't give us the material to counter it with.

Give us those letters and we'll issue a full apology tomorrow and demand answers from Durbin, Reid, Schumer, Menendez, Lugar and others.

Thanks.

Mo

We would like to have the record cleared and we will apologize to everybody, as soon as we see a statement on letterhead calling for the immediate passage of a stand-alone DREAM Act, and the inclusion of DREAM youth at the decision-making table.

I have no idea what Ali Noorani advised Senator Schumer but in a report to RIFA stakeholders dated May 26 he adamantly rejected the stand-alone strategy as "negotiating with ourselves" . The second and equally important point is this: why in gods earth is Deepak or Frank or Ali meeting privately with Schumer while Dream students are fasting and risking their lives? They owe the students an explanation and an apology.

There is no author of this post. It would have more weight to it if it wasn't just "admin." These types of posts make me sympathize with anti-immigrants. It turns me off the same way dirty political cheap shots turn people off from elections.

Well, you can apologize to Frank Sharry tomorrow. haha

"An Open Letter To DREAM Activists"
http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/open_le…

http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/blog/… http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/open_le…

Even if you don't agree with the response or the medium it was transmitted in (the post does not mention the letterhead requirement) there has clearly been a response. This post should link to and acknowledge that.

Sorry the open letter does not ask for the the dream act as a stand alone bill. We are still waiting for a letter with the specification and hope to have one in the morning.

We'd be more than happy to turn the attention to schumer

Hey nathan, neither of those letters mention the dream act as a stand alone bill.

The statement from RI4A still does not state support for stand-alone DREAM. We are, however, pleased to see Frank Sharry’s statement saying that CIR is stalling and the DREAM Act needs to be passed over the summer. We hope to have that as an official letter that we can take to our elected officials and move them forward.

I understand the frustration of not seeing as much progress as we would like with CIR. But did you guys ever think that RI4A has hundreds or organizations that joined and are collaborating with them. All these organizations include unions, house-hold workers, day laborer orgs, student groups, etc. All of them joined because they believed that RI4A's goal was CIR, not simply AgJobs or Dream. The Dream act and Agjobs are included in CIR (the main goal). So asking a whole campaign to support the Dream as a Stand Alone bill, how are they supposed to explain that to all the other people that would not qualify under Dream. That is why RI4A can't so quickly come out and say they support Dream as stand alone, because they have a responsibility to other people as well.

i contact their website and also i wont be donating anymore to their site thats just wrong false prophets

Pass the DREAM Act as a standalone bill! WE have been waiting and fighting for way too long!

Poor Nathan and his RI4A camp has a hard time understanding English. Though they all expect us to know it well.

What's amusing is that if Frank Sharry was a woman, he'd never have been given some more millions to go make America's Voice after his dismal failure to pass CIR in 2006-2007.

Sexism FTW.

Has anyone else noticed that the Democratic leadership holding back on DREAM and the RI4A leadership are ALL MEN while most of the DREAM Act leadership is mostly women?

I wonder why there's gaps in communication.

:rolleyes:

Amen.

I would like to be remove from your contact list as I don’t want to part of this site or organization since I read the following and neither will I be making any donations or anything on this organization till they step up the game and

Prove us wrong, and release a statement calling for stand-alone DREAM Act immediately.

Prove us wrong, and include immigrant youth, who can speak for themselves, at a meeting with congressional leadership.

My emails are tcom and tt and I will be also emailing my friends and family to do the same till the game is step up this is just wrong!
Schumer Says: ‘Ali Noorani, Frank Sharry, Deepak Bhargava, Catholic Church (RIFA). . . Don’t Want DREAM Act’ http://www.dreamactivist.org/ri4akillsdream/

Here is Frank Sharry's response, calling for Dream on its own, now. The statements in the blog post above do not at all reflect America's Voice position, or Frank's meeting with the Senator.
http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/open_le…

And here is Deepak's official, public response: http://www.communitychange.org/press-room/press-r…

what do you mean it doesn't reflect frank's meeting with the Senator?

The post states that the campaign, "stated they did not want the senator to move forward with the DREAM Act." The statements that I pointed out refute that.

Also I see that Deepak put a statement out this morning using language specifically around Dream Act as a stand alone bill.

The post appeared to me to be about an accusation that Schumer made and asking those cited by Schumer to respond – which they did.

You seem to be using Schumer's statement as a proxy to make attacks and demands on the Ri4a campaign outside of what is brought up in the post – this seems disingenuous to me.

But what I really want to know why the campaign (which not that long ago was having actions on Schumer as well) would meet with Schumer well students were on hunger strike outside his office.

What I would like is for the response statements to be posted – let people decide if they want to believe Schumer or Ri4a and CCC ( instead of just posting Schumer's side of the meeting). Further pressing on the important question of why this meeting occurred in the first place. And finally what can be done to make sure it dosn't happen again.

But that's me.

The only way to destroy a movement is to divide it. I am sure the FAIR and Numbers USA of this world are laughing at us and waiting for the next time we throw mud at each other's faces.

exactly!!!!! I'm with you Nice Day. Dream bigger dreamers. We have all been waiting years, it is not time to be divided.

Both CCC and America's Voice have put out VAGUE statements of support for DREAM Act. Neither statement contains the phrase STAND ALONE. Stop playing all-knowing patriach and accusing Immigrant activist youth of being "selfish" . Because what it translates to is "get back in your place & wait your turn". TSK ,tsk. Ironic when you use dreamact students as examples every chance you get.

United and nice day: We absolutely support the repeal of 28g, AgJobs, UAFA, etc. We just don't see why it has to happen ONLY as one, comprehensive bill. DREAM has been ready and marked up for ten years, AgJobs is ready, and so is UAFA, but we are being told to wait because they want to do it all together. No thanks. We want to get started.

We know that, we do think that… and many of those immigrant communities support passing the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill as soon as possible. It is strategic to score a victory. We can start with DREAM and then we knock over the dominoes: AgJobs, UAFA, repealing 287g…

Its so obvious that Sharry, Noorani and other advocates are using the DREAMers as propaganda tools to push for CIR. Americans might have more sympathy for college educated students and grant them legalization, than non DREAMers. If the DREAM act passes as a stand alone bill, Sharry and Noorani won't be able to use these students as propaganda tools to push forward CIR, since it won't apply to them.

cont.
The DREAMers have a compeling argument for legalization (education, the fact that they were brought here when they were children), Sharry and Noorani know this, and they are willing to gamble with that in order to use their stories in favor of a path to legalization for the 12 million undocumented. Many of whom are not DREAMers. Also, if the DREAM act is debated as a stand alone bill, it will be attached with enforcement amendements (E-verify, border enforcement). All the amendements that are needed to entice Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats to support CIR. Once those amendements are given away, there is nothing left to entice the passage of CIR in the future.
Still, the DREAMers should be given the opportunity to fight for their legalization with a stand alone bill and not have so-called leaders drag them down in order for them to enact their agenda.

Whose movement? Everyone's movement. A group Dreamers doesn't get "decide" that everyone should follow their strategy. Everyone has a role, and there are different strategies and sometimes even goals. If you don't agree with a strategy, then work on your own. Organize your base and do what you need to do. Attacking all these groups doesn't help your cause. It helps Schumer, who is a piece of crap bigot in the first place. There are some people who have criticized the DREAM Act because of the military component. Are the Dream Act supporters a bunch of war-mongers then? Is your dream to get papers and move on with your life more important than others? The answer to both these questions is NO. But the point is that many people could call out all of you around your politics as well, but they would fail to see the bigger question. This is why many students for DREAM and CIR are not active– they hate the BS politics.

If their purpose was not to support the Dream Act as a stand alone bill, why were they there? Don't you think the sensible thing would have been to let the students speak w/ Schumer directly?

i understand that Schumer came to his own decision about not pushing the Dream Act forward and is clearly trying to hide his decision behind the so-called advice of the 4 other men there. it's sad and frustrating that they put themselves in the position to be used in this manner.

here's what I don't understand. from the posts and statements made by Noorani and Bhargava, mainly, it seems that there is some fear that passing the Dream Act will fan the flames of the conservative party and lead to greater abuses of immigrant rights. but can't we expect that any victory for immigrant rights will do this? why the need to use the Dream Act as a bargaining chip for CIR? further, in essence, by suggesting this, it seems that they are saying that they don't think the Dream Act can stand alone as its own bill. in other words, that it will have other effects. well, fine, but why don't we have a real conversation about this? because, frankly, without further explanation, i don't see it. it seems to me that the conservative right has already chosen to squeeze as much enforcement-first fervor out of existing state and federal laws. why not fight that directly instead of holding out Dream as some imagined bargaining chip, which, despite your doubts, it really does seem like this is what is happening. I just really don't think that this needs to be the case.

there is a real debate here, those who think the Dream Act should (necessarily?) be a part of CIR, and those who think we can get it through on it's own while still supporting the larger movement. i think in this regard, dream activists have every right to hold their so-called allies accountable and engage in a real debate. they've been holding their tongues for a long time. the sensible and mature thing now is to speak.

so im guessing you support schumer's vision of CIR?

instead of directing all this anger at dreamactivist and the people who gave the info for this post…why don't we direct it to schumer?

personally, i support the dream act as a stand alone bill and i realize CIR is not going to pass this year. atleast not a humane one. i support CIR, just not schumer's version of it. i will not support a law that would criminalize my family and community.

i cant believe the organizations mentioned still push and support the bill that schumer has set forth. its discusting. they only advocate for CIR because its their job while undocumented students advocate for themselves because it's their lives on the line.

i also think its disgusting for the orgs mentioned to have secret agendas and secret meetings with the senator ABOUT dream knowing there were youth starving infront of his office.
you all knew 10+ youth were starving for 10 days and still met with the senator and did not invite any of these students while speaking about their lives.
i wonder if any of these 'leaders' are undocumented. do they know how it feels? do they understand our struggle? i dont think so. and theres no reason for them to try to 'represent' them. i'm sure youth can speak for ourselves and they've made it very clear throughout the last years.

undocumented students fight so much to get their voices heard for another immigration organization to come and take that power away from them as well. the same way senators and congress people are doing.

the statements made by schumer and the responses from the people named will not take away from the fact that there was a meeting. that things were said. and youth could not speak for themselves.

the problem is that RI4A wants a vaporbill, schumer was supposed to have the cir written by labor day of 2009, not he says march 2011

also another problem with CIR is that it is a behemoth, it is a huge bill that is very unlikely to push, and if it will fail with all the xenophobic minutemen awaken by it, which then will do the same thing to DREAM act, it will be '07 all over again

In a great article I read from a Republican commentator who actually supports the DREAM Act. He writes about his thoughts regarding CIR supporters vs DREAM Act supporters…

how can Ali say something like that! he was working at MIRA when SIM started. He should remember us students in Massachusetts when we told him our stories!!

I am confused. Why would you want the DREAM ACT to move forward as a stand alone bill? I am a DREAM Act supporter but I don't want the millions of undocumented people who are neither young nor students to be left behind. What if the DREAM ACT passes alone, and all the other parts of the bill fail? I believe building a movement comes down to that moment when some of us are offered a piece of the pie, and we say for our parents and our friends, for our lovers and our neighbors, for our communities and even for our enemies, we don't win until we all do.

I don't see what's wrong with passing a bill that exists and that has been held down for the past 9 years. How many more dreams do you people want killed, how many more dreamers can you watch being killed so that the DREAM Act can continue being the HOSTAGE of some multi-million dollar groups that are paid handsomely to work on an immigration reform that criminalizes communities?

I refuse to be a “bargaining chip” to anything. The DREAM Act was introduced as a standalone bill back in 2001 and it has its own MOVEMENT, and place in history.

Pass the DREAM Act. All other pieces would follow.

I hear you. I will simply raise that there are often pieces of legislation that are easier to pass than others, and the leaders carrying those pieces, like the DREAM Act, are faced with a difficult burden and choice to carry the movement and the entire entire community forward, or carry only a segment forward in hopes that it provide an example for the rest. It is a choice that I would not want to be faced with, and I applaud whatever visionary strategic thinking and principle has tempered simple ideology and frustration. I am not interested in multimillion dollar groups either, but I AM interested in full justice for all who need it, not just some. I do hope the DREAM Act passes, I support it 100%, but policy for some at the expense of the whole isn't about the powerful versus the weak, its a question of principle and vision. All power to the people.

Again, you miss the point and preposterously assume that dreamers are not interested in full justice — whatever that means. That's unwarranted and stupid. The so-called “leaders” are not burdened by anything but money in their pockets — the DREAM movement has been entirely led by undocumented immigrants. Nobody, especially not people sitting in DC offices and those with citizenship privilege, has the right to say how, when, where an oppressed minority can fight for their own rights.

We are fighting for freedom — for our families, our communities and ourselves. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. If it means hacking through and destroying our frenemies, so be it.

As i said, I support the DREAM Act and a transparent approach to the process, and simply pointed out some strategic considerations. Calling me stupid, telling me that I have no right to take a position, is unprincipled, unaccountable, rude, and unfair. I guess there is no room for allies, or for thoughtful dialogue, only agreement. Thank you. I won't raise any more thoughts or questions here.

Thank you. We don't need “supporters” like you with paternalistic visions of “strategic considerations.” Goodbye and good riddance.

If they really want to talk strategy regarding AgJOBS, the DREAM Act, and the entire CIR package, they should take a look at how students are STILL BEING DEPORTED.

Durbin can pretend that his petty request to the ICE to halt deportations is being honored, but in reality it's not. Students are still being detained and deported, so aside from political strategy, he needs to consider tangible strategy as well. He needs to weigh the size of a package with how long it will take to pass. Currently, passing TWO BILLS (The DREAM Act and AgJOBS) in a short amount of time to protect a significant portion of people in our situation OUTWEIGHS waiting to pass a large CIR bill in a large amount of time, jeopardizing many people in our situation.

[...] his Midtown Manhattan Office, he met with representatives from the aforementioned organizations. Schumer said that the leadership of the orgs told him that they did not want him to move ahead with … The organizations deny this, kind of, with statements saying that they support the DREAM Act, none [...]

i dont get why dream act is a part of cir to begin with, whats the point of putting a bill legalizing a certain group of people (students) in a bill that legalizes everyone of clean criminal record?

face it RIFA, dream act is not a core of CIR, its just there to be there,

listen, we either can legalize the young people who often grew up not knowing about their legal status and then get to the others, or we can just sit in limbo, its your call, CIR will not pass, there is no republicans willing to vote yes for it and we cant count on every democrat to vote yes, dream act on the other hand has some republican support

And its exactly this mentality of yours that creates a divide…instead of you getting up to make sure that CIR is backed by a republican or by anyone at all, you stalemate the entire possibility of having CIR while continually blaming the GOP for inaction, talk about hypocrisy my friend…i love the dream act, i have studied it to the most anyone can possibly study, i've read the codes that are engraved inside of it and yes it is a great bill as a stand alone. However, i wonder this, how will a DREAMer pay for his education even if he can pay for college? his parents are still undocumented, and in this tough economy there are so few jobs that there is no realistic means by which these DREAMers can really look forwards to paying for a strong education. I have a lot more arguments to call on your hypocrisy but i have to go work. But as a final word, id love to see DREAM enacted this year, but i would like to see CIR even more…and before you say thati don't know anything and i don't know what these kids go through, stop and wonder why i say these things…i might just be a DREAMer too!!!