A great opinion piece written by Nancy Bondurant Jones, a resident of Harrisonburg Virgina.  Not many may know this but there has been an active effort launched in Harrisonburg for the Dream Act.  There are a few other updates that are going to come out in the coming weeks that are going to make some of you really jealous!

If anyone is in the area and wants to get active you should contact our DreamActivist rep. for the area, Isabel.  She can be reached at isa@dreamactivist.org.

Opinion piece below:

In helping launch this great nation, Thomas Jefferson set forth the startling idea that this would be a nation where, for the first time, “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” And he added that the government was responsible to see that its citizens secured those rights. The Holy Bible is even more succinct: “We are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25).

Yet I fear our current government may be remiss by denying potential citizens these “unalienable rights.” The case of Maria Martinez is only one example from about 65,000 young people across the nation who no longer can pursue “the unalienable rights of liberty and happiness” (“Time for a ‘Dream,’” Sept. 23).

The children of immigrants, on graduation from high school, are suddenly denied access to further education and hopes for citizenship. Why? They bear the title of “undocumented immigrant.”

They were brought here years ago as children by their parents, allowed to stay and go to school until they graduated. Having been raised as Americans, they want to become citizens, continue their education or enter the military, work and live ordinary lives.

Yet they suddenly face barriers to higher education or jobs and often live in fear of immigration authorities returning them to a country they scarcely remember. Once there, they are denied entry to the U.S. for 10 years — heavy punishment for the decisions of their parents years earlier.

The National Immigration Law Center posits that deportation “of promising immigrant students who have demonstrated a commitment to hard work and a strong desire to be contributing members of our society… will cause America to lose a vital asset.” If you think this is not a local concern, I have a few local statistics: as of the 2006-2007 school year, there were 44 foreign languages spoken in Harrisonburg’s schools; Spanish first, with Russian and Kurdish next.

In 1993-94, 160 students were the 5 percent of the whole student body. By 2006-2007, there were 1,658 such students, 38 percent of the student body.

Those students have lived here most of their lives and consider themselves part of this nation. They want to become legal citizens, extend their education and become productive members of society.

Check out the article for the rest of the story!