Welcome Carlos Saavedra as the new National Coordinator of the United We Dream Network! (Pictured above at the very left wearing a white shirt and giving a thumbs up).

For the last couple of years, Carlos has been the lead organizer of the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM) in Massachusetts. He was born in Peru and immigrated to the U.S. along with his family when he was 12 years old. Despite the usual setbacks that our immigrant families usually face, Carlos is now a Permanent Resident of the United Sates.

Since 2004, Carlos led the growth of SIM from a small group of students in Greater Boston to a statewide organization for immigrant youth. During his involvement with the organization, SIM led campaigns for in-state tuition, and successfully fought against the deportation of a DREAM Act student in the “Keep Mario Home” Campaign. This year, SIM targeted their entire congressional delegation for the DREAM Act, and all 10 congressional representatives have now co-sponsored the bill. Carlos’ ample organizing training is highlighted by his participation in the “Organizing for People, Power, and Change” program with Marshall Ganz at Harvard University, as well as trainings with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and the Industrial Areas Foundation. He has done raid-response work in New Bedford (MA), Postville (IA), and Providence (RI). This year, he traveled alongside SIM to the state of Arkansas, where he met with members of the Little Rock 9, who encouraged the work of immigrant youth across the country.

In hiring Carlos, we not only found a capable leader to help lead us to the next level, but we grew as a coalition. The hiring committee charged with selecting a National Coordinator was as diverse as the pro-immigrant movement itself. It included two men and three women who come from youth-led organizations such as the New York State Youth Leadership Council, DreamActivist, Students Working for Equal Rights, and IDEAS at UCLA, and whose family heritage is in Mexico, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. During the search, we were privileged to know how much talent there is out there whose roots are in undocumented student organizing, and how excited people are about the possibility of building a national organization for immigrant young adults, students, and teenagers.

Please drop Carlos a line here and wish him good luck in his new position. And get excited, the immigrant youth movement continues to grow!

One of the most moving parts of the weeks leading up to this day of action has been the story of the Massachusetts Dreamers headed to Arkansas to meet with the youth leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. A few weeks ago, as they heard that September 23rd was the National Day of Action, the members of the Student Immigrant Movement began researching on how best to impact the fight for the passage of the DREAM Act. Their “10 out of 10 campaign”, in which they sought to gather all members of the Massachusetts legislature as DREAM co-sponsors, had just been completed. In a surprising twist of fate – or perhaps random research – they found out that the randomly selected day of September 23rd happened to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the historic day when the Little Rock Nine officially desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The SIM students sought out to research the Little Rock Nine and found out that one of them, Carlotta Walls Lanier, has recently published a book and would be in their area promoting them. Brazilian Dreamer Renata, who you might remember as one of our dreamies of the week, got in touch with Mrs. Lanier, and soon SIM was headed to the commemoration events and making a documentary. In their way, they will stop at other historical landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement. Of course, they want to share their story with the rest of the DREAM Act movement. Here is their first entry, by Carlos.

Hello Everyone,

Hope all of you are doing well. We are currently at the Highlander Center strategizing about next steps in fund-raising, reflecting on our experiences in Clinton, Tennessee and just connecting with the civil rights movement and understanding its history.

We were blessed yesterday (Sunday) to be sent-off from Charles Street AME church, Pastor Groover expressed his support and blessings to us in our journey. He wished us a safe pilgrimage and a transformational experience. Being at the altar with other brothers and sisters putting their hands in our shoulders and praying for us was an experience that brought tears to almost all of us. After getting all of our stuff together and driving in the road for more than 16 hours non-stop, we made it to the Green McAdoo Cultural Center Museum, where we received a tour from one of the white supporters that were part of the Clinton 12 story. Right after the introduction I asked the white supporter if he was able to set up a time for us to meet a member of the Clinton 12, he told me that it would be hard to coordinate and that in such a short notice it would be almost impossible, as there are only 3 members of the Clinton 12 that live in the proximities of Clinton, TN.

After being at the museum for almost 2 hours, we started to talk to each other about telling our stories to these local white supporters. We thought we should tell them why we were really there.

After encouraging each other, we set the stage and told our stories. The white supporters got impressed, when we all said that we are undocumented, and that we feel that what happened in Clinton more than 50 years ago is happening to 2.5 millions immigrant students all across the country. After hearing our stories, the conversation changed and the air in the room got heavier and intense. They expressed their support and asked questions about our situation. After a couple of questions, we asked one of them to still set up a time to meet with the some of the Clinton 12 since we want to share our stories with them, he said he would try.

Tonight at around 9pm, we got a call from him and we have a meeting with all 3 of the members of the Clinton 12 at the museum at 10 am. We sat in circle at the Highlander Center to strategize around our relational meeting with them. We feel ready but we also ask for your prayers to make sure that we and they have the courage to understand and link our stories.

We have been treated so well at the Highlander Center, we are overwhelmed with the historical context of the place where we are spending our time tonight.

As a fundraising update, we have been able to raise $4830.00 , which is a very good figure for our grassroots efforts, but we are still in need of another $4000 to pay for whole production of our documentary. We posted a new blog post on our website with a picture – www.simforus.com, we will be also be making fund-raising calls from the van tomorrow, our goal is to raise $300 for at least tomorrow and see how we do. I hope we can set a goal for the outside pilgrimage team as well.

On behalf of the whole traveling team, we wanted to thank all of you for your past and current support.

In solidarity,

Carlos

It has been a rollercoaster week for immigration rights in the United States.

On the good front, Arizona defeated all anti-immigrant bills. Senator Schumer is now saying that a comprehensive bill will be ready by Labor day that will benefit higher skilled workers more so than those with ‘low skills.’ Victims of domestic violence cases may be getting asylum.

Missouri banned financial aid for the 2 undocumented students they have in higher education in the state. The bill is pointless since in all likelihood, undocumented students in the state didn’t get financial support prior to its passage.

It’s getting harder to hire H-1B workers and Obama has stepped up on enforcement against employers who are deemed to hire undocumented immigrants.

The Senate approved the Sessions amendment to extend E-verify for federal contractors but dropped the no-match rule. It’s more of the same from the days of the Bush Administration, with little change. The New York Times called it a non-solution. 13 Democrats broke ranks to vote with Republicans on the issue. They are: Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Bryan Dorgan (D-N.D.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), John Tester (D-Mont.).

Some of these Senators would provide the crucial votes in favor of the DREAM Act and immigration reform.

DHS will resume using E-verify on Sept 8, with respect to federal contractors.

Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing continued in the Senate. She actually seems to have a ‘moderate’ voting record on immigration cases:

[...] in the nearly 850 cases you have decided in the Second Circuit, you ruled in favor of the government–that is, against the petitioner seeking asylum, the immigrant seeking asylum–83 percent of the time.

That’s the standard average on denials for immigrants seeking asylum.

Recent data shows the changing face of immigration–more than half of immigrants coming to the United States are women. New Media America examines the ways in which these immigrants integrate themselves into U.S. society.

A proposed California measure (California Taxpayer Protection Act 2010) seeks to end state benefits for undocumented immigrants and their children, including their U.S. citizen children. Given that California can pass something as outrageous as Prop 8, there is a pressing need to organize against this immigrant scapegoating and illegal measure if it makes it on the 2010 ballot.

In Massachusetts, even legal immigrants are being kicked off the healthcare rolls under the pretext that it saves the state money. But the IPC just wrote a great piece on why including immigrants in any healthcare reform makes economic sense:

When health care costs are distributed across a broader pool of people, the overall costs for everyone goes down. By including immigrants, who are generally younger and healthier than U.S. citizens, we can lower overall costs because immigrants will pay in, take less out, and receive less-expensive preventive care.  Refusing to accept people who want to pay into the system doesn’t make sense. Immigrants are the not the cause of the health care crisis, but they can be part of the solution.

Looking around the world, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva granted Brazil’s roughly 200,000 undocumented immigrants amnesty. Italy also seems to be moving forward with granting an amnesty to ‘illegal’ migrant workers but has implemented greater crackdowns. Canada is taking steps back from NAFTA agreement and requiring Mexicans show visas upon entry. Speaking of NAFTA–the number 1 cause for ‘illegal immigration’ from Mexico–we can be sure that it won’t be addressed in any CIR package.