A few weeks ago, I received a request from Kristina Rizga, the Executive Editor of Wiretap Magazine, inviting me to participate in a forum reflecting what lessons and opportunities the post- election environment has brought for youth organizers. The article was published in a youth-oriented issue of The Nation, and it included contributions from United We Dream, The Bus Federation, the Energy Action Coalition, and the League of Young Voters.

The “Obama Generation” has gone from a hope-driven election campaign to an accountability-oriented year of activism. But as I sat to write about how undocumented students have reacted to a year of delayed promises and congressional backlogs, I could not avoid thinking how much more our cause is affected by the weight that each day of delay carries in us. I hope you enjoy my submission, quoted below.

Thanks to Kristina and The Nation for giving us another opportunity to take the message of the DREAM Act Generation to a new audience.

THE STATE OF YOUTH ORGANIZING

When the Obama campaign inspired and mobilized a wave of new young voters, youth organizers across the country rejoiced. They anticipated increased funding from donors and foundations to help bring this growing voting bloc into policy debates and community organizing. They hoped for increased media coverage for issues ranging from college costs to green jobs to healthcare reform. Instead, youth organizers have often found themselves feeling as if they’re sitting on a bus that’s out of service. As markets crashed, already meager funding pools got even smaller. Most media outlets chose to spotlight the absence of youth at healthcare town halls, which were often staged at empty college campuses over the summer break, rather than the thousands of environmental and education activists who stormed Washington to support reductions of carbon emissions, creation of green jobs and the passage of the DREAM Act. And with a few exceptions, the Obama administration stopped talking to young people directly.

Despite these obstacles, young activists continued to organize. The Nation asked four leading youth organizers to suggest specific ways the Obama administration and the progressive movement could help them succeed in 2010 to mobilize the most diverse and socially progressive generation.

Matias Ramos, United We Dream

The DREAM Act–a bill in Congress that seeks to create an earned path to legal status for undocumented immigrant youth–failed to pass 377 days before Obama was elected. It was introduced again sixty-five days after his inauguration, and thousands of people like me–undocumented students–are still counting the days.

Our country is home to about 2.5 million undocumented youth. Only a fraction of them have an opportunity to enroll in college like I did. That’s a huge loss for our economy, because college graduates earn (and pay taxes on) twice as much income as those without high school diplomas. In 2006, five years after undocumented students were allowed to enter Texas colleges at in-state tuition rates, the state comptroller reported that undocumented workers produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received.

This year there is undeniable and growing energy within our movement, coming from immigrants and citizens alike. United We Dream, a youth-led immigrants’ rights network mobilizing support for the DREAM Act, was established to provide a united front made up of a few national organizations, dozens of student groups and individual students hungry for change. In June hundreds of DREAMers went to Washington for a symbolic “DREAM Act Graduation.” Thousands more participated in more than 120 local actions in twenty-eight states celebrating back-to-school day in September.

We need progressives of all ages and backgrounds to join in this fight. Establishing a progressive immigration policy should be a goal not only for the Latino or Asian-American communities but for all those concerned with social justice and fairness. DREAMers across the country are saying the time is now. We know–we’ve been counting the days.

Most of the issue’s articles are available here. Rizga’s is only available to subscribers, but I strongly recommend the article highlighting the history of the United States Students Association, one of our strongest allies in the fight for the DREAM Act.

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