DETAINED IN ARIZONA: FOUR STUDENT IMMIGRANT LEADERS

DETAINED in Arizona: Four Student Immigrant Leaders

Peacefully Resist Current Immigration Law, Urge Passage of DREAM Act

As of 6:00 PM PST today, Mohammad, Yahaira, Lizbeth and Raul, an Arizona Resident, have been arrested and detained after their day long sit-in at Senator John McCains Office in Tucson, AZ. Tania, who was not detained, has been designated as spokesperson and will be relating the experiences/thoughts of the group during the action.

Senator John McCain offered the students a meeting in order to discuss the Dream Act, however, the students recognize that this is insufficient and that immediate action is needed to pass the DREAM Act!

Tucson, Arizona. May 17th, on the anniversary of landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education, Arizona law enforcement arrested four undocumented leaders of the immigrant student movement in addition to Arizona native Raul Alcaraz. Lizbeth Mateo of Los Angeles, California; Tania Unzueta of Chicago, Illinois; Mohammad Abdollahi of Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Yahaira Carrillo of Kansas City, Missouri; were detained Tucson, Arizona, after staging a sit-in at Senator John McCains office. With this challenge to local and federal law, these youth hope to highlight the urgency of legislative action in Congress, and catalyze mass grassroots mobilization to pass the DREAM Act before June 15th.

These four leaders are risking deportation from the United States in the hope that this action will make a significant contribution to the fight for immigrant rights. In response to the onslaught of enforcement-based immigration law, they staged a sit-in at Senator McCains office, and urged congressional leadership to champion the DREAM Act and the values it represents: hard work, education, and fairness.

Lizbeth, 25, an organizer with DREAM Team Los Angeles, states, There are already ten other states across the country considering immigration legislation similar to Arizonas: legislation that is anti-family, anti-democratic, and anti-freedom. Police states and enforcement are quickly becoming the standard, and we are running out of time. We are going to pass the DREAM Act because it is based on freedom and equality.

Mohammad, 24, co-founder of DreamActivist.Org, a resource web portal for undocumented students, said in a statement: Never in our history has it been American to deny people their civil rights. We have decided to peacefully resist to encourage our leaders to pass the DREAM Act and create a new standard for immigration reform based on education, hard work, equality, and fairness.

At least 65,000 undocumented immigrant youth graduate from high schools every year, and many of them struggle to attend institutes of higher education and the military. The DREAM Act will grant youth who traveled to the United States before the age of 16 a path to citizenship contingent on continuous presence in the country, good behavior, and the attainment of at least a two-year university degree or a two-year commitment to the armed forces.

During the civil rights movement, African-American students were arrested for sitting down at lunch counters. Weve been detained for standing on a sidewalk. We cant wait any longer for the DREAM Act to pass, said Tania, 26, co-founder of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and immigrant rights organizer in Chicago.

All four are leaders in their own communities and have dedicated years to work for immigrant rights, legalization for undocumented immigrants, and the DREAM Act. Dr. King spoke of a dream of equality overcoming fear. Well, the fierce urgency of our dreams has overcome any kind of fear we may have had before. We cant wait, concluded Yahaira, 25, a founder of the Kansas Missouri Dream Alliance.

National Press Conference

Tuesday May 18th
9 AM Pacific, 11 PM Central, Noon EST

In front of Senator John McCains office:

407 West Congress Street
Tucson, AZ 85701

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• undocumented
• dream act
• civil rights
• arizona
• students
• education

[besamemucho5]

this country has gone stupid, it used to be that coming to this country was a good idea, people had more respect for the law, how did anybody got the idea that just because they were brought illegally to this country now this country owes them an education, and what some people don't want to see is that most of these "poor young innocent people" come principally from one country and one country alone, and what happens to illegals in that country? they get killed, beheaded...that is what they do.

[streetfight2020]

@besamemucho5 no all r criminals

[Ecua37JJJ]

1:50

[hectorfosho22]

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

-JFK

[jvarela965]

The problem lies in the millions like her around the world. Nice people, but we just cannot absorb them all. I think things will work out in the end for the Dream Act students.

[ZhuSeth]

they're immigrants, yes.

But they're not legal immigrants.

[9foxgrl15]

@hardcorenyc name calling is the resort to someone who has no real valid arguement

[Oktoberfesting]

C SPAN “Black Republican Forum” Session 2 (begin at 11:30) Allen West said one of the 1986 caveats was to secure our borders and enforcement our laws, but haven’t happened. (We’re still talking about new amnesty like DREAM Act.) We can’t allow local cities to make sanctuary cities policies, because they will bring our inner city turf wars to epic proportions by bringing in the drug cartel and Columbian gangs. (Mexican Gangs don’t recognize our borders established by the Treaty of Guadalupe)

[Oktoberfesting]

In November 2010, the unemployment rate was 9.8% with 15.1 million unemployed. (15.1 million/9.8%) = 154 million are able to work in the workforce. 11,941,812 (or 11.9 million) skilled jobs provided to illegal immigrants. GOOGLE “illegal immigration counters”, the 15.1 million unemployed could take the 11.9 million available jobs. The unemployment rate could be reduced to 2.1% {{15.1-11.9)/154}

.

.

Allen West 2012

[Spookydsm]

I guess people already forgot when their family migrated from their Origins. Most people forgot where they came from. People that migrated when this country was discovered were Europes rejects. Hookers, criminals, religious prosecution. Some people haven't been here for more than two generations, now you feel American? You are as immigrant as when your hooker ass grandma migrated here so she could open her own hooker post in the new world. Therefore giving birth to a bunch r ignorant racistfuck