The Dream Letters Campaign Kicks Off
Our friends at Citizen Orange have launched the “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama,” inspired by SLDN’s Stories from the Frontlines campaign. Citizen Orange is working to pass the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, providing undocumented youth a path to citizenship through education or military service. Every Monday and Wednesday they will publish letters from undocumented youth talking about their stories, followed by Friday updates on the Act’s progress. Today’s inaugural letter tells the story of Mohammad Abdollahi, a young man unable to go to college in the United States, and facing deportation to Iran, where he may be tortured or executed.
“My name is Mohammad Abdollahi and I am an undocumented immigrant. Two months ago I made history. On May 17, according to the New York Times, I become one of the first undocumented students, along with two others, to ‘have directly risked deportation in an effort to prompt Congress to take up [the DREAM Act].’ Risking deportation was no small act, for me. Not only did I risk being forcibly removed from United States, the only country I know as my home, to Iran, where I don't know the culture or the language. I also happen to be gay. In Iran, people like me are tortured and executed. I am still at risk of deportation and execution, right now, and I will continue to be at risk until the DREAM Act is passed. “
Read the rest of his story HERE and make sure to check their blog every Monday and Wednesday for more letters.
07-19-10 By Daniel Hennessey, Communications Intern |
2 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.kyledeb on July 21, 2010 at 12.06 pm
Thanks for the support! John Desselle’s comment is indicative of the sort of nativism we have to deal with in the migrant youth movement so all support is greatly appreciated. No human being is illegal, and these youth are about as American as they come.
Shipping these talented away would be the world’s gain and the U.S.‘s loss.
John Desselle on July 19, 2010 at 12.42 pm
I’m sorry, but undocumented immigrant = illegal immigrant in my mind. So all of these undocumented immigrant people need to be taken back to where they came from. And, if they were born here in the US from two undocumented immigrants, then ship the child, along with parents, back to parents country.