Volunteers gather signatures to repeal DREAM Act Cali

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/01/04/v...eal-dream-act/
Volunteers gather signatures to repeal DREAM Act


By Damian Ortellado | Staff
[email protected]
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 11:00 pm



Individuals working to overturn the California DREAM Act are scrambling to count thousands of petitions by midnight Thursday as the deadline to acquire the signatures necessary to put a repeal of the act on the state ballot fast approaches.

Volunteers at Stop AB 131, a grassroots organization supporting a referendum to repeal the act — an effort spearheaded by state Assembly Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks — must gather 520,000 signatures by Jan. 6 in order to place the referendum on the ballot this November.

Debbie Dobbins, a volunteer at Stop AB 131, said she was confident that the volunteers will meet and exceed the signature quota, aiming to get about 750,000 signatures by the deadline. She said it is typical to aim for a higher amount of signatures than the number required, as counties will sometimes deem petitions invalid upon auditing them.

“It’s kind of like tallying ballots for an election,” she said. “They’re coming in boxes and boxes and boxes.”

Dobbins said people were driving from all around the state to submit their petitions by the deadline. Once the volunteers deem they have enough signatures, she said, they will deliver the petitions to counties to audit them. The counties will then notify the secretary of state, who will help determine whether the referendum will appear on the ballot.

Donnelly said support for the referendum was widespread throughout the state.

“We have high school students coming about against this now,” he said. “Even immigrants are absolutely outraged, they’re off-the-charts upset.”

Assemblymember Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who wrote the act, said in an October statement that repealing the act would hurt California in the long run.

“Our economy is in need of an educated workforce, and the bill will help us achieve that,” Cedillo said in the statement. “Assemblymember Donnelly’s proposal takes us in the opposite direction.”

But a recent University of Southern California poll found that a majority of registered voters in California oppose the act, and Dobbins said events to get signatures for the referendum were attracting people and volunteers from around the state interested in helping to overturn the legislation.

“There have been gatherings at Walmarts, malls, wherever,” she said. “It’s been very encouraging to see people donate their time that way.”

Damian Ortellado is the lead higher education reporter.

then we need to prepare the volunteers overturn the repeal DREAM Act Cali. keep em coming. let's see who wins. we got nothing to lose.

Takes a special kind of heartless bastard to try to keep someone else from going to college.

Fortunately, majority of them are just some stupid Americans who complain about everything. Yet they have all the time in the world to make sure that those who want to succeed fail ( just like them )

Don't underestimate stupid people in large groups. << PERFECT

Well I was expecting this... even if it was not repealed it will be challenging to get the grant anyway since everyone's so hard keeping their things...

Oh what's next, are they going to try to get undocumented kids to stop attending public schools?

^^

Already does. Alabama found a loophole.

^Courts put it on hold, thankfully.

California Prop 187.

This thing happened in 1994- two years before we arrived in this country, and my parents had no damn idea. Their ignorance disgusts me sometimes