DREAM Act Letter in Response to CIYJA actions

After CIYJAs actions, several of us decided that our voice needed to be heard. Below is a letter that we have put together and hope to send this out to senators, representatives and media.


To our Senators, Representatives, and the media,

This is a response to the events that took place on September 18, 2017 in San Francisco, CA. where a group of activists interrupted Congresswoman Pelosi’s Press Conference regarding DACA. We strongly condemn these tactics and they do not represent the Dreamer movement.

Congresswoman Pelosi is one of the many US Senators and Congressmen that are fighting for a permanent solution to the Dreamer dilemma, the DREAM Act.

Several activist groups have taken a position of “11 million or nothing” or “Clean DREAM Act or nothing” which quite frankly is shortsighted and naïve. We understand the anger, uncertainty and fear that the cancellation of DACA has sparked within us, but we must channel that energy to get support, not interrupt or yell nonsense at our allies.

In a perfect world, Congress would come together and pass comprehensive immigration reform that would overhaul the many flaws in our immigration system and fix the status of our undocumented population.

Unfortunately, the current political climate is not ideal to tackle everything at once. Comprehensive immigration reform proposals have failed in the past because both parties don’t trust each other. Many in the Republicans Party will not allow any legalization. They believe our unsecured border does not guarantee that people will not be able to come here unlawfully, while many in the Democratic Party will not sign off on anything that creates a deportation force.

Standalone options to help Dreamers have not fared any better. The failure to pass the original DREAM Act 16 years ago and most recent bills can be attributed to the same stalemate. President Obama saw the situation as an opportunity to institute DACA, give the Dreamers hope and force politicians to do something in the future. That future is now.

DACA currently covers 800,000 young Dreamers. The program has provided us with the opportunity to obtain jobs, attend school and to pursue careers that have a positive impact in American society. DACA does not offer welfare, freebies or a path to citizenship.

At the moment, we don’t know the details in the border security package about to be introduced in Congress. However, we strongly support legislation that offers the Dream Act and secures the border in a smart manner. We understand the amount of suffering that cartel border crime creates in both the United States and Mexico. To be clear, we support border security and not interior enforcement. We do not support a deportation force that will rip apart our families and will create suffering in the immigrant community.

DACA recipients and immigrant youth are witnesses of the hard work and sacrifices that our parents have made. However, we are not sellouts by endorsing border security, nor are we advocating for anyone in the immigrant community to be deported. We believe that we will be in a much better position to help our parents if we obtain legal status and eventual citizenship.

We strongly encourage other dreamer groups to be respectful. We are now standing in front of the greatest opportunity to kick start immigration reform in three decades. A Dream Act and border security deal is without a doubt a small but smart step to break the immigration reform stalemate.

Dreamers are extremely thankful for the opportunities that this beautiful country has given us. We look forward to continue to contribute to this amazing society.


God bless the United States of America,

- The Dreamers

The Dream Act Portal currently has 82,180 members throughout the United States.

Please leave feedback and any suggestions regarding edits that need to be made. We need as much input as possible

Bravo. Love seeing these initiatives showcasing our views straight from DAP. ������

I love this! Also not sure if you guys have heard of David Dobrik, but he's one of the most famous Dreamers currently out there, he might be able to help us spread the word.

https://twitter.com/DavidDobrik

Also, we can try to contact many of the online publications like Huffpost, Mother jones, Politco, maybe even the NYTimes as an opEd article if you guys agree.

Love this! Thank you for doing this.

Could we post this on DAP's landing page: dreamact.info and also add a link to it on our twitter account?

This is great idea. I think we should change two things tho...

Instead of saying that most dreamers don't agree with them, I think we should make it clear that the protesters don't represent Dreamers and we don't condone their tactics:

We strongly condemn these tacticts and they do not represent the Dreamer movement.

I don't think it's smart to label anyone as enemies when we are trying to garner support. It will look better if we remove it:

We strongly encourage other dreamer groups to be respectful of our allies and our enemies.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will definitely edit the letter when I get home. Please keep the edits and suggestions coming.

I updated the post with the suggestions AJinCT mentioned.

Thank you guys for all the suggestions and feel free to add more!

EDIT: As magdation1 and zara12 mentioned, once we have an ideal final version of the letter we can start sharing!

Standalone options to help Dreamers have not fared any better.

No "i"

Thanks

Fixed!