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Dear educators and allies,
Thank you for being incredible advocates for undocumented youth. As you may know, the NYS Youth Leadership Council is an undocumented youth-led organization built to fight for the rights of undocumented youth. For the past three years, we have been working on advocating for the New York Dream, a bill that would allow undocumented youth to access financial aid for their college education. One of the key people who can make the New York DREAM Act a reality is Governor Cuomo, who can include the bill in his executive budget which is being finalized next week. Right now, it seems that he is not convinced that including the NY DREAM Act in his budget is the right thing to do, so we need to be united and strong in our demand that he do the right thing and allow young, promising people in NY State to access financial aid.
We believe that the best way to get his attention is by holding a human chain around his midtown New York City office (633 Third Avenue) this Tuesday, March 19, 2013 from 1:00-1:30pm. A human chain is a safe and effective way to show Governor Cuomo that we are united as advocates who believe that all people, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to go to college and realize their full potential. We know that this is very short notice, however there is still time to act to convince Governor Cuomo that this is the right thing to do. Passing the NY DREAM Act would change the lives of thousands of young, promising people in NY who dream of going to college. Please forward this on to your networks.
Sincerely,
Dominique Hernandez
Field Organizer
P | 646-484-8537
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From Dominique Hernandez <dominique@nysylc.org> at YLC - please pass along to your networks and be in touch with her if you can hard confirm.
Youth activists infiltrate Florida immigrant detention center, find people wrongly held
July 31, 2012
Activists with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance intentionally placed themselves in deportation proceedings in order to enter the Broward Transitional Center, an immigration detention facility in Florida — and they say they found scores of detainees who shouldn’t be there under the Obama administration’s revised deportation policies.
Beginning in June 2011, the administration ordered broader discretion in the prosecution of undocumented immigrants, with consideration to be given to age, how the person entered the country and his or her education, military service, criminal history and family circumstances. Then in June of this year, the administration extended the policy to cover undocumented youth brought to the U.S. as children.
But it appears that those policies are not being applied on the ground. Over the course of the past month, seven NIYA activists who themselves are undocumented immigrants entered the facility (in photo) in an effort to organize detainees. They report finding people who should not or need not be there, including:
* people with pending applications for U visas, which give temporary legal status and work eligibility to victims of certain crimes including rape, torture, domestic violence and human trafficking;
* more than a dozen youth eligible for conditional permanent residency under the DREAM Act, federal legislation that has not yet been approved by Congress but which sets out criteria that the Obama administration says it is using in making deportation decisions;
* several cases of immigrants in need of immediate medical care, including one person with a blood clot in his leg and another with a bullet in the spine; and
* more than 60 people with no criminal record or prior deportations who are eligible for discretion under the administration’s policy.
Many of the detainees have been at the facility for at least five months, with some there for as long as 20 months, the activists report. Among those involved in the undercover investigation was Viridiana Martinez, an immigration-reform activist with the North Carolina Dream Team.
A facility specifically for low-priority immigrant detainees, Broward Transitional Center is operated by the GEO Group, a private correctional services company based in Boca Raton, Fla. Formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., GEO Group receives an average of about $166 a day in tax dollars for each detainee at the Broward facility, which has a capacity of 600.
NIYA publicized the findings of its undercover investigation in a July 30 press conference held outside the office of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). The group is petitioning Homeland Security officials to undertake a full and immediate review of all detainees at the facility.
“NIYA will no longer allow GEO Group or other private prison corporations to profit off of shattered families and broken lives,” the group said in a statement. “We will continue to organize inside their jails until the president lives up to his promises.”
Diana Martinez, 18, an undocumented student, was one of 12 arrested after refusing to leave their sit-in in the Hart Senate Office building.
An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year.
Two student activists stage sit-in protest, hunger strike at Obama HQ
June 7, 2012
“The National Immigrant Youth Alliance is calling for the President to issue an executive order to stop the deportation of DREAM Act-eligible youth. We simply cannot continue to allow our lives to be held up by petty partisanship and congressional gridlock.
We need the strength of an executive order to stop our deportations. Prosecutorial discretion has not stopped them; NIYA has continued to fight tooth and nail for many young people who meet the criteria to have their cases administratively closed under the June 17 Morton Memo. At present, NIYA is fighting over 30 active cases that meet these criteria.
We hope that our call for an executive order has not fallen on deaf ears in the White House. If the Administration does not issue an executive order, we will be forced to respond with direct action in the coming days. The administration, by not taking action by means fully within its power, keeps our lives on hold. That position, for us, is no longer acceptable.”
Undocumented youth Javier & Veronica have staged a sit-in at the Obama for America headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Police have refused to arrest them & the staff has ignored them sitting in the office. They began a hunger strike that will last until the executive order to stop deportations is issued.
