Califas DREAMers Speak Out

The Los Angeles Times ran an amazing piece over the weekend about courageous college students in California who are standing up and telling the world they need the DREAM Act, despite the obvious dangers posed by being deported. Now, I’m a big baby when it comes to crying, I cry all the time in stupid movies (like even cartoons or Katherine Heigel movies) but reading this story brought me to tears.

There’s 21 year-old David Cho, the UCLA drum major, who didn’t know he didn’t have papers until he was applying to college. His father told them they came here from South Korea and their visas were denied. “I grew up here, worked hard, got into UCLA. And there I was staring at this letter telling me to go ‘home,’ when this is home. My whole world flipped upside down,” he told The Times.

There’s Pedro Ramirez, Cal State University-Fresno student body president who has no papers. María Duque, 19, came here as a child from Ecuador; she has no papers but ran for student body president at Fullerton College with that as part of her platform. She told The Times, “Speaking out and not being afraid is the only way of bringing change and a better life for my family, myself and all the others like me.”

There’s lots more at the link, but the point of the story is that I probably grew up with kids who would benefit from the DREAM Act. So did you. And you know what? So did most people that you know. The DREAM Act isn’t simply about immigration, it’s about our future as a country, it’s about maintaining the legend of America as a Land of Opportunity. If it’s not a land of opportunity for people who grew up here, worked hard, studied, got educated and want to contribute to this country, then who is it for?

Please call, email, write, Facebook, Twitter, psychically message your federal representatives to pass the DREAM Act now!