Diabetic DREAMer On Day 23 Of Hunger Strike

Felipe Vargas, 33, is on day 23 of a hunger strike. He’s diabetic and he supports the DREAM Act. Vargas was one of 16 DREAM Act protestors arrested at the San Antonio, Texas office of Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison earlier this week after city officials called the police.

Vargas is older than the University of Texas at San Antonio students who are also on hunger strike because he’s nearly finished with a Ph.D. in education from Indiana University. Originally from San Antonio, Vargas tells NewsTaco that, despite his diabetic condition, he has decided to go on hunger strike to help pass the DREAM Act. Although he was born here, Vargas maintains that we are all disenfranchised when some of us are.

I think it’s important to point out here that big words, like “amnesty,” are being thrown around in this debate when the fact of the matter is that the DREAM Act affects all of us. We all know someone who could probably benefit from this law — there are quite literally millions of them — but perhaps we just don’t know that we know.

Vargas speaks to this point, noting that after a few days of not eating you don’t really notice anymore. What he does still notice, however, is that Sen. Hutchison has yet to contact the DREAMers and have a real conversation about the bill’s passage. But Vargas is hopeful. After all, when he and the others were arrested, they were surrounded by community members, mothers, mentors, educators who supported them. This law, this struggle, is a win-win for everybody he says.

Let’s hope Congress can find a way to agree.