There is a new civil rights movement underway in the United States and it is being led by undocumented immigrant youth, who this week staged a major sit-in in Washington, D.C. that resulted in 21 of them being arrested.
They are risking everything, even possible deportation, to call attention to the need to pass the DREAM Act, legislation that would create a pathway to legalization for undocumented youth who complete two years of college or military service.
Among those arrested were eight students from Chicago, including Tania Unzueta, who had participated in a sit-in at Sen. John McCain's Tucson office in May. At that time she was not arrested but this time she was at the national offices of McCain.
The young people wearing caps and gowns were charged with disorderly conduct or unlawful entry. Thus far none of them have been detained by immigration officials and they have to return to Washington, D.C., for court dates in August.
"What we're trying to prove is that we're not foreign citizens even though our papers say we are. We're trying to prove that this country is our home," Unzueta, 26, told me in a phone interview from Chicago.
Unzueta was going to speak this week at the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas, which I also am attending. But she was chained and held in custody almost 24 hours and was not able to travel here.
Several other youth leaders pushing for the DREAM Act spoke on a panel at Netroots Nation Thursday afternoon.
Yahaira Carrillo, 25, came to the United States from Mexico when she was 7 years old. She grew up in Missouri.
Carrillo was arrested in the sit-in at McCain's office in May and said that undocumented youth cannot wait any longer for Congress to act. She has been waiting 10 years for the DREAM Act and said these acts of civil disobedience are needed to pressure politicians.
"People call it being naive or foolish, we call it fighting for our own lives," Carrillo said at the panel.
Also on the panel was Lizbeth Mateo, 25, who came to the United States from Mexico when she was 14. Like many immigrant youth, she became the first in her family to graduate from high school and also graduate from college.
She said the students have met with senators and other political leaders to persuade them to support the DREAM Act. But she said the civil disobedience is needed now to move the legislation this year. She was arrested at the sit-in in McCain's Tucson office.
"Enough is enough. (Democrats and Republicans) can't be blaming each other. They have to take action," she said.
A spokesman for Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin's office said the sit-in of the students "crossed the line from passionate advocacy to inappropriate behavior."
Durbin has been a champion of the DREAM Act. "Sen. Durbin believes that we will win this fight on the merits, not through public demonstrations or publicity stunts," a spokesman said, according to The Washington Scene.
They've asked Sen. Harry Reid to move the legislation forward and he has said he would only do so if other advocacy groups supporting comprehensive immigration reform support passing the DREAM Act first.
There is division over whether to move the DREAM Act first or push for overall reform. The students are tired of waiting and that is why they have stepped up the civil disobedience.
Unzueta has been speaking out for undocumented youth for the last 10 years and I first interviewed her when she was 16 years old when I worked for the Chicago Tribune.
I only note that it has been 10 years that she's been calling for change. Some of these youth were brought here by their parents at the ages of 4, 5 or 6 and they have waited their entire lives to become legal residents. They have been educated, acculturated and become part of this country. To keep them as second-class citizens only hurts them and us as we are denied the full contributions they can make to the United States.
(For full disclosure, I am attending the Netroots Nation conference through a scholarship funded by Democracy for America and the National Council of La Raza.)
Filed under: education, Hispanic, immigration, politics
Tags: civil disobedience, conference, Dream Act, Lizbeth Mateo, Netroots Nation, politics, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. John McCain, sit-ins, Tania Unzueta, Yahaira Cariilo
