New Sanctuary Post

[Manuel Guzmán]

Vargas Story Built on Foundation of DREAMs

Earlier this week, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas announced to the world that he is an undocumented immigrant.

The full article is worth a read as it tells his story in a way that captures the complexity of the brokenness of the immigration system.  It's honest in describing his struggle to understand why identity is so tied to citizenship by mainstream thinking (it shouldn't be) as well as the help he's received from mentors to maintain his secret.  Vargas then channels all of it to pushing the political debate to a more sane and just conversation.

But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a  different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being  found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me,  with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox  rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don't ask  about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know  are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of  21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an  interest in my future and took risks for me.

Last year I read about four students who walked from Miami to Washington  to lobby for the Dream Act, a nearly decade-old immigration bill that  would provide a path to legal permanent residency for young people who  have been educated in this country. At the risk of deportation - the  Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two  years - they are speaking out. Their courage has inspired me.

NYTimes.com

The students mentioned were the walkers involved with the Trail of Dreams project:  Felipe Matos, Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa and Juan Rodriguez.  They, along with countless other DREAMers across the country, have spent the past few years dragging the political establishment kicking and screaming toward justice for migrant youth through passage of the D.R.E.A.M. Act, which stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors.

Watching and supporting the DREAMers in action has been a personal education for me as a migrant/human rights advocate because it has taught me the humbling lesson of privilege that I possess as a U.S.-born citizen.

continued at the link below:
http://promigrant.org/diary/1268/vargas-story-built-on-foundation-of-dreams






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Man Eegee's Latino Político:  http://www.latinopolitico.net
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ManEegee
The Sanctuary:  http://www.promigrant.org