The Great March of Westchester - La Gran Marcha de Westchester

Media Coverage from Saturday's Great March of Westchester

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Amigos, Friends, and Supporters!

WE DID IT!!!!!
June 6th, 2009, we took the 1st step towards our push for a comprehensive immigration reform, and the DREAM Act!

I would like to thank everyone for their time and dedication to this cause.
Like I stated previously this is ONLY the 1st step, and I will be contacting all of you later this week to discuss our 2nd step

In terms of the media, we appeared on the Front Page of El Diario, Univision was there but I wasn't able to see anything on TV. Also The journal news wrote 2 stories that appeared on Saturday and Sunday. El Sol Newspaper, La Voz, and News 12. Mega TV has also contacted us to do a story on this issue.

GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!
(SEE LINKS BELOW)

http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/principal/2009/6/7/estudiantes-marchan-por-un-sue-128762-1.html

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906060322

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090607/NEWS02/906070340&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:753640c1-74e5-458e-a220-9e7011e846a8

http://www.news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=231107&position=2&news_type=news

SAT, June 6 >> The Great March of Westchester

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Download Flyer - PDF Format
Download Flyer - JPG Format

Visit our Facebook Page and tell your friends

Help promote the march in your high school, college or community organization!! Please widely post and distribute this flyer.

Please help us do wide outreach to students and parents and community members throughout Westchester County. Contact us to get more information and/or to request a speaker for your school of university, and to volunteer to coordinate participation from your town, school or community group.

Arturo Bravo
914-886-8435
abravo911 [at] optonline.net

Westchester Youth Organizes Support For Immigrants

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Westchester Youth Organizes Support For Immigrants
Friday, 05 June 2009

White Plains, NY - A Youth-led movement called the Westchester DREAM Act Task Force is organizing a large march and rally in the City of White Plains on Saturday, June 6th at 1pm.

The purpose is to highlight the challenges facing immigrant students and families seeking higher education in the United States and to pressure elected officials to sign on to the D.R.E.A.M. Act, and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

The D.R.E.A.M. Act is a piece of federal legislation that would allow immigrant students to stay in the United States to pursue higher education. Students who have attended elementary schools s here would be eligible to stay in the United States to pursue higher education. States would be able to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status for these students.

Both Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, along with Congressman Eliot Engel, have already signed onto the D.R.E.A.M. Act, and we are asking Congresswoman Nita Lowey and Congressman John Hall to follow suit.

As Senator Gillibrand put it “"America is the only home many of them know, yet they are being denied the opportunity to achieve their full potential. This legislation says that if they work hard and play by the rules, then they will have the opportunity to get a good education and earn their way to legal status."

The following groups have endorsed this action: Westchester DREAM Act Task Force, WESPAC Foundation, Westchester Chapter of the National Black Police Association, White Plains Youth Bureau, Centro Hispano, Westchester Hispano, Hudson Valley Community Coalition, We Are Workers Committee of Ossining.

Contact: Westchester DREAM Act Taskforce, www.WestchesterDream.org

Westchester County-Wide March for the American Dream Act

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:31:00 +0000

Dear Fellow Activists,

I am writing to inform you that I wish to organize a County wide March in support for the DREAM ACT. I wish to follow the event with meetings and conferences, throughout the weeks and months ahead. (This cannot be a one day event and then be forgotten.)

Thousands of our children, are being left in the shadows, and ignored. IT IS TIME WE STAND UP, ITS TIME WE LET OUR VOICES BE HEARD.My goal is to get as many community's, high schools and universities in the region to attend and participate.

I will be having several meetings in the planning process, but I need as much help as I can get.If you cannot attend but wish to help, please email me as there will be further meetings, and other ways in which you might be able to help.

THANK YOU AND PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.

Sincerely,

Arturo Bravo
914-886-8435
abravo911 [at] optonline.net

Whatever it Takes Video

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Whatever it Takes Video -- immigrant students talk about access to college
Watch on YouTube

From Strengthening Our Lives, a coalition of labor, community and faith-based groups in California

Put the Act in DREAM Act

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:25:00 +0000

Cross-posted blog post from Citizen Orange

Today Is The Day: Put The Act In DREAM Act

By kyledeb on March 26, 2009 1:40 PM Permalink Comments (2) TrackBacks (0)

I wasn't able to sleep much last night. I'm restless. I keep feeling like there's something more that I can do to help get the DREAM Act passed. My TV is running C-SPAN in the background so that I don't miss anything.Today is the day. Today could be the day that the hopes and dreams of hundreds of thousands of unauthorized migrant youth come true.

Dreamactivist.org has a post up with suggestion on what people can do. Through facebook, over 1,500 have pledged to call-in, today, and over 10,000 have been reached.Below are just some of the things you can do to voice your support for the DREAM Act, today, and I will write out the links so people can copy this and send them out to whomever they want:

1. CALL - The National Council of La Raza has a page to help you call your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.http://capwiz.com/nclr/callalert/index.tt?alertid=12988601

2. FAX - America's Voice has a page to help you fax your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/speakout/DaretoDream

3. EMAIL - Change.org has a page to help you email your congressional representatives in support of the DREAM Act.http://www.change.org/ideas/932/view_action/ask_your_congressperson_to_support_the_dream_act

4. PETITION - Dreamactivist.org has the official petition in support of the DREAM Act.http://dreamact2009.com/

5. TEXT - Text "Justice" ("Justicia" for Spanish) to 69866 to be the first to know when the DREAM Act is introduced. FIRM's Mobile Action Network is an excellent way to stay connected and have maximum impact at just the right moment. http://fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/action-join-the-fight-for-immigrant-rights/

I won't include this as an official action, but the last thing I'm going to be doing is praying. Never underestimate the power of sending out positive energy and praying that the universe moves towards justice. Feel free to include actions that I might have missed in the comments section.

If you want more background on the DREAM Act read the following two posts that I wrote on the subject: The Politics of the DREAM Act
and Pass the DREAM Act For Future Economic Prosperity

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:45:00 +0000

"Young Lives on Hold" -- New Report from College Board Makes Case for DREAM Act

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

College Board Policy Brief Supports Comprehensive Resolution to Plight of Undocumented Students

‘Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students’ — Why We Need the DREAM Act - 04/21/09
In Spanish - Press release in Spanish (.pdf/44K)

NEW YORK — More than 65,000 undocumented students who have lived in the U.S. for five years or more will graduate from high school this spring. For their native-born classmates, graduation represents a rite of passage into adulthood. For too many undocumented students, it’s a dead end. That is the urgent message in a compelling report released today by the College Board at a briefing on Capitol Hill.

In “Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students,” Roberto G. Gonzales, assistant professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington in Seattle, makes the case to Congress and the American people that the untenable status of these students is a humanitarian and civil rights issue, as well as an economic one, and debunks the myths that undocumented students limit opportunities for others.

The report contends that the initial investment in the K-12 education of these students, mandated by the Supreme Court in 1982, is lost if we continue to curb their ability to contribute to society after they graduate from high school. Without educating these students to their full potential, the report suggests, we are wasting their talent and imposing economic and emotional costs on undocumented students and on U.S. society as a whole.

Read rest of College Board announcement

Students seek immigration law change

noreply@blogger.com (Westchester DREAM Act Task Force) — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:13:00 +0000

Facing South: Holding out for the Dream: Students seek immigration law change

This month high-school students around the country will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. College weighs heavy on the minds of a lot of students these days, but for one group of immigrant students the decision to go to college is often not one they are able to even consider.

The debate around providing educational benefits for undocumented students -- particularly in regards to providing financial aid or in-state college tuition rates -- has been heating up over the past few months at both the state and federal level.

At the federal level, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or Dream Act, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on March 26, would allow states to charge the children of undocumented immigrants in-state tuition and provide a multi-step path to citizenship for these students. Advocates of the federal Dream Act are launching a new effort to pass the bill this year.

In order to receive the bill's benefits, undocumented students must have been in the country for five years, be 15 years old or younger at the time they entered the country and be of 'good moral character.' To gain permanent legal status in the country, the applicant must complete a two-year college or vocational school program, have two years toward a bachelor's or serve in the armed forces for at least two years. This month high-school students around the country will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. College weighs heavy on the minds of a lot of students these days, but for one group of immigrant students the decision to go to college is often not one they are able to even consider.

Read rest of article

The debate around providing educational benefits for undo"