Yup. That’s right. Now a couple of more states to go.
First, I was illegal
An identity given to me
By a socio-political complex
Hell-bent on forcing me to
Reject my notion of self.
Illegal is illegal, they said –
More than my age
More than my gender/sexuality
More than my humanity –
I was now this thing, an ‘it’
No longer a human being.
I stay silent.
Then, I was a dreamer
An identity that built
A collective consciousness
And finally made me
Part of an ‘us.’
I was put on a giddy high
Of dreams deferred
Of “I have a dream”
Of a rainbow of caps & gowns.
For we are the dreamers,
The mighty, mighty dreamers.
Never mind those whose dreams
We are not acknowledging because
They do not match our own.
Never mind those who will not make it
Far enough to don a cap and gown.
Suddenly, a proclamation:
“But we are all dreamers,”
documented or undocumented.
I stay silent.
Then I was undocumented
An identity borne of the realization
That I am more than just legislation,
That this new piece of paper
Would not magically heal the wounds of the struggle
Wrought by lack of papers to begin with,
That to drive home the assertion that
No human being is illegal,
We must first stop referring to ourselves as such,
That dreams without concrete, effective action and empowerment
Would not serve my growth.
Again, it was said:
“But we are all undocumented,”
united in this struggle.
I stay silent.
Then I became unafraid,
Unashamed,
Unapologetic –
About my immigration status,
About refusing to bow down
to rhetoric & political punting,
about choosing a movement over a campaign,
about acknowledging the full, wide, deep and beautiful
spectrum of the undocumented experience,
and about reclaiming my voice and
demanding that it be the only vehicle
through which my story is told.
This time though,
We were not “all unafraid.”
Instead, I was being divisive,
I was being stubborn,
I was selfish, petulant,
I was Radical.
Once again labeled an “other”
In the delicate world of “Us”
I called home.
I stay silent.
At the end of the day,
Though our many struggles and experiences intersect,
And you say we are all dreamers,
My dream of existence in a society
That still views me as illegal, as an it,
Has yet to come true.
You say we are all undocumented,
Yet I am the one who has to justify,
In a court of law,
The right to call the dirt I walk on
And the air I breathe
My Home.
Can I not claim an identity of my own,
Without it being co-opted, rebranded,
Misinterpreted and censored
by those who are not affected?
Those who support, understand,
Sympathize, fight alongside,
But who are not undocumented?
If you truly support me,
You would understand
the importance of my words,
for they are one of the few weapons I own.
If you truly support me,
You would understand,
The necessity,
In a world in which
I am constantly told I have no rights,
To have an identity to call my own.
If you truly support me,
You would understand that
My struggle is not about you.
If you truly support me,
You would understand that
We both lose
When I remain silent.
<!—EndFragment—>
Meanwhile… in San Bernardino, California.
Students block a street in order tu push back against 287g across the state. All the students in this photo are undocumented, have come out of the shadows, and have been blocking an intersection in order to stand up to poisonous policies that affect their communities. Because of their status, they could face deportation once they are arrested.
For more info on this action please follow @DreamIsComing_ on twitter and check back on www.dreamactivist.org and www.thedreamiscoming.com
Among the participants is Ju Hong, a student Senator from UC berkley, and Alma de Jesus a mother of two.
City Council wants to end a three-year-old information-sharing agreement with federal immigration authorities, saying cooperation meant to root out criminals is creating fear of police among undocumented but otherwise law-abiding immigrants.
well technically today,
I’ll be speaking at a press conference for the introduction of the PA DREAM Act by State Representative Tony Payton.
Nervous? Heck yes. I’m even more nervous because I still have to piece together my speech and practice it. And it’s almost 2 AM already. Anyway,
The PA DREAM Act would allow me, and other undocumented youth, to pay in-state tuition. There are requirements, which include:
I’m not exactly sure how I’ll be able to file an application to become a permanent resident since the bill tackles in-state tuition for undocumented students….
Anyway, this is the best we have right now. This is one step closer to education reform. And to justice for undocumented youth everywhere.
Here is the official facebook event page
It will be introduced tomorrow at 10 AM at the Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School.
I’m being a pessimist about it, but inside me, there’s still this flickering light of hope. Wish us the best.
#dream act #pa dream act #pennsylvania dream act #pennsylvania #press conference #undocumentedI’m so tired of waiting. Waiting for change. Waiting for my situation to get better. To tell you the truth, I wanted to give up. Give up fighting, give up standing up for myself and for others like me. I stopped caring. I blocked it out. I kept silent about my status. I came out a long time ago, but I came out to everyone but my friends.
How could I just give up on everything I’ve been fighting for? Why have I not told my friends? They wouldn’t understand. They’re all privileged. And they don’t know what it feels like to be undocumented in a country called home.
I don’t know what was going through my mind at the moment I decided to stop caring. It was all a blur. I got tired. And impatient. And mad. I said, “screw this!”
But now I’ve taken back those feelings, the tired, the impatience, the madness, and re-channeled that energy to something I had been so passionate about before: the DREAM Act, Immigrant Rights, and just basic human decency.
I decided to not keep myself hidden anymore. Stop hiding and keeping such a secret from my friends. If they were truly my friends, they’d support me. If they don’t, then I know who to let go of in my life.
I decided to write. Write about my parents’ sacrifice. A sacrifice so their daughter could have a future they could not have. A sacrifice so their daughter had the opportunity to succeed. A sacrifice, all for their daughter. It won’t be too long, yet not too short. It will be my coming out story to my friends. I don’t know what their response will be. I just hope they can support me. If some don’t, then…I don’t care, cus there are many other great people that do.
Now I will open up Word and start typing away as I write, My Parents’ Sacrifice.
Hope’s Testimony: A Mother’s Fight to Save Her Son’s Life
Sign petition to stop deportation and possible death of Mathe-Karekezi Family: http://bit.ly/mathefam”
sorry I haven’t posted about the turnout of the press conference about 2 weeks ago. I was gone for a week and was busy.
Anyway,
We got some coverage. This was the AP coverage:
yes, I changed the title on this link to undocumented. The article originally said “undocumented” but changed it to “illegal.” As Jerry Zurek said, “Hey,@APStylebook, acts may be illegal, but people are not illegal. We are all human beings with the same human rights.”
What really pissed me off too was this quote they put in there:
“All Pennsylvania parents and college students should be outraged that Rep. Payton has introduced legislation to make it more affordable for illegal aliens to attend college,” Metcalfe, R-Butler, said in a statement Monday.
Here’s more coverage:
& some more:
Today the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement held a hearing on “H.R. 1932, Keep Our Communities Safe Act of 2011,” new legislation that would result in incarcerating even more people like Reverend Soeoth who pose no danger to anyone.
The purpose of immigration detention is to ensure that immigrants appear for their deportation hearings and, if they lose, their removal. Immigration detention is not meant to punish people for crimes. Indeed, more than halfof the people in immigration detention have never been convicted of a crime at all. But the sad reality is DHS detains more than 33,000 people on any given day, for months years. Thousands of these people present no flight risk danger to the community, whose deportation is unlikely…
This detention comes at great cost to taxpayers: $45,000 per detainee per year, for a total of $1.9 billion in this fiscal year, with $100 million more than that requested in the fiscal year 2012 budget. H.R. 1932 proposes to detain even more people unnecessarily.
H.R. 1932 makes a bad situation worse by making two crucial changes to current immigration law: First, it authorizes DHS to detain individuals like Reverend Soeoth for months years while they await the outcome of their cases, and simultaneously denies them a prompt bond hearing before an immigration judge. Second, H.R. 1932 authorizes DHS to indefinitely lock up people who have lost their cases — potentially for a lifetime — even in cases when the government cannot deport them (e.g. because the person is stateless, because we have no repatriation agreement with the home country).
I was just thinking to myself, “boy, our prisons aren’t crowded enough! I sure wish the government would imprison more nonviolent offenders”. Thank goodness for Lamar Smith, the Republican representative from Texas that introduced the bill.
