Our Families Can’t Wait.
In late January, a
group of Dream Activists and young supporters in Arizona and other regions near
the border met to analyze the campaigns of 2013 and to propose alternative
strategies. They issued an open letter calling for a “practical legislative
solution for immediate relief for families,
even if it doesn’t include a special path to citizenship" and urged
supporters to engage in an aggressive campaign for a presidential executive
order to end deportations of family
members of U.S. citizens. (Full text of the letter can be found here: http://ymlp.com/xgjuhqsygmguj)
In January to get a
sense of this viewpoint I interviewed Alma Lopez, an activist in Sacramento. Alma had co-presented with me the workshop on
immigration at the DSA national convention.
Question:
What do you think has been the effect of immigrant rights
activism on young people?
“Young people have been playing a major role, along with
students and the immigrants community members.
In Sacramento we have been coordinating with people in Northern and
Southern California, with people who have been arrested in protests against ICE
and deportations.”
“The civil disobedience and the arrests, have played a major
role in telling the community, and the general public, how important it is to
keep families together and to come up with a policy that is fair and just for
everybody.”
