By Kevin Tejada
With a New Year just beginning, immigration activists are not
winding down their efforts to advocate for the immigration reforms necessary in
our country. On Monday January 5th,
members of the New York Immigration coalition, their allies which included the
Hudson Valley Community Coalition, Neighbors Link, Hispanic Resource Center, Cabrini Immigrant Services and the Westchester Hispanic Coalition, with
the support of local lawmakers introduced the Immigrant Equality Agenda. Coalition members made their case at the
Westchester Hispanic Coalition, located in White Plains.
The hopes of this year’s immigrant equality agenda include:
ensuring that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have the resources and
services available to apply for administrative relief, supporting the
educational and health needs unaccompanied children who fled violence in
Central America, to combat work place abuses and improve wages and working
conditions for the hundreds of dairy farm workers in New York State. The
passage of the New York State Dream Act, tops the list of goals in the agenda.
News 12 Westchester and Verizon FiOS1 News were present at
the event. After the press conference
was over, I got the chance to speak with the News 12 reporter. This gave me the
opportunity to talk about why I am so passionate about the issues discussed
during the conference, particularly the passage of the Dream Act. The news reporter asked me if I myself am an
undocumented college student. I am not.
And although it was a fair thing to ask, the question really struck me
by surprise and it made me think about how the battle to pass the Dream Act and
other pro-immigrant legislation should not be exclusive to the undocumented immigrants
that would benefit from them. Immigration policy affects all aspects of
society, thus it affects all of us. Regardless of status, immigrants have
always played a central role in the life and growth of our nation. Immigrants
contribute $10 billion a year to this country's economic growth. I do not have to
be undocumented to advocate for the rights of immigrants. I am a strong
believer and supporter of the Dream Act and I consider myself part of the
Dreamer movement. Dreamers as the name of their movement suggests are students
just like me who have dreams and aspirations. I am a Dreamer.
I am in full support of the passage of the Dream Act because I
think it is outrageous that some of my peers who have the same potential as me
to succeed in college, do not have the opportunity to keep pursuing their
dreams. Our government invests in these students through our public system but
why stop after they graduate from high school? Why not continue to support
these students through college? We are cutting these students’ wings and we can’t
continue to do that. The United States is known for being the land of dreams but
for a lot of dreamers these dreams are far from possible. It is because of this
that the passage of the Dream Act is necessary in our country. In the past few years Dreamers have been more
influential than they have been visible, but my hope for 2015 is that we become
both more influential and visible with the passage of the Dream Act.
Take Action!
Email us at info@hvccoalition.org to:
*Join the
NYS Dream Act Coalition;
*Be added to
the HVCC listserv to get notice of upcoming actions, workshops and community
news;
*Schedule a
DACA/DAPA Informational Workshop in your community;
*Take Part
in Albany Day, NYIC’s Immigrant Day of Action on March 3;
*Join or
learn more about UNIR, the Upstate Network for Immigrant Rights; or
*Volunteer
with Us