National DREAM Youth Activist Shackled, Targeted for Deportation
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Jennifer Angarita in AFL-CIO Field Mobilization sends us this report.
From marches to teach-ins, activists across the country have mobilized around the DREAM Act, a common-sense immigration bill for students who were brought to the United States at a young age and who serve in the military or attend college for at least two years. Many have even risked deportation and detention to raise awareness of their cause. Matias Ramos is a prominent DREAM leader and UCLA graduate who was detained last year by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) while traveling.
After his regular check-in with ICE, Matias was shackled with an electronic monitoring device and given 14 days to leave the country, his only home. Matias was brought to the United States as a child, was raised here and considers himself American. Despite having his electronic shackles removed, Matias still faces deportation.
He says:
Today, I am confronted not only with the uncertainty of my situation, but also with knowing that I am not the only one caught in Obama’s deportation dragnet.
DREAM Act Would Boost Military Recruitment
AFL-CIO field staffer Will Fischer, a Marine Corps veteran, says a provision in the DREAM Act strengthens the nation’s military.
The U.S. Senate will soon have the opportunity to take a strong step toward fixing our broken immigration system and strengthening our military. The DREAM Act, a proposed amendment to the defense authorization bill (S. 3454) due to come before the Senate on Tuesday, would open the door to military service and higher education for young people whose parents brought them to this country as children without proper documentation. If they finish high school, show good moral character and serve at least two years in the military or earn a college degree, the bill would allow them to earn U.S. citizenship.
Today, the status of undocumented students prevents them from fully contributing to the American workforce and to the economy. It means students who dream of joining the armed forces, can’t. It means students who dream of becoming a doctor, an engineer, a teacher, can’t. Instead these promising young people find themselves in limbo, unable to legally work, qualify for scholarships or loans to pay for college, or serve in the military. Stuck living in the shadows and condemned to the underground economy, these young people are easy prey to exploitation by unscrupulous employers who use their immigration status to depress the wages and workplace standards of all of us.
America’s Vets Fought for Our Future
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As chairman of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) President Mark Ayers salutes America’s veterans.
Memorial Day is a time to reflect upon those fallen American heroes who have given their lives and health to keep this nation safe. Memorial Day is also the perfect time to honor those brave soldiers who are still with us, to thank them for the freedoms we enjoy every day and to do all that we can to improve their quality of life.
But, in many aspects, Memorial Day has simply morphed into the day when we kick into high gear for the summer season.
Tanker Contract Would Create 44,000 Jobs in United States
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Remember the efforts by the Bush administration last year to tilt the competitive bid process in favor of giving a $35 billion contract to Airbus over Boeing?
Only after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision to award the contract to EADS/Airbus and Northrop Grumman did Defense Secretary Robert Gates cancel the competition for the Air Force’s refueling tankers.
John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, alerts us that the issue is back. In an op-ed in the Hartford Courant, Olsen points out that the French use billions of illegal subsidies to low-bid their contract proposal—and the Obama administration should insist the total value of any such Airbus subsidies are taken into account in the bidding to build the new tanker.
