Jose Antonio Vargas And Immigration Activists Launch DREAM Act Initiative

Latindispatch.com:

NEW YORK — Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas and a number of faith-based immigration activists launched an initiative to pass the DREAM Act Thursday in New York.

Speaking at Judson Memorial Church in New York City, Vargas and other activists including Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), promoted the “New York State Congregations in Solidarity with DREAMers.” The initiative, which is part of the national DREAM Sabbath initiative led by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), aims to spur on the passage of the DREAM Act.

Read the whole story: Latindispatch.com

Comments

[rosekevel]

04:09 AM on 10/09/2011

I made the point a few weeks ago that it's technically incorrect to call Vagas a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. The Washington Post won the award and he was a reporter at the Post when this happened.

Moreover, if you look at the article he contributed for the series (Virgina Tech Shooting) it's a entirely unremarkable interview with a few people who witnessed the event -- not groundbreaking or in any way exceptional in the least.

That said, sure he's for the Dream Act. To him as to millions of other illegals, it's a ticket to amnesty through the back door.

[AKJM]

09:45 PM on 10/01/2011

The dreamers would still be illegal, and it would be ILLEGAL FOR THEM TO WORK HERE.

[mkspence]

01:17 PM on 09/29/2011

This guy is going to talk himself right out of the country.

[James Haun]

12:55 PM on 09/21/2011

“Ultimately, Congress has to pass the DREAM Act, to provide a path to citizenship for young people who grew up here without status,” said Chung-Wha Hong"

~ that is incorrect, Mr. Hong...they most definitely have a status - they are illegal aliens and face deportation for being here illegally

[RobietheCat]

10:08 PM on 10/20/2011

Once the borders are thrown open, the stream of this illegal invasion will grow to a flood as the Chinese and Indians (an estimated 3 billion people) start lining up too.

Myself I am learning Chinese.

[James De La Cruz]

11:36 PM on 10/20/2011

That would make it a legal invasion.

[Marisa Stein]

08:27 AM on 09/19/2011

yea, well lets dream that they'll all be deported back to their own countries

[arliobserver]

09:52 AM on 09/18/2011

Mr. Vargas knew well before he was 16 that he was here illegally. The poor decisions of his family caused his situation. He needs to accept that. Illegally crossing borders everywhere but USA, England,France - would have him in jail in very un-pleasant circumstances and soon deported. The liberality of the 3 countries I mentioned protect his type from daily beatings, near starvation, fast deportation, lifelong incarceration or death. Trouble in the form of Vargas and his ilk goes the easiest path. I notice they did not try to roost up in Germany or Poland or Italy and certainly not Iran. California has itself in the ridiculous situation where they will now pay to educate illegals through college - only to have them leave here and go home to join the upper middle class and earn and spend there. Some say "well they pay their taxes". I have in my work been into the financial records of many illegals and if they do report any income it is because they were on a W2 and the employer reported it. Otherwise every cent is evaded of taxation and part of that leaves here for Central America. We need to set and collect very high fines and create a self supporting deportation process. The seized property and could offset much of the burden on our Taxpayers. This next election is going to bring a dark horse, tough on bank reform and immigration both and turn the USA around. No current candidate is

[voyager48]

11:41 AM on 09/18/2011

Or simply do what Denmark is now doing and charge the illegal, their family and/or their employer the cost of the deportation.

[RobietheCat]

05:59 PM on 09/18/2011

Excellent.

[Marisa Stein]

08:27 AM on 09/19/2011

Great Idea!

[IllTakeTheRedEye]

06:01 AM on 09/18/2011

American Dream Act  =  Legal USA Americans have the "American Dream," illegal alien foreign nationals must leave the USA...no exceptions.

[RobietheCat]

06:00 PM on 09/18/2011

Exactly, if you Congress person or Senator or Governor candidate cannot commit to that, don't vote for them.

[thebarse]

10:11 PM on 09/17/2011

Can we have Affirmative action then please?

[Taco Lopez]

09:40 AM on 09/18/2011

no

[vmzinn]

02:36 AM on 09/18/2011

Your comment is really disrespectful specifically the use of term "gringos." And threats "so careful what you say and do gringos" is also very unwelcome.

[Edson Don Juan]

06:17 PM on 09/17/2011

is painful to be a Hispanic in the U.S.

[arliobserver]

10:01 AM on 09/18/2011

It is painful to be an illegal Hispanic in the USA. I will add that the negativity surrounding the illegals makes life much less pleasant for my Hispanic friends who are here legally. The legal ones are being quietly punished as well due to the perceptions surrounding the others. That is what is truly sad.

[jack Winn]

10:18 PM on 09/22/2011

IOW, you just assume that any hispanic is illegal. Never mind the Canucks.

[iuriggs6]

11:47 AM on 09/18/2011

You do realize Mr Vargas is not hispanic.

[voyager48]

06:05 PM on 09/18/2011

that is the whole problem. The Hispanics are martyring themselves for the cause and working like crazy to blur the lines to make it a racial issue, because that is the only close to viable strategy they have. They know it, you know it and I know it, But these wingnuts truly think if they say it loud and often - well then it must simply be true!

To the rest of the sane and rational world there is no defense of someone who knowing and intentionally breaks the law and then continues to break it every day there are here.

[Edson Don Juan]

06:16 PM on 09/17/2011

it's cruel to deport a young man who has lived his entire life in America that knows no other country that only speaks English ...

[vmzinn]

02:47 AM on 09/18/2011

He arrived in the U.S. when he was about 14 years old. English is not his mother tongue or first language. Read his published account please. Further "squatters rights" do not exist legally. Your argument is emotional, completely out of step with U.S. law and values. Your argument does not 'hold water.'

And, it is these arguments that have hardened me on the issue of illegal immigration and the so-called Dream Act.

I too have a dream and that is to reclaim my country from this unlawful invasion from the third world. I fully welcome legal immigrants from the third world but under the legal process.

[RobietheCat]

06:16 PM on 09/18/2011

Tough.

His mother sent him here illegally at 14.

Are you seriously suggesting that any mother, anywhere in the world has the right to send their sons (I guess women are not included here), to the US, unaccompanied and illegally?

[dtairtime]

05:37 PM on 09/17/2011

If they really want the dream act to pass here is how I can guarantee it will pass.

1. Only kids under the age of 25.
2. Must have been brought here before the age of 15 and have irrefutable proof.
3. Must have never been arrested for anything.
4. Must have no gang tattoos or gang membership file with any Law enforcement agency.
5. Must name the people who brought them here illegally - said person face lifetime ban from entry.
6. Can never daisy chain anyone here.
7. Must graduate from a credited 4 year university with at least a 3.2 GPA in a standard discipline - no basket weaving or social work degrees
8. As an alternative may serve at lest 4 years honorably in the military.
9.No hardship exemptions - period.
10. Ten year trial period. Any arrests or violations of these terms renders them deported immediately.
11. They pay for all costs for every aspect of their processing, not taxpayers.
12. Constitutional amendment for no more amnesties of any kind or under any name ever again. After 7 of them asking for an eighth like they are here is pushing it!

I think that would pass.

[massjim]

02:32 PM on 09/17/2011

Sure, it wasn't the kids fault they are here. Who's fault was it? The parents. So when a kid applies for the Dream Act, they are admitting their parents committed a crime. So, let the kids stay, and deport the parents.

If a kid admitted they had a car that their parents had stolen, would the police say "oh sure, keep it". Of course they would follow the evidence and arrest the guilty party.

[methnkng]

01:28 PM on 09/17/2011

Obama's support of the dream act and illegal immigration is costing him big time. Unions are walking away from the Dem party. The working class 9th District in NY in the recent election, a district that was solidly Democratic, just elected a Republican. The union reps on the Secured Community committe just walked out.

The Dem Party's placing foreigners above Americans could cost them both the Senate and the Presidency.

[arliobserver]

10:05 AM on 09/18/2011

Could ?? It will. And it will be 100 years before a man of color is ever elected again. The voters will be afraid of his un-announced agenda. Even the educated Blacks are turning away from Obama.

[methnkng]

11:05 AM on 09/18/2011

It has nothing to do with the color of his skin, rather the content of his policies. We are going to have lots of Presidents of varying skin colors, from palest pale to darkest dark in the next hundred years, Actually, scientifically speaking, there really is no such thing as race.

[RobietheCat]

06:26 PM on 09/18/2011

Color has nothing to do with it.

I voted for him based on what his 'plan' was.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to execute, even with a majority of both houses of Congress.

If the Congress had issues with his color, that was their problem.

Competency and sex are not an indicator of competency, performance is.

[methnkng]

01:24 PM on 09/17/2011

At 18 these kids have a choice, abide by the law by returning to their home and applying to come here legally, or become criminals by staying here illegally. Those that remain are lawbreakers and deserve to go to jail then be deported.

What makes it worse is there is a way to jump the immigration line, open to all. Join the US military. But these so calle dream act freeloaders want something for nothing, they think they are better than everyone else, and deserve to be placed above the law.

No way.

[Viper1st]

10:36 AM on 09/17/2011

Mr. Vargas ~

Now that your "coming out" as an illegal, scamming the Amercan Dream, do the right thing & voluntarily self-deport.

You can still pursue your desire to openly communicate to the world, of your life's plight, from the keyboard of your internet computer.

To gain access to the White House, past the Secret Service, with a self-confessed fraudulent SSN is not only a threat to U.S. Homeland Security, but a Federal Crime

Please, leave the USA ~ voluntarily