Maryland Dream Act to go before voters (featuring Yves Gomes) 3 Jul 2011, 1:53 pm

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The immigration trials of Pedro Guzman 4 Jun 2011, 1:20 pm

Pedro Guzman was released last week from a Georgia detention center.

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A family torn apart by immigration – MSNBC 26 May 2011, 2:41 pm

The Dylan Ratigan show reports on Tony Wasilewski and the film “Tony and Janina’s American Wedding”. Tony was featured last year on http://weareamericastories.org. More at http://tonyandjanina.com/

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Perdomo family border story (Washington Post) 10 May 2011, 5:43 pm

Princess Martinez was born and raised in south Texas. She and her six daughters are U.S. citizens, but her husband is not. Last year, he was deported after a DUI arrest, and the whole family moved just south of the border to Mexico. Then, the family faced an increasingly common dilemma: where to educate U.S. citizen children after a non-citizen parent is deported. from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/after-deportation-a-family-divided/2011/04/30/AF7owKOF_video.html

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Family's saga highlights kinks in immigrant detention system 22 Apr 2011, 2:41 pm

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Logan's dad, Pedro Guzman, 30, in front of the family's Durham, N.C., home on Sept. 28, 2009. Logan and his mother, Emily, could only look on.

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Undocumented students cheer vote for tuition bill 18 Mar 2011, 4:08 pm

A group of students, many of whom identified themselves as in the country illegally, watched the debate and cheered afterward. Many wore graduation gowns to signal their enthusiasm for education. (Some are pictured to the left with Sen. Victor Ramirez who sponsored the bill. Photo credit: Julie Bykowicz.)

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Students Rally To Support 'Maryland DREAM Act' 9 Mar 2011, 4:24 pm

March 08, 2011 - The Maryland Senate is scheduled to take up a bill this week that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges. A group of students who support the legislation have been rallying in Annapolis.

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The Dream Act and Beyond (On NPR's "Latitudes", featuring Yves Gomes) 9 Mar 2011, 4:23 pm

Yves Gomes would benefit from the DREAM Act. When Gomes was just over a year old, his parents brought him from India to the United States on a tourist visa. The family later sought asylum but failed and fell out of status. Gomes’ father and mother have already been deported. After graduating from high school in June 2010, Gomes was also facing deportation.

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Dream Act Advocate Turns Failure Into Hope 22 Feb 2011, 7:37 pm

Isabel Castillo was counting on the Dream Act, and when the Dream Act was defeated in December, it upended her dreams.

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Challenging Racial profiling in Arizona: undercover video of people stepping up against SB 1070 17 Feb 2011, 8:04 pm

from “John Quinones Goes Undercover” on ABC’s What Would You Do?

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Bob Edwards show interview with film director Ruth Leitman 14 Feb 2011, 6:00 pm

After 18 years in America, Tony and Janina Wasilewski's family is torn apart when Janina is deported back to Poland, taking their 6 year old son with her. Set on the backdrop of the Chicago political scene, and featuring Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez at the heart of the immigration reform movement, this documentary follows the family's three year struggle to be reunited. Bob talks with director RUTH LEITMAN about "Tony and Janina's American Wedding."

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Disabled Military Vet Faces Deportation Despite Years of Service and Marriage to Citizen 2 Feb 2011, 6:44 pm

(includes link to We Are America video) Upon retiring from military service, Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry received a United States flag and a letter of thanks, calling him a hero whose service to America would never be forgotten. Due to injuries Chaudhry sustained while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Chaudhry now uses a wheelchair.

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Update on Olga Zanella: Woman who has lived in Irving since age 6 faces deportation 1 Feb 2011, 7:13 pm

from Dallas Morning News, January 28, 2010 Olga Zanella , 20, grew up in Irving, Texas. She found out she was in the country illegally during her junior year of high school, after attending a college financial aid workshop.

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Saad's Story: A Deported Student's Quest To Return To America 31 Jan 2011, 9:48 pm

Saad Nabeel doesn't get much sleep these days. Holed up in an undisclosed location in Malaysia, the lanky 20-year-old spends his nights furtively working to bring himself back to America, the only home he's ever known.

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DREAM Student Steve Li questions President Obama 31 Jan 2011, 9:47 pm

Steve Li was featured on We Are America earlier this year.

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Former UTA student fights to return to U.S. 18 Jan 2011, 9:35 pm

Until November 2009, Saad Nabeel was an ambitious engineering student at the University of Texas at Arlington. Then came his family's arrest by U.S. immigration authorities and deportation to Bangladesh, which he had left as a toddler.

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Man facing deportation granted 30-day extension 18 Jan 2011, 9:14 pm

Pedro Gutierrez, 22, is an illegal immigrant who was brought to Arizona by his grandmother when he was 7 years old. He says life in Arizona is all he knows.

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Ex-soldier stays in Lacey for now, still may be deported to Pakistan 18 Jan 2011, 9:12 pm

A disabled former Washington National Guard soldier got to go home to Lacey after his immigration hearing ended Wednesday, but he still could be deported to his native Pakistan later this year.

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Decorated Disabled Veteran Faces Deportation to Pakistan 18 Jan 2011, 9:05 pm

Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, a decorated disabled American veteran, is the victim of a witch hunt that has been ongoing since the 9/11 attacks.

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DREAM Act Failure a Nightmare for Some (ABC news w/Diego Alvarez) 20 Dec 2010, 10:34 pm

“Bleak hopes for immigrant children hoping to become educated.” ABC news reports on the failure of the DREAM Act by featuring Diego Alvarez, who originally appeared on We Are America.

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Immigration Vote Leaves Obama’s Policy in Disarray 20 Dec 2010, 3:07 pm

NY Times article on the failure of DREAM features Alina Cortes and Bernard Pastor, both featured stories on We Are America

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Bernard Pastor, Reading graduate, won't be deported 20 Dec 2010, 2:31 pm

One month ago, Bernard Pastor was an anonymous 18-year-old trying to live his life productively as a church volunteer but in the shadows as an undocumented immigrant. Detained as an unlicensed driver following a minor auto accident the night of Nov. 17 in Springdale, Pastor found himself on the fast track to deportation to his native Guatemala. Two Ohio Democrat lawmakers, who learned of Pastor’s case from Enquirer reports, intervened on his behalf and gained a three-week delay.

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Released, Steve Li urges passage of DREAM Act | San Francisco ... 16 Dec 2010, 10:26 pm

On a cold and sunny morning in late November, as sharp winds stirred up fallen leaves, and most folks were beginning to slow down in anticipation of Thanksgiving, Shing Ma “Steve” Li, a 20-year-old nursing student from San Francisco who narrowly avoided deportation to Peru, whipped the local media into a energized frenzy by advocating for the passage of the DREAM Act during a press conference

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DREAMing of Citizenship: An Interview with Gaby Pacheco 16 Dec 2010, 12:08 am

Gaby Pacheco, a 25 year-old undocumented immigrant whose parents brought her from Ecuador to the United States at age 7, has been an outspoken advocate for DREAM since 2004.

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San Antonio Express-News - Appeal to Hutchison 15 Dec 2010, 4:22 pm

Letter to the editor from Alina Cortes: "As her Republican constituent, I am disappointed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison changed her stance on the DREAM Act."

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With Dream Act shelved, immigrants look to 2012 14 Dec 2010, 2:34 pm

"Many of us come from families with mixed (immigration) status. We can't vote, but our families and friends can," said Julieta Garibay, 29, one of the original "Dreamers" who has pushed for the Dream Act since it was first introduced in Congress in 2001.

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Positive image – Voices of Resistance 8 Dec 2010, 6:09 pm

The intent of the stories at We Are America is to create a public discourse on immigration law that includes the immigrant voice.

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VOA | Illegal Immigrants in US Push for Passage of Dream Act ... 6 Dec 2010, 2:27 pm

Gomes is one of thousands of young illegal immigrants who grew up in the United States and are now studying at American colleges and universities. He is doing well in his studies, but he is fighting deportation to India, a country he left with his parents when he was just 14 months old. They were deported more than a year ago.

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Senate Negotiations Narrow DREAM Act's Scope as Vote Nears ... 3 Dec 2010, 8:14 pm

Julieta Garibay came to the country when she was 12 and grew up in Texas, where she got her undergrad and then masters degrees in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin. “I consider myself an Austinite,” she said, but because she’s undocumented, she hasn’t been able to put her nursing degree to use the way she wants to. So she’s been fighting for the DREAM Act, a bill that would offer undocumented students like her a pathway to citizenship.

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University of Texas at Arlington students taking part in ... 3 Dec 2010, 7:35 pm

Him Ranjit's lack of legal immigration status wasn't a problem in elementary or middle school, but as he became older, life in Euless got harder. Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/24/2657353/university-of-texas-at-arlington.html#ixzz174xnXlNj

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DREAM Students Volunteer to Serve - Fox News Latino 3 Dec 2010, 7:31 pm

Alina Cortes, 19, told Efe that she learned of her undocumented status when, shortly before graduating from high school, she was notified that she did not qualify for a scholarship or government grants for going to college. "I had to study with the aid of private scholarships and the efforts of my family," said Cortes, a Mexico City native attending college in Texas who also wants to become a Marine. Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2010/12/01/undocumented-students-want-justice/#ixzz174wlntFq

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Immigration Project Features Dozens of Powerful “DREAM Stories” on Eve of Congressional Debate on DREAM Act 29 Nov 2010, 9:30 pm

As Congress prepares this week to vote on a bill that could provide a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people, the Center for Community Change’s “We Are America” stories project released more “DREAM” stories this week.

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Students want the Dream Act to become reality - latimes.com (David Cho) 29 Nov 2010, 5:02 pm

"At first my parents said, 'What are you doing? You're risking so much,' " said David Cho, the UCLA drum major. "But I told them, 'It's not only me. There are thousands of students like me trapped in a broken system. Unless our generation speaks out, the politicians won't tackle it. They have to see our faces.' "

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DREAM Act Students Defy Deportations, Demand Vote in Congress 29 Nov 2010, 3:36 pm

Article features Steve Li and Fredd Reyes, two DREAM students who's stories are at We Are America

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Putting a Human Face on the Immigration Debate 24 Nov 2010, 5:10 pm

But the personal stories of today’s immigrants are all too often lost amid the bickering over immigration reform. For that reason, a Center for Community Change project called “We Are America” is trying to bring the main characters in these stories to the forefront.

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Gabe Gonzalez: No More Dreams Deferred (features Carlos Roa and Michael Nazzario videos) 22 Nov 2010, 3:53 pm

Right now it's a dream deferred. A dream for people like Michael Nazario, a young man who grew up in Arizona and wants nothing more than to serve in the Marines. Or Carlos Roa, a 23-year-old man who is now studying architecture after being denied an opportunity to enlist in the armed forces.

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San Francisco student to be released from federal custody (Steve Li story) 20 Nov 2010, 1:35 am

Federal immigration officials are releasing San Francisco college student Steve Li, who was jailed for more than two months as officials sought to deport him to Peru.

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Harry Potter Is a DREAM Act Kid, on the Run in America (Yves Gomes featured) 20 Nov 2010, 1:33 am

I do not know whether, like countless American teenagers, Yves Gomes will be watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I this weekend. If he does, he will probably not recognize himself in the film. Gomes has no lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. But like Harry, 17-year-old Gomes is bespectacled, owlishly serious, an unlikely warrior thrust into a battle much bigger than him. It’s a fight that has already claimed his parents.

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North County Times: Contest seeks to put immigrants in a positive light 3 Nov 2010, 1:20 pm

The We Are America campaign was started in July by a group called the Center for Community Change, a group that advocates for low-income communities and minority communities. Burke Stansbury, project coordinator for the We Are America, said he was glad to hear other groups are sponsoring similar efforts. "Unfortunately, in the current political dialogue, the human side of immigration is not being recognized," Stansbury said.

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Daily Kos: The GOP's greatest fear (featuring Rim Abera video) 1 Nov 2010, 10:33 pm

This is all about new Americans becoming a part of their new home. To that end, Rim Abera and the other volunteers working to educate and engage immigrant voters, are the future. And that's what has the GOP, and the teabaggers, so scared.

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Mexican and American and voting (Bianci Rojo) 1 Nov 2010, 10:32 pm

Twenty-year-old Bianca Rojo doesn’t take voting lightly. Five years ago, immigration authorities deported her parents to Mexico because they were in the U.S. illegally. Rojo’s parents took her two younger brothers with them.

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This is the immigrant voter-outreach story the Seattle Times won’t cover (featuring Rim Abera) 28 Oct 2010, 7:21 pm

Of course, considering this story was unfolding in its own backyard, you’d think the Times might consider doing a little original reporting of its own, rather than just copying and pasting the AP’s inflammatory headline: “In Washington, illegal immigrants canvassing for Democrats.” And if they had, they might of spoken to volunteers like Rima Abera, a 20 year-old college student and Franklin High grad.

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Family immigration drama inspires documentary film (article about Wasilewski family, featured on We Are America) 28 Oct 2010, 1:01 am

In the late 1980s, Tony Wasilewski met his wife Janina in Chicago after they both left communist Poland. They had a son together and the three of them lived in suburban Schiller Park until 2007, when Janina was deported.

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NewsHour Extra: Teen Involved in Immigration Debacle Begins College | PBS 30 Sep 2010, 6:19 pm

In August NewsHour Extra published a student voice from 18-year-old Yves Gomes to President Obama about his immigration status in the United States.

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Deportation tears apart families, some say (Detroit Free Press) 28 Sep 2010, 8:10 pm

Ivan Nikolov, 22, of Roseville and his wife, Alanna Woolley, 21, spend time with their dogs. Nikolov has been in the U.S. since he was 11, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office says his parents brought him to the country illegally. ICE is moving to deport him.

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SMU students relate to plight of deported UTA student 28 Sep 2010, 8:06 pm

Included below is a letter written by a former University of Texas at Arlington student, Saad Nabeel, who came to the U.S. as a toddler and was schooled in the U.S. education system.

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Family from San Mateo struggles to stay together in face of immigration law 28 Sep 2010, 8:04 pm

Two weeks before Christmas 2008 in the surreal light of dawn, Yvette Jimenez-Mota heard the heavy boots, stern voices and mysterious whispers. "I kind of ignored it because I thought it was part of my dream," she recalls. So the teenager went back to sleep, only to wake up to a nightmare.

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Deepak Bhargava: Community Organizers Revive Immigration Reform Again 28 Sep 2010, 8:01 pm

Yves Gomes was present at today's event and told his story. After the making of his We Are America video, photographer Sara Lewkowicz followed Yves during the anxious week in which he couldn't bear to start packing his suitcase.

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Valley man holds 'boot camp' outside Sen. John McCain's Phoenix office 28 Sep 2010, 8:00 pm

PHOENIX - A group of Valley students held a 'boot camp' outside the offices of Arizona Sen. John McCain Saturday to bring attention to the plight of an undocumented student trying to become a U.S. Marine.

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Valley man holds 'boot camp' outside Sen. John McCain's Phoenix office 28 Sep 2010, 8:00 pm

PHOENIX - A group of Valley students held a 'boot camp' outside the offices of Arizona Sen. John McCain Saturday to bring attention to the plight of an undocumented student trying to become a U.S. Marine.

Source: Pinboard (bstansb:news) | bstansb