DACA Digest: August 4, 2017

Curated news from the DACA Time team

Each week, the DACA Time team provides you with curated news and stories related to DACA and immigration to help raise awareness of the problems we’re trying to solve and the people we’re trying to help.

Raising awareness is a crucial component of social impact:

• How can you change something no one knows anything about?
• What support systems already exist for the folks we’re trying to help?
• Where do we see examples of success that inspire us?
• Perhaps most importantly, what victories, no matter how tiny, can we celebrate this week?

Beyond the social enterprise space, beyond those directly impacted by DACA and its far-too-often arduous application process, answering these questions helps us better understand how our actions are all connected.

Legislative Progress

A legislative path toward Dreamer prosperity continues to make headlines, most recently with news of the American Hope Act, introduced to the House of Representatives on July 28 by Representative Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) along with over 100 cosponsors.

American Hope Act Introduced To Protect Immigrant Youth And Those With DACA

United We Dream offers an excellent break-down of the act’s provisions here:

United We Dream

The American Hope Act joins the other two legislative efforts to offer Dreamers protection and a path to citizenship, with both gaining additional traction and cosponsors in the last week.

Senate Bill 1615 (DREAM Act)

Sponsor: Lindsay Graham (R-SC)

Cosponsors:

• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
• Charles Schumer (D-NY)
• Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
• Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) *new
• Kamala Harris (D-CA) *new

House Bill 3440 (DREAM Act)

Sponsor: Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)

Cosponsors:

• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
• Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) *new
• Mike Coffman (R-CO) *new

House Bill 3591 (American Hope Act)

Sponsor: Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL)

Cosponsors: Too many to list (116)!

Lending additional support, students from UC Santa Barbara visited Washington D.C. to lobby for the DREAM Act.

UCSB Students Visit D.C. To Lobby for Pell Grant, D.R.E.A.M. Act

Success and Support

Offering support for DACA, immigration reform organization America’s Voice published a strong statement about why it’s important for the United States.

DACA Works - Why Protections and Opportunities for Dreamers are Good for Texas and America

And the Border Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives, made up of representatives whose counties fall along the Mexico-United States border, urged Texas Attorney General Paxton to reconsider his stance on DACA.

Border Caucus urges state AG to change position on DACA

Immigration in the News

Nevertheless, senseless deportations continue to affect lives and rock immigrant communities.

He went to ICE to tell agents he had gotten into college. Now he and his brother have been deported…

And uncertainty continues to afflict undocumented immigrants on an individual and deeply personal level.

Young, undocumented and trying to 'keep my sanity'

But advocates and those who have succeeded with DACA continue to speak up and speak out.

"Human dignity can not depend on a plastic card"

And, of course, hope continues in the form of the ongoing legislative narrative of undocumented Americans.

Life in limbo: Dream Act of 2017 renews hope in young immigrants

DACA Time Updates

In DACA Time news, we recently attended Columbus, OH’s PyOhio conference as a startup sponsor! The technical backbone of DACA Time uses Python, and both Matt and Nicholas made a great showing!

Finally, earlier this week, we published a story about the importance of partnerships and how we might join forces to multiply our impact on Dreamer success.

Greater Than the Sum of Our Partners

Was there something significant in the news we missed? Is there a story brewing? Let us know in the comments here or on Facebook!