DACA Digest: July 28, 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.
DREAM Act
The rejuvenation of the DREAM Act has continued to gain traction, with the House adding its own bill to protect and support Dreamers, making the effort not only bipartisan but also bicameral:
The status of the bills, including sponsors, can easily be tracked using alerts from Congress.gov from each of the bills’ respective entries:
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)
Sponsor: Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Cosponsor: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
The National Immigration Law Center provides a great overview of the differences between the DREAM Act as introduced in 2010, DACA, and the revitalized 2017 DREAM Act here:
Success and Support
Beyond support for a legislative solution for Dreamers, support for DACA continues, with 20 Attorneys General writing directly to Trump appealing for its safety.
And individual Dreamers continue to succeed, such as this recent Harvard graduate who’s looking forward to applying her Masters in Divinity to furthering social justice.
Of course, for many Dreamers, college is financially challenging, and so stories like that of the Feakins Foundation offering scholarships to DACA students are crucial to raising awareness of the need for educational financial support.
Immigration in the News
There were unfortunately some darker moments in the news this week, including one horrifying story of migrants dying or being critically injured in an overheated trailer, including one former DACA recipient.
From California comes coverage of an undocumented father with his DACA application pending approval being detained for several days and then inexplicably released, although a removal order against him still stands.
Finally, last week also brought is this important break down of why an undocumented immigrant can’t just work toward achieving legal status given the current obstacles in the path to citizenship, underscoring the need for the DREAM Act and similar legislation.
DACA Time Updates
For the first time in several weeks, we updated our website to include an about page, highlighting our story and our team.
We’ll probably need to update it again soon, though, due to a sudden (and amazing) influx of volunteers that graced us with their assistance. You can read all about how that came to be and our reactions in our Medium story below:
Was there something significant in the news we missed? Is there a story brewing? Let us know in the comments here or on Facebook!
