User:Chavez916/sandbox

The Immigrant Youth Movement

The popular perception surrounding immigration deportations is that mainly middle-aged Latinos will be the prime community of immigrants being effected by the current immigrant policies in the United States. Although Mexican and Central American immigrants are among one of the largest immigrant communities in the United States, an even larger immigrant demographic forgotten about but also effected by current immigrant policies is the children of these immigrants in the United States. Specifically, the undocumented student population that makes up the Immigrant Youth Movement. This undocumented youth population represent those were brought to the United States by their immigrant parents and have grown up adopting the American values and culture. They are also excluded from society due to their lack of legal immigration status. From their first campaign to justify their right to not be deported from the United States, the only country they call home, the undocumented youth have made themselves vulnerable to deportations of themselves but also their families. The current United States immigration law does not address the unique circumstances that the American raised immigrant youth are experiencing; such living in fear of either them or their parents being detected and deported by immigration authorities, their families being separated, barriers to being able to work legally, and affording to pursue a higher education to better their futures and contribute to the U.S. society and economy they recognize as their home. By the United States Congress enacting any laws that give legitimacy to the immigrant youth actually belonging in the only country they have ever known, continues to attract heated debate in bipartisan support. Currently, the immigrant youth are awaiting for the immigration reforms in the United States to extend out further than just those undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States since they were children. The immigrant youth want comprehensive legislative reforms that will prevent their friends and family members from deportation and due to not being able to apply for legal documentation in the United States.

Background

The United States of America is commonly referred to as being a country built upon a history of immigration. Today immigration has become a controversial political and social issue with many mixed emotions. Although the Unites States was built upon a long history of immigration, maintaining a balance of immigration and American citizenship is necessary to protect the national sovereignty and resources of the United States. Although the United States seems large and bountiful, the government of the United States understands that in comparison to the rest of the world, specifically third world countries, the United States population and resources are significantly less. Thus, immigration policies that both regulate immigration admittance and the control of the U.S borders is necessary to maintain and protect the national sovereignty and resources of the United States. The United States has legitimacy for current immigration policies and both American citizens and immigrants in the United States want the country to remain safe and offer prosperous futures for their families. With the ongoing threat of terrorism, and the heightened fear still lingering after the events of September 11th, 2001, tightening up on immigration policies in the United States became crucial in protecting the national sovereignty and resources of the United States. Stricter enforcement of U.S immigration law does allow the government to monitor and preserve the safety of America through requiring proper documentation for immigrants to maintain residency in the United States such as various visas and passports. Immigration policies such as the Immigration and Naturalization Act, outlines the annual limit of immigrants per year as well as limitations to family-based immigration. Employment-based immigration visas, refugees and asylees protection visas, family-based immigration visas, the diversity visa program, and humanitarian relief visas are all forms of temporary and permanent immigration status that allow the government to monitor and know the reasons for each immigrant’s residency in the country. Although the Immigration and Naturalization Act is still a used outline for reinforcing how the U.S. legal immigration system works, the fear of a terrorist attack from within the Unites States created the need for further structural reinforcement; thus creating the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security. Since 2002, The Department of Homeland Security took over the role of securing the U.S. borders from illegal immigration, as well as monitoring and seeking out illegal immigrants that have not been granted or have exceeded the terms of their legitimate immigrant documentation. Current immigration policy has allowed the department of homeland security to enforce their mission of protecting the homeland of America, resulting in the deportation of 2 million undocumented immigrants, as of March 2014. These totals are indicators that the Department of Homeland Security will continue to strictly reinforce current immigration policy by seeking out and deporting more convicted criminals, recent border crossers, immigration law violators and fugitives, as well as solely undocumented immigrants within the U.S. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's deportation statistics of April 2014, seventy-five percent of those who are deported were located by immigration authorities due to criminal convictions. With the Department of Homeland Security doing their job to ensure the enforcement their control of legitimate immigration admittance and the control of the U.S borders, the immigrant population in the United States often lives in fear for themselves and their families, regardless of their legitimate status. Due to the paradoxes of the law and social order, the migrant communities of the United States fear even sharing their identities with government sources that could help them apply and maintain their documented immigrant status. Thus, the children of these immigrant communities have begun to organize and advocate for their families and themselves, with hope of reshaping the standards surrounding deportability of immigrants and reform of citizenship requirements. The Immigrant Youth Movement (founded 2001) began as a campaign in support of the legislative passage of the federal Dream Act. The Dream Act would reform current immigration law and allow those immigrant youth who were brought to the U.S. by their parents as undocumented immigrants, or have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives, grown up in America, were educated in American school system, and maintained clean record-would be granted documentation for permanent immigrant status. The campaign turned into a growing national grassroots movement that is led by the immigrant youth of the United States. The Immigrant Youth Movement is made up of undocumented students and allies who view themselves as having the right to be able to be granted legislation that will allow for them to be able to be real members of the American society. They are undocumented immigrants that grew up anxious for their chance to be old enough to work, go to college, and pursue promising futures just as other American raised young individuals. However, once turning the legal age in the U.S., these immigrant youth individuals often then became aware of their family’s embarrassment of their undocumented status and their helplessness in their children’s undocumented status. Thus, the Immigrant Youth Movement advocates the need for comprehensive legislation reforms for immigration and aims to educate and remind the American society and law makers of the people those two million deportations represent. Despite the strong fear of being an addition to the deportation numbers, they hold onto their optimism and hope in the American government and people. The Immigrant Youth movement networks through mass organizing of shared goals and unequal resources. Through sponsorship of their grassroots allies, many student organizations across various college campuses do their part in advocating to their communities by providing accurate knowledge and support for undocumented youth and their families. With not being legal citizens, undocumented immigrants are encouraged by community leadership through the Immigrant Youth Movement to provide information about laws, policies, and resources to better understand legislation and promote healthy self-empowerment.

Methodology

Famously expressed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, negotiation is the better path to fix a social and political issue. Unfortunately, getting to the point of negation does take direct action such as sit-ins, marches, strikes, and protests. Specifically using nonviolent direct action seeks to the create a pathway leading to negotiation and policy reforms for a repressed community which has been refused by the government’s policy makers and are forced to confront the issue themselves. Following the civil rights trail, the undocumented youth activists refuse to be silent any longer. The activists of the Immigrant Youth Movement are representing over an estimated 11.4 million of the undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to the estimates from the Department of Homeland Security. Learning from the experiences of Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, and the Freedom Rights and Chicano movements of the 1960s, the immigrant youth activists aim to avoid implementing controversial and violent tactics. The Immigrant Youth Movement encourages advocating for social change by mass organizing and sharing publicly their individual immigration experiences. Through this advocating tactic they hope to bring to the light the experiences of this forgotten undocumented student population. One of the most effective methods the immigrant youth have begun to use is the sharing of oral history from immigrant youth individuals. Many undocumented immigrant youth individuals have filmed or documented their experience growing up as undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The sharing of this immigrant group’s experience as being undocumented in America is a great tool for spreading awareness of the too often silenced issue of immigration rights. These oral histories are often shared in such a way that allows the viewer to relate to the undocumented immigrant and makes the issue he or she is talking about very approachable and easy to understand even with having a narrow minded point of view on the issue. The Immigrant Youth Movement aims to use these oral histories interviews similar to sharing good stories. They are tools used for initiating compassion, they are deeply personal and non-threatening ways to open up someone’s perspective to a life different than their own. The method of oral history interviews is something that many of the undocumented immigrant individuals want to share with the American society and hopefully reach the hearts of those in government and possibly politics. Although not all those involved in the Immigrant Youth Movement are undocumented individuals, the movement is also attempting to reach out to the youth who are American citizens. They immigrant youth were raised embracing the same American culture and customs as every other American youth individual. Thus, by gaining a deeper understanding of the privileges the youth generation has had by growing up in the U.S, is by examining the past of their own families and identifying where their own families historical immigration stories began.

IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success)

Founded by UCLA staff, teachers, and the immigrant student population, the IDEAS advocacy group was founded in October of 2003. IDEAS is distinctly the first immigrant support organization that exists for and is maintained by the immigrant youth. IDEAS advocacy group exists to be a leader and support group for the immigrant community that exists within UCLA and its local community. IDEAS strives for the equal representation of the immigrant community in higher education. IDEAS also advocates for fair immigration reform through comprehensive legislation. The immigrant youth advocate for immigration reform through comprehensive legislation that will equally recognizes the contributions of the undocumented immigrants to the American society. The immigrant youth students of the IDEAS advocacy group strive to maintain a presence of support in immigrant communities. They educate undocumented immigrants both young and old of the valid processes of staying legitimate in America and how best seek proper documentation and social and psychological well-being within themselves to not lose their faith in the American political system. Through mentoring programs conducting by IDEAS as well as informational workshops, student advocacy panels, the Annual Educator’s Conference and Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference, and other community events, the immigrant youth are making a difference in the lives of many undocumented immigrants’ lives. Through community fundraising, community service, and various events led by the immigrant youth through IDEAS, the advocacy group tries to support the community by hosting events to share information to undocumented communities about the resources available to the undocumented youth in their families. Through these events and spreading awareness to the undocumented youth, IDEAS is ultimately there to let other undocumented immigrant youth individuals know that they are not alone-they too know the same issues and feelings they face as being both American raised and unequally excluded from contributing to the American society they feel they belong to.