Date/Time
Date(s) - 2013/11/10
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Location
Bay Area Public School
Categories
Members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance and DreamActivist.org will be speaking at The Bay Area Public School on Sunday, November 10th at 5:00PM about the use of direct action by undocumented migrants as part of a West Coast speaking tour. Both organizations were recently featured on the June 21st episode of This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/498/the-one-thing-youre-not-supposed-to-do).
They will be discussing how our broken immigration system has personally impacted them, and their efforts to organize and work for immigrants’ rights. The main speakers have experience helping organize detention center infiltrations and one speaker was a member of the “Dream 9” who was detained after attempting to cross the border demanding to be let in on humanitarian grounds. Biographies of the speakers are below.
Dulce Guerrero was born in Mexico and migrated to the state of Georgia along with her family at the age of two. Growing up she knew that the threat of deportation and family separation was real, but never imagined that it would hit so close to home. In January 2011, Dulce became involved in immigrant’s rights after a traffic violation landed her mother in jail. She is currently an Undocumented youth organizer and the Secure Your Own Community trainer for NIYA. From organizing walk outs, to stopping deportations and participating in civil disobedience Dulce has become active in defending the community which she has been a part of for the last 18 years.
Luis Leon was born in Veracruz, Mexico. At 5 years old, his family moved to North Carolina where he lived until finishing high school in 2011. Not able to afford college due to his immigration status, Luis’ family decided that he would go back to México on his own and continue his educational career there. After he received the news that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was passed, he resolved to come back to the US and return to his home. In July of 2013 Luis got the opportunity to be part of the Dream 9. This group of undocumented youths, who had been deported because of their immigration status, attempted to cross the US border demanding to be let in on humanitarian grounds. Along with the rest of the Dream 9, he was detained and spent 15 days in Eloy Detention center. Through the organizing of NIYA and other organizations, he and the rest of the Dream 9 were released and allowed to return to their homes in the United States.