Young Activists Use Art to Fight for the DREAM Act

Stokely Baksh, Julianne Hing, Colorlines | July 1, 2011

The federal DREAM Act is back. This week Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the longtime champion of the bill, chaired the first ever Senate hearing on the narrow legalization effort that would allow a select population of undocumented youth a pathway toward citizenship.

Though the bill has been around for a full decade, enjoyed bipartisan support, and even passed the House in a historic vote last December, it fell five votes short of a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate.

The immigrant youth movement continues to push aggressively for the DREAM Act and has begun using its considerable muscle to fight back against anti-immigrant state legislation. This week six high school students in Georgia were arrested for civil disobedience while protesting HB 87, Georgia’s new anti-immigrant state law that goes into effect today.  (Read more)