Every single bit of positive change that comes from President Obama's executive orderon immigration is a testament to directly affected grassroots organizers who have been creative and relentless. The activism of radical "undocumented and unafraid" people, particularly civil disobedience and direct actions including taking over Obama for America offices and infiltrating detention centers, and the courage of the "Bring them Home" and "Not One More" campaigns are major interventions that embarrassed the administration -- the first efforts pushing President Obama to first grant DACA and now temporary relief to an estimated 3.7 million "deserving" people, potentially. At the same time, after years of risky activism, the parents of brave young undocumented organizers will not be covered -- that's a cynical, willfully cruel choice by the President and a blow to the heart of the movement. Their exclusion is unjust. The exclusion of individuals with criminal convictions continues. Families for Freedom members have convictions, many of them felonies and we continue to be labeled as undeserving. So while we are glad for our friends and allies who fought with integrity and achieved temporary relief, the spirit of "celebration" is not what our families are feeling, but rather the spirit of resistance and revolution. We celebrate organizing and creative action -- we celebrate the activism and self-determination of people who fight for the human rights they are denied -- we celebrate fierce love in the face of hate.
[For more of this story, written by Abraham Paulos, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abraham-paulos/people-with-felonies-crim_b_6228310.html]
Comments (0)