{"id":7088,"date":"2017-10-30T19:18:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T23:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=7088"},"modified":"2017-10-30T19:22:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T23:22:39","slug":"solidarity-with-dreamers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2017\/10\/solidarity-with-dreamers-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Solidarity With Dreamers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Organizers<\/a>(Trinity Students, DREAMers with Sr. Mary Johnson)<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, October 24, 2017 the Trinity community gathered for an extraordinary symposium devote to teaching, learning and advocacy for DREAMers and passage of the DREAM Act in Congress.\u00a0 Throughout the day, several hundred students, faculty, staff and friends packed Social Hall and O’Connor Auditorium to listen to a remarkable range of speakers, hear the stories of our DREAMers, and take immediate action through organizing petitions and letters to Congress.\"Dreamer<\/a>I am so grateful to the principal organizers of the symposium:\u00a0 Trinity Dreamer Alliance Leaders Sadhana Singh and Yarely Rodriguez (photo above) and all of the Dreamers who worked with them on the day’s program; Professor Matt Bates and Dean Sita Ramamurti, Dr. Konia Kollehlon and Sr. Mary Johnson, Distinguished Professor and former Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly ’58, Dr. Allen Pietrobon and all CAS faculty and staff who participated.\u00a0 Thanks to student photographer Summer Faulk ’18 whose photos appear throughout this blog.\u00a0 Many thanks as well to Vice President Ann Pauley and her team, including alumna Elizabeth Palmer ’92, who coordinated so many details with the office of Leader Pelosi.<\/p>\n

\"Nancy<\/a>(Photo by Trinity Student Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

\"Nancy<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

\"Pelosi<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

We were so deeply honored that our alumna and friend House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ’62<\/a> was able to find time in her schedule to come to the symposium and offer insights on the current legislative proposals, words of encouragement and a call to action, along with some warm and funny memories of her Trinity days.\u00a0 Thank you, Leader Pelosi!\u00a0 (Click on this link to see photo and mention of Trinity<\/a> in Washington Post story about Leader Pelosi.)\u00a0 (And Click Here to see a beautiful photo<\/a> of Leader Pelosi and Sadhana Singh on the Leader’s weekly roundup.)<\/p>\n

\"Don<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

We were also gratified that Donald Graham (above), co-founder of TheDream.US and benefactor for so many Trinity students via DC TAG and DC CAP, could spend a large portion of the day with us and share his thoughts on the path forward.<\/p>\n

\"Bishop<\/a>We also were delighted that Washington Archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville-Rodriguez (speaking, above) could participate in the closing panel on the work and witness of the faith community, and he shared insights into the strong stance of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on DACA and Dreamers and immigration policy for justice.<\/p>\n

\"Audience\"<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>Thanks to Dr. Konia Kollehlon, above, whose opening lecture provided a great overview of U.S. immigration policy.<\/p>\n

We also are so grateful that representatives of the major advocacy and support groups participated, including:<\/p>\n

Christian Penichet-Paul from the National Immigration Forum
\nGreisa Martinez Rosas of United We Dream
\nParomita Shah of the National Immigration Project
\nSandra Alcala of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
\nClaudia Quinonez of United We Dream
\nJavier Bustamonte of the Ministerio Hispano of the Archdiocese of Washignton
\nCelia Rivas with Immigration Services of Catholic Charities
\nJeff Chenowish of CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network)<\/p>\n

Our campus community was also so moved to listen to the stories of our DREAMers including these young women whose panel was a highlight of the day.<\/p>\n

\"Sadhana<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18, Sadhana Singh Introducing Nancy Pelosi)<\/p>\n

\"Pelosi<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

During the Symposium History Professor Dr. Allen Pietrobon ran a bank of computers for participants to write letters to Congress; by the end of the day he had more than 70 letters and more than 200 signatures on a petition that he delivered the next day to Congress.<\/p>\n

My Remarks at the Opening of the Symposium:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

We gather today in a moment of crisis, concern, and collective commitment to using our best advocacy to reverse the dreadful action of the Trump Administration in rescinding DACA protections and pursuing an ongoing course of government action that is actively hostile to immigrants.\u00a0 Today we will hear from, and share ideas with, a number of policy advocates, immigration lawyers, a leading member of Congress, a bishop who will speak about the efforts of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to persuade the Administration to step back from these unjust and inhumane policies.\u00a0 We will also hear from Don Graham, the former owner and publisher of the Washington Post who is the founder of the Dream.US, the organization that supports so many students.\u00a0 Most of all, we will hear from our Dreamers and their sister students, as well as faculty and staff, and together, we will plan the path forward to continue advocacy every single day until we achieve justice.<\/p>\n

Some context for today\u2019s sessions:<\/p>\n

In 2012, after years of Congressional stalemate on immigration reform, President Obama took the humane step to create DACA \u2014 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals \u2014 to extend some minimal legal status to undocumented young people.\u00a0 Since then, more than 800,000 Dreamers have received DACA permits to work, get drivers\u2019 licenses, come out of the shadows.\u00a0 Current data shows that 95% are in school or employed, often both at the same time.\u00a0 More than 20,000 are teachers, now at risk.\u00a0 Dreamers contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the national economy.\u00a0 These young people are often the sole support for their extended families. They pay taxes and contribute to the well-being of their communities.\u00a0 Polls show that the majority of Americans support restoration of DACA and even a pathway to citizenship.<\/p>\n

I first became familiar with DACA when my good friend Donald Graham invited me to a meeting to discuss a new scholarship program he was creating for Dreamers.\u00a0 Mr. Graham is an amazing philanthropist and civic leader; he was the driving force behind the creation of the DC Tuition Assistance Grant program, known as DC-TAG, and the parallel DC-CAP program.\u00a0 Through his leadership thousands of Trinity students from DC received important grants to support their education here.\u00a0 So, when Mr. Graham asked me to come learn about a new scholarship program for Dreamers, I responded with enthusiasm.\u00a0 He and his partners raised tens of millions in scholarship support to offset the fact that Dreamers are not eligible for federal financial aid.\u00a0 With the scholarships from TheDream.US as well as some very generous private benefactors who have given additional gifts to support our students, Trinity now enrolls more than 100 Dreamers this year.<\/p>\n

Trinity\u2019s Dreamers are among our most accomplished students.\u00a0 They are active in student government and campus activities.\u00a0 They are leaders of service initiatives. They excel in many sports and have won academic honors and recognition.\u00a0 They exemplify Trinity\u2019s 120 year-old mission commitments to women\u2019s leadership, to social justice, to academic excellence, to honor and integrity, to service to others.<\/p>\n

Beyond Dreamers, we are deeply concerned as well about the status of immigrants and threats to roll back the traditional American welcome and hospitality for people from around the world.\u00a0 Many outstanding Trinity students in all academic units are also immigrants or are the children of immigrants.\u00a0 All of us surely have an immigration story.\u00a0 My own grandparents, who I never knew, made perilous journeys from Ireland and Italy in the early 20th Century.\u00a0 They were fleeing poverty and oppression in their native lands.\u00a0 They arrived in this country virtually penniless, struggled and suffered great discrimination, and did not live long enough to see how well their struggles blossomed into success stories in the second generation.<\/p>\n

Immigrants built America, and the United States became a great nation because of the contributions of generations of immigrants.\u00a0 It makes absolutely no sense economically, socially or morally to retreat from the posture of hospitality, welcome and support that once characterized this nation\u2019s outreach to persons from other nations.\u00a0 But, sadly, in the current political climate, a virulent nativism has taken over too many politicians who are pandering for votes among a \u201cbase\u201d that thrives on racial and ethnic hatred, ignorance and fear.\u00a0 The stoking of fear and hatred of \u201cthe other\u201d quite obviously discriminates against people based on their looks, their language, their religion and culture.\u00a0 You might notice that nobody\u2019s clamoring for a wall across the northern border. White supremacy and anti-immigrant movements are the evil twins of oppression against people who are different from the white majority — a group that will soon lose its majority as the force of sociology continues to drive change for the most pluralistic nation the world will ever know sometime very soon.<\/p>\n

What can we do in the face of so much outrageous injustice?\u00a0 We must find ways to channel anger into action.\u00a0 We have to be bold and courageous in speaking out against the movements that brought us to this awful moment in American history.\u00a0 We have to use our intellectual power to study the options and advocate for the best solutions.<\/p>\n

We need to confront and call out those who misuse principles of law to approve offenses against humanity.\u00a0 Just last week I was on a panel about DACA, and another panelist was a government official who kept saying that well, we hate what\u2019s happening with these fine young people, but \u201cthe law is the law.\u201d\u00a0 Seriously, I am a lawyer, too, and I know darn right well that there are many laws that are unjust and that beg for just solutions.\u00a0 DACA was a just solution to a chronically unjust situation that Congress failed to remediate for many years.<\/p>\n

We need to change the law, yes, but in the absence of Congressional action DACA was a fair and just solution for undocumented youth who are in this country already.\u00a0 Our nation has a tragic history of human rights abominations embedded in law, from the 3\/5 compromise in the original Constitution that was only abolished with the 14th Amendment after the Civil War; to the notorious case of Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial segregation in 1896 until overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education; to laws that prohibited inter-racial marriage, or that discriminated against gay people, or that place undue burdens on exercising voting rights.\u00a0 We have both a right and an obligation to speak out against unjust laws, to demand fair and humane and equitable legal solutions, and to insist that political leaders have the moral integrity to make decisions in favor of protecting human rights.<\/p>\n

We need to bring an unabashed moral sensibility to our advocacy.\u00a0 Many of the same politicians who have hailed the president\u2019s decision to end DACA and who support building the wall also claim to be \u201cpro-life.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a travesty!\u00a0 The American bishops have been very clear that support for immigrants and refugees and Dreamers is very much part of being \u201cpro-life\u201d and living the ideals of social justice.<\/p>\n

We must stand for justice and support the right to lives of dignity and purpose for Dreamers and all immigrants, a principle clearly stated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and many other faith leaders. The United States would not be the great nation it is today but for the many and still-awesome contributions of immigrants from all nations across many centuries.\u00a0 We insist that our government do the right thing by protecting Dreamers and their families, and at long last taking steps in the right direction to develop a sane, responsible approach to immigration policy.\u00a0 The moral imperative of real justice demands a restoration of at least minimal civil and human rights for Dreamers, and preferably, passage of The Dream Act as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

We will keep the inspiration of this day alive — In the words of the late Senator Ted Kennedy about the need to remain relentless in the cause of justice:\u00a0 “…the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Photo by Summer Faulk ’18)<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>\"students<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trinity community came together on October 24 to express solidarity with Dreamers on campus and everywhere in a symposium packed with great dialogue, major presentations and a spirit of acting together for social justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[688,509,16,787,20,23,24,25],"tags":[1597,1915,1914,1732,1237,552,1336,227,307,1913,1337],"class_list":["post-7088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-issues","category-civil-human-rights","category-faculty","category-political-issues","category-politics","category-social-issues","category-social-justice-issues","category-students","tag-bishops-and-immigration","tag-catholic-charities","tag-clinic","tag-daca","tag-donald-graham","tag-dream-act","tag-dreamers","tag-immigration","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-national-immigration-project","tag-thedream-us"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}