The Dreamers And The Civil Rights Movement

The dreamers in Nicholls’ book The Dreamers are “undocumented” immigrant youth/students activists who came to the US as children and have lived and schooled there and so, they identify as American citizens. In the year 2000, many undocumented youths from California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Florida came together to fight for equal rights in America by advocating for the Dream Act. The “dreamers” were born after the Dream Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) bill was brought to Congress to grant a legal status to undocumented immigrants. The Dreamers had big expectations and dreams about their future in the United States. Therefore, they came together with other civil rights advocates to fight their way to
They went for series hunger strikes, for example, in New York, they went hungry for about ten days with the reason of pressing Senator Charles Schumer to support their stand-alone dream legislation in the immigrant rights movement. On the other hand, the Dreamers in Texas went on a hunger strike for about 43 days Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a former Dream supporter to support their stand-alone bill. As a result, their fight paid off, and their strategy to pursue an independent bill for the Dreamers was supported by major RIFA (Reform Immigration for America) players. The Dreamers sent messages such as “stand up against hate, and we exist” to Congress as they fought against prejudice against the undocumented in the United States. The youth use these messages in their movement to achieve justice for their families and themselves as immigrants in the United States. They began rallying, marching, and reaching out to other Dreamers to fight against marginalization, and through their stand-alone Dream Act, they chalked many victories.
What were important gains achieved (Federal, state, local) as the result of their new
They were able to achieve this through media campaigns and street demonstrations. In their struggle for the rights of immigrants, the Dreamers have moved to a full-fledged movement that has kept mobilizing several youth organizations to stand up for their equal rights despite being immigrants. Through the introduction of pro-immigrant legislations, the dreamers became a leading group in the immigrant movement. They introduced a branched strategy at local and state levels with goals such as having equal education and employment rights, and other benefits to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients (Nicholls 87).
At the state level, the Dreamers managed to convince President Obama to pass the (DACA) Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals whereby the undocumented youths were provided with a temporary relief of two years from being deported. Locally, the Dreamers movement campaigns saved the immigrants from deportation. In addition, the movement has helped undocumented students to access colleges through scholarships as well as legitimate income. A private scholarship program was launched to serve all the immigrant students without