Undocumented 'Dreamers' organize in Contra Costa County to help others avoid deportation

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 09/18/2012 | Theresa Harrington Contra Costa Times

[moonshinner_09]

RICHMOND -- When Carlos Martinez was 11 years old, he jumped the border ¿in Arizona between Mexico and the United States, then made his way across a desert ¿for four days and three nights with his younger sister and a group of about 20 other immigrants. They were led by a "coyote," -- a person paid to smuggle people into the country -- to join his mother in Salinas.

He attended schools in the community and wanted to go to college, but was told by his high school counselor that he couldn't, because he was undocumented.

"I was the first in my family to graduate from high school, so that was a big thing for my mom," the soft-spoken 23-year-old said recently. "But I didn't know what was my future. So, I worked cutting lettuce in the fields for six or seven months."

But Martinez' future would not end in those fields. Today, he is the co-founder of Community Leaders Organizing Undocumented Dreamers, or CLOUD. The nascent group has already held two large outreach events for immigrants interested in applying for President Barack Obama's new deferred action program, which allows young undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation for at least two years and apply for work permits and drivers licenses.

[moonshinner_09]

We are fighting for something bigger than just deferred action," said group co-leader Jose Juan Reyes, 21, who immigrated from Mexico with the help of a "coyote" when he was only 8 years old. His mother was detained three times at the border before getting through on her own.¿ "We are fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, which includes us, our parents, and something that would lead to citizenship for us." ((Why don't they just say we do not want any immigration laws,especially if one of our parents has been caught and detained repeatedly,but now has manage to make it on over and now we fight for her and others like her to get citizenship. Nothing about hiring smugglers, paying them money to help them break the laws ?)

[dalebert]

yes ..lets disobey the law

[ridesthemiles]

These people think I shouldn’t resist?

FAT CHANCE!!!

[SeminoleCounty]

Criminal Illegal Aliens pushing the Hispano-Racist agenda.

I am so sick of it

And, a state like California, nearly broke, cannot afford to pander to Criminal Illegal Aliens