An economy that works for everyone

Momentum is growing to create an economy that works for everyone, in the U.S. and across the globe. Events are planned throughout the world concurrent with the G20 summit in London next week.

Jobs with Justice and student groups have hundreds of events planned from March 27-April 4 around the themes "Resistance & Recovery" and "Resist and Reclaim our Future."

Here's how you can participate in and support these actions:

1) Support the DREAM Act!

2) Find a JwJ action near you

3) Find a student-led action near you

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, reintroduced in Congress yesterday, is bipartisan legislation that addresses the situation faced by young people who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children, and who have since grown up here, stayed in school, and kept out of trouble.

If passed, the DREAM Act would facilitate access to college for immigrant students in the U.S. by restoring states’ rights to offer in-state tuition to immigrant students residing in their state. The “DREAM Act” would also provide a path to citizenship for hardworking immigrant youth who were brought to the U.S. as young children and to pursue higher education or military service, enabling them to contribute fully to our society.

More about the DREAM Act:

Each year, about 65,000 U.S.-raised students who would qualify for the DREAM Act graduate from high school. These include honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists, homecoming queens, and aspiring teachers, doctors, and U.S. soldiers. They are young people who have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives and desire only to call this country their home. Even though they were brought to the U.S. years ago as children, they face unique barriers to higher education, are unable to work legally in the United States, and often live in constant fear of detection by immigration authorities.

Our immigration laws currently have no mechanism to consider the special equities and circumstances of such students. By enacting the DREAM Act, Congress would legally recognize what is de facto true: these young people belong here. DREAM Act students should be allowed to get on with their lives.

If Congress fails to act this year, another entire class of outstanding, law-abiding high school students will graduate without being able to plan for the future, and some will be removed from their homes to countries they barely know. This tragedy will cause America to lose a vital asset: an educated class of promising immigrant students who have demonstrated a commitment to hard work and a strong desire to be contributing members of our society.

Let's bring these students out of the shadows, out from underground. Tell President Obama and Congress to pass the DREAM Act in 2009. Talented students and their families living in fear of raids and ripped apart by deportations, cannot afford to wait for change.