Some young immigration activists face deportation

Last year, young immigrant activists went on hunger strikes, staged sit-ins at senators' offices, and attended protests on Capitol Hill, clad in graduation caps and gowns. They risked deportation by "coming out"--admitting publicly they were illegal immigrants--all to show their support for the 10-year-old DREAM Act, legislation that would have allowed illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children to become documented if they went to college or joined the military.

Despite the vocal backing of President Obama, the bill failed in the Senate in December, amid objections, chiefly from GOP lawmakers, that it amounted to amnesty and would encourage more illegal immigration.

Now, some of the young people who just a few months ago were holding forth the hope that they could become legal residents in the country they grew up in are facing deportation. One such activist is Prerna Lal, a George Washington University law student who founded the DreamActivist site in 2007 for young illegal immigrants to connect and organize to get the law passed.

Lal told The Lookout that getting the notice last week to appear in immigration court is a "major distraction"--especially as she's taking her first-year law exams. Her grandmother--who is a U.S. citizen—appealed for her to be able to stay in the country, but the application was denied. Lal plans on appealing the decision and thinks that by the time the infamously backlogged immigration court system would order her removal, she will already be a lawyer and thus able to defend herself.

Unlike many so-called DREAMers, Lal's parents are legal U.S. residents, and will soon be citizens. Because her all of her family members are citizens or legal residents, Lal says she didn't realize she was undocumented until she was 22. She was born in Fiji.

Lal and other DREAMers are asking Obama why his administration is deporting them, since he says he believes they should have the opportunity to be citizens if they get a higher education or join the military.

"Obama is saying one thing and ... he's still going on and targeting and removing people from this country," Lal said.

Another young student, Karen Maldonado, confronted Obama in a town hall meeting televised by Univision last month, holding up her deportation letter and asking why his administration would seek to deport people who would qualify for citizenship under the DREAM Act.

"With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case," Obama said to Maldonado, after reiterating his support for the DREAM Act. "There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president."

Twenty-two Democratic senators wrote to Obama this week asking him to do just that: defer deportations for all young people who would have qualified for legal status under the DREAM Act. "The exercise of prosecutorial discretion in light of law enforcement priorities and limited resources has a long history in this nation and is fully consistent with our strong interest in the rule of law," they wrote.

Seven young DREAM Act protesters in Georgia who were arrested for blocking a street last week will not be deported by federal authorities, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Under the federal program Secure Communities, an illegal immigrant who is taken to a local jail for any crime can be picked up by federal agents and deported.

The U.S. government deported more people last year than ever before. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its priority is to deport dangerous criminals--but about half of the people deported last year were not convicted of any crime. There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

(A 15-year-old illegal immigrant protesting against anti-illegal immigration laws in Georgia: AP)