User:Dreamer movement/Mohammad Abdollahi

Mohammad Abdollahi is an Iranian-American community organizer and a champion of the DREAM Act from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was one of five student immigrants, four of which were undocumented, to participate in a sit-in rally in Senator John McCain's office in Tuscan, AZ on Monday, May 17th, 2010 in support of immigration reform. He and the other four undocumented immigrants are currently facing trespassing charges and possible deportation.

Early Life
When he was three years old, local community college student Mohammed, who asked that his last name not be printed because he is in the country illegally, immigrated to Ann Arbor from Iran with his parents in 1989.

He has lived here ever since, attending Ann Arbor public schools for his entire primary education. But because of a lawyer’s filing mistake when his parents first arrived in the United States, he remains an undocumented immigrant.

Mohammed has taken the maximum amount of transferable credits at a Michigan community college and wants to finish his degree in social work at the University of Michigan. However, due to high tuition costs and a lack of eligibility for in-state tuition or financial aid because he is undocumented, he cannot attend the University.

Dream Act
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (The "DREAM Act") is a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that was introduced in the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives on March 26, 2009. This bill would provide certain undocumented alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. as minors, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency. The alien students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have "acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor's degree or higher degree in the United States," or have "served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge."[1] "Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated [according to the terms of the Act] shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act." [2]

Mohammed said if the DREAM Act were to pass, it would help him finish college and earn a degree in social work. "[The DREAM Act] would enable me to go to school and finish my degree, my master’s and bachelor’s, and then actually be able to give back to the community that I’ve pretty much grown up in my whole life", Mohammad Abdollahi asserted to the Michigan Daily on April on April 12th, 2009.

SB1070
The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (known before its enactment as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 or simply Arizona SB 1070)[1] is legislation signed into law in the U.S. state of Arizona by governor Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010.[2] It is the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades[2] and has received national and international attention and spurred controversy including strong criticism and organized protests.[3] Boycotts of Arizona were also quickly organized in response, including one by the City of Los Angeles announced on May 12 which prohibits city contracts with companies headquartered in Arizona, currently valued at $56 million, along with similar boycotts by other California cities including San Francisco and Oakland.[4]

The act is scheduled to go into effect on July 28, 2010, ninety days after the end of the legislative session.[5][6] Legal challenges over its constitutionality and compliance with civil rights law are expected.[7][8][9][10][11]

The act makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying registration documents required by federal law, steps up state and local law enforcement of Federal immigration laws, and cracks down on those sheltering, hiring and transporting illegal aliens. The paragraph on intent in the legislation says it embodies an "attrition through enforcement" doctrine.[1]:§ 1[12]

Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say the law simply enforces existing federal law.[13] The law was modified by Arizona House Bill 2162 within a week of its signing with the goal of addressing some of these concerns. There have been protests in opposition to the law in over 70 U.S. cities,[14] including calls for a boycott of Arizona.[15] Polling found the law has majority support in Arizona and nationwide.[16][17][18][19] Passage of the measure has prompted other states to consider adopting similar legislation.[20]

AZ Sit-in
In an escalation of protest tactics, five immigrants dressed in caps and gowns held a sit-in on Monday at the Tucson offices of Senator John McCain, calling on him to sponsor legislation to open a path to legal status for young illegal immigrants.

Four of the protesters, including three who are in the country illegally, were arrested Monday evening on misdemeanor trespassing charges. The three were expected to face deportation proceedings.

It was the first time students have directly risked deportation in an effort to prompt Congress to take up a bill that would benefit illegal immigrant youths. Separately on Monday, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Phoenix by a coalition of civil rights, labor and religious groups challenging the new Arizona law that allows the police to detain suspected illegal immigrants as unconstitutional, saying it would lead to racial profiling.

Though it was the fifth suit challenging the law, it was widely believed to have the best chance of being heard by the courts given the groups’ experience and the nature of the complaint. Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said of the protesters, “The individuals have a right to peacefully protest in the senator’s office,” and added that Mr. McCain “understands the students’ frustrations.”

But she said: “Elections have consequences, and they should focus their efforts on the president and the Democrats that control the agenda in Congress.” Mr. McCain, a Republican, has in years past repeatedly sponsored a bill that would offer legalization for illegal immigrant students who were brought to the United States as children by their parents, known to its supporters as the Dream Act. But this year he has not. Mr. McCain is facing a primary challenge from J.D Hayworth, a talk show host who has taken a tough stand on illegal immigrants.

The students protesting in Mr. McCain’s office said they wanted to increase pressure on Congress to pass the Dream Act this year, even if lawmakers do not take up a broader overhaul of the immigration system. The student bill is currently part of a Democratic proposal for an overhaul, largely written by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York.

“I’ve been organizing for years, and a lot of my friends have become frustrated and lost hope,” said one of the students, Lizbeth Mateo, 25. “We don’t have any more time to be waiting. I really believe this year we can make it happen.” Ms. Mateo, who came to the United States when she was 14, said she paid full tuition to earn a degree from California State University, Northridge, the first member of her family to graduate from college. She said her plans to attend law school had failed because she lacked legal status.

Ms. Mateo was arrested, along with Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, of Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Yahaira Carrillo, 25, of Kansas City, Mo. All three are illegal immigrants. Also arrested was Raúl Alcaraz, 27, an immigrant from Mexico who is a legal resident and a counselor at a Tucson high school.

The protesters walked into Mr. McCain’s office just before noon and sat in the lobby. Tania Unzueta, 26, who is from Los Angeles, joined the sit-in, but she said the group decided she should leave the protest in order to avoid arrest. Mr. Abdollahi said he could not return to Iran, where he was born, because he is gay and feared persecution there.

Margo Cowan, a lawyer representing the students, said that the Tucson police said they would advise federal immigration authorities of the arrests, and that she expected the students would be put in immigration detention. Illegal immigrant students have become increasingly public in their protests in recent months, as the prospects for an immigration overhaul faded in Washington. Four immigrant students walked from Miami to Washington, arriving in late April. So far, immigration authorities have not moved to detain student protesters.

Lawmakers are divided over whether to take up the Dream Act as separate legislation. Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, a Republican who is a lead sponsor of the bill, said that the senator did not support any effort to advance a comprehensive immigration overhaul this year, but that he believed the Dream Act could be “doable” separately.

An aide to Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat who is the act’s other lead sponsor, said he continued to see it as part of an overhaul.

Lawyers for the groups that filed the suit over the Arizona immigration law Monday took aim at a chief argument of its supporters: that it largely parallels existing federal statutes. The lawyers said the Arizona law went further because federal agents are not required to check the immigration status of people they stop or arrest, as the state law requires.

In the Media
The story regarding the sit-in on May 17th, 2010 was broken by local television news station KOOP 13 and the US nationally recognized New York Times.