Victory for Mayra Garibo and our Summer 2021 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program - Newsletter 3/25/2021

Read the full newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/b8d44ef63e80/victory-for-mayra-garibo-and-our-summer-2021california-mexico-dreamers-study-abroad-program

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After 3 years of advocacy, victory at last for Mayra Garibo's Advance Parole story!

After more than 3 years of strenuous advocacy and emotional hardship, today we celebrate Mayra Garibo's victory in acquiring a DACA Advance Parole travel permit, which will allow her to reconnect with her family in Mexico and to participate in our Summer 2021 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Programs as part of our CMSC Staff !!!

As you may recall her story, Mayra is a DACA recipient whose father suddenly died due to an accident in Mexico on January 11, 2018. Since then, Mayra has been unsuccessful in attaining a Humanitarian Advance Parole permit to travel to Mexico to care for her ailing grandparents and pay her respects to her beloved father, whom she had not seen in more than 17 years at the time of his passing.

Since her first application in January 2018, USCIS denied her multiple attempts to apply for a humanitarian Advance Parole permit because the Trump Administration capriciously cancelled the Advance Parole immigration provision for all DACA recipients, after announcing the initial rescinding of the DACA program. Ever since, Mayra has been advocating for her own case, and that of many Dreamers who suffered a loss similar to hers.

In fact, after learning about Mayra's heartbreaking story, and her willingness to advocate for the restoration of the Advance Parole provision for DACA recipients, Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos and the California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) decided to create the National Campaign to Restore DACA's Advance Parole. And we have been the only organization actively advocating for DACA's AP at the national level since early 2018.

Therefore, we welcome and celebrate Mayra's long-overdue Advance Parole approval, and are committed to continue to advocate for all 220 Summer 2021 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program participants, so that they can travel to Mexico this summer as planned !!!

Check out Advance Parole (2018), a 30 minute documentary directed by Lidieth Arevalo and produced by the CMSC, which follows Mayra Garibo's Advance Parole journey.

Advance Parole (2018) - Documentary from Lidieth Arevalo on Vimeo.

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Share our letter addressed to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the USCIS Director

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Last week, the CMSC sent a letter urging DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and USCIS Director Tracy Renaud, to expedite approval of Educational Advance Parole applications for 84 Dreamers participating in our Summer 2021 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program.  If you haven't read it yetread the full letter here.

Also please help us reshare this tweet addressed to DHS Sec. Mayorkas to call attention to our letter!

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Can Senator Alex Padilla Deliver on Immigration Reform?

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By SARAH D. WIRELOS ANGELES TIMES – MARCH 24, 2021

WASHINGTON — Twenty-seven years after Alex Padilla hit the streets with hundreds of thousands of California Latinos to protest the anti-immigrant Proposition 187, he finds himself in a position to help deliver the change he has long sought. All he has to do is persuade Washington to do something it has been unable to achieve since the Reagan administration: pass a major immigration reform bill.

The first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate, Padilla has optimism that legislation is possible under President Biden, who has said that comprehensive immigration reform is a priority, and with Democratic control of the Senate and House... Read Full Article

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Ethnic Studies Redux: Professor Rudy Acuña Still Has Work to Do

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By: Jeff BiggersCommon Dreams – March 23, 2021

"The pandemic is not an excuse for mediocrity", declared Dr. Rodolfo "Rudy" Acuña, as he worked on another commentary in a rigorous writing schedule that would defy any Covid blues.

As the debate over Ethnic Studies brews in California and the Biden administration transitions into power, the 88-year-old founding chair of the landmark Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University-Northridge has little time for small talk. Notwithstanding a host of serious health setbacks over the past year, Acuña is in the process of putting together a collection of his nearly 1,000 essays, tentatively titled, “My Journey Out of Purgatory... Read Full Article

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Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says 'border is closed' but U.S. won't expel children

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BY: ZACHARY WARMBRODTPOLITICO – MARCH 23, 2021

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the Biden administration's decision to not expel children arriving in the U.S. amid a migrant surge along the southern border, arguing "that's not who we are."

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mayorkas said "the border is closed" and that the U.S. was expelling families and adults but will not turn back "young, vulnerable children." He said the Biden administration was working to develop new policies to address the problem with Mexico and Central American countries that are the source of the asylum seekers. He blamed former President Donald Trump for having "dismantled the orderly, humane and efficient way" of dealing with the migrant children... Read Full Article

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Facts on Mexican-origin Latinos in the U.S., 2017

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BY LUIS NOE-BUSTAMANTEANTONIO FLORES AND SONO SHAHPEW RESEARCH CENTER – SEP. 16, 2019

An estimated 36.6 million Hispanics of Mexican origin lived in the United States in 2017, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Mexicans in this statistical profile are people who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin; this includes immigrants from Mexico and those who trace their family ancestry to Mexico.

Mexicans are the largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 62% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2017. Since 2000, the Mexican-origin population has increased 76%, growing from 20.9 million to 36.6 million over the period. At the same time, the Mexican foreign-born population living in the U.S. grew by 29%, from 8.7 million in 2000... Read Full Article

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Read the full newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/b8d44ef63e80/victory-for-mayra-garibo-and-our-summer-2021california-mexico-dreamers-study-abroad-program