Today Nov 2, 2011 we (Neidi Dominguez,Nancy Meza ,Tony Ortuño, Francisco Bravo and Adrian Gonzalez ) showed up to our arraignment hearing and were told that no charges were filed against us yet. However, the City Attorney of Los Angeles has 1 years to file charges against us as a result from our Oct 12, 2011 sit in at the ICE Chief prosecutor’s office. We wanted to inform the public about this most recent update of our case and thank you for all the support.
We also wanted to use this moment to also further highlight the very flawed criminal and immigration system that currently work hand by hand to prosecute and criminalized immigrants in this country. Although today the five of us were able to walk away from court facing no criminal charges for holding this government accountable for their unjust actions against Dream Act youth and our families in the country. We know that this is not the norm and that in fact we are 5 “lucky” undocumented youth in this country as were able to leave that court as “free” women and men.
We know and we want to make sure that everyone knows that a record number of over one million immigrants have been deported by this Administration who plans to continue these mass deportation immigrants which include Dream Act eligible youth. Even after the June DHS public announcement of the prosecutorial changes we know that deportations continue to rise. We also know the devastation these deportations are causing families, communities and this Nation.
We walked out of that courthouse today further convinced that we must continue to confront and hold President Obama’s administration accountable for their actions to quickly grant Administrative Relief to ALL Dream Act eligible youth. We will not take NO for an answer. We know he has the power and authority to do so and that our communities are becoming evermore agitated and tired of the inactivity of President Obama on immigration policies. If he is counting with our communities for his re-election in 2012 and he will not respond to the issues that matter to our communities then he will need to start listening and acting on issues affecting our community today.
With much love
Neidi, Nancy, Tony, Francisco ( AKA ” Pancho” ) and Adrian