DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama

Check out this awesome new social media campaign, “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama”, in an effort to get the DREAM Act passed. This is their most recent letter by Lizbeth Mateo.

Transcript after the jump.

Check out more info at Pam’s House Blend.

My name is Lizbeth and I’m undocumented.

Twelve years ago, my family, like many other families, came to this country and left everything behind, hoping to give us a better future and more opportunities. My family sacrificed everything because they saw the potential in me — right away I started going to high school, where I graduated after 4 years. During my 4 years in high school, I learned English, I did the best I could, I took AP classes, I took college classes. My junior year I realized I couldn’t apply to college and universities that I wanted to. I knew that I was undocumented, but I didn’t know the impact that it would have on my life.

Today, families in Arizona are doing just the same. They’re leaving everything behind — their friends, their homes, their communities, because of the fear that they will be detained and deported just walking from home to school or church.

A few months before high school graduation, a law in the state of California called AB540, Assembly Bill 540, and gave access to college education to undocumented youth like myself. I was able to go to community college, and during that time I worked full-time and I went to school — so in 2005, that summer in 2005, two things happened. One, I transferred to a full university, Cal State Northridge, where I eventually go my degree in [inaudible] studies, and I turned 21. What that meant for me was that the immigration process that my parents had filed years ago would no longer apply to me.

Life has become unbearable for immigrant communities in Arizona. This should not happen in a country that is the symbol of freedom and justice and that is why we’re here — to let the world know that racial profiling is not the standard for reform. Time is running out, we need legislation that will allow us to study, work and contribute back to our communities. We want to pass the DREAM Act and set the standard for reform based on equality, hard work, fairness and education.