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BAMN Press Release: 10/1/2008

Students Denounce Schwarzenegger's Veto of the CA Dream Act, Pledge to Fight for Undocumented Students' Rights

PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY
Wednesday, October 1st, 11:15 am
UC-Berkeley's Sproul Plaza (Bancroft + Telegraph, Berkeley)

*BAMN organizers available for interviews*

CONTACT:
Ronald Cruz, BAMN UC-Berkeley Organizer (510) 501-2435
Maricruz López (para Espanol) (313) 675-5915 BAMN.com/DreamAct

Last night, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the California Dream Act (SB 1301), which would have recognized the right of undocumented immigrant students to receive campus-based financial aid for college.

"The Governor may have vetoed the Dream Act today, but as long as young people continue to organize and stand up for their rights, we will ultimately win. Our movement is growing larger and more determined. The Governor's policy of discriminating against undocumented immigrant students is unviable. We will fight for our rights and for the economic and social future of California," said Yvette Felarca, Northern California Coordinator of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). "The new, youth-led mass civil rights movement will not stop fighting until separate and unequal treatment of undocumented immigrant students ends and full freedom and equality are ours."

On September 26, BAMN mobilized 2,000 students of all races in a spirited and determined march and rally at the State Capitol. California mayors, Chambers of Commerce, and every major educational institution support the California Dream Act.

"The families of undocumented students pay taxes and make an enormous contribution to California's economy and prosperity, yet their sons and daughters face the same kind of discrimination that young black students experienced in the old Jim Crow south," said Ronald Cruz, a UC-Berkeley student and BAMN organizer. "It is unfair and unjust to ask undocumented students to accept a situation in which their dreams are deferred because of something they could not control and cannot change. Our large and determined march last Friday made clear that the New Jim Crow, like the old Jim Crow, must fall."