Monday, July 16, 2007

Small victory for Jose. . .

Since many are asking, I thought I'd go ahead and provide an update on Jose (see post earlier this morning below).

The Court granted a continuance to Jose and his attorney so that adequate preparation can be made to seek relief for him in the deportation proceedings filed against him.

He will be required to appear again on November 5, 2007.

Between now than then, we intend to mount a letter-writing campaign to every member of the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate seeking passage of "The Dream Act."

This legislation could provide relief to the children of undocumented immigrants by allowing them to remain in the country with the documents they need. The only requirement would be that they are enrolled in higher education or join the U. S. military and continue to demonstrate standards of high character.

I hope you will join me today by writing your U. S. Senators and your Representative.

When you write, you could help our campaign by forwarding on to me a copy of your letters.

You may email letters to me at ljames@CentralDallasMinistries.org and/or mail them to me at Central Dallas Ministries, P. O. Box 710385, Dallas, Texas 75371-0385.

Thanks for your concern and your prayers.

Now, we need your action!

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3 comments:

owldog1 said...

How do they join the US military if they are not citizens? Does the military help them become a citizen so they can join the military?

Larry James said...

The U. S. military does not make citizenship a requirement for service. One must be a legal resident to apply for and be accepted as members of the U. S. Armed Forces. Currently, approximately 35,000 non-citizens are serving in the U. S. miliary. See http://www.cna.org/documents/D0011092.a2.pdf for a good, recent study of the situation.

The Dream Act would provide the young people involved with legal resident status which would qualify them to serve the U. S.

Historical note: the U. S. military has always accepted non-citizens, many of whom have serve with valor.

owldog1 said...

I agree, if they are going to serve in the US military the least we could do is make them legal residents.