Houston support for DREAM activists

After 21 undocumented youth and DREAM Act supporters engaged in civil disobedience in Washington, D.C., on July 21, that same evening Texas students held a candlelight vigil at the Federal Building in Houston, demanding the passage of the DREAM Act this year. The DREAM Act is proposed legislation that would give youth who have lived in the U.S. since childhood a pathway to legal status by going to college or serving in the military. Students around the country have stepped up actions this year to get the bill passed, including hunger strikes, sit-ins, rallies, vigils and community forums. In Washington on July 21 they conducted sit-ins in the Hart Senate Building lobby, Sen. John McCain’s office and in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office. At the Houston candlelight vigil, students came forward, one by one, and threw a coin into the “DREAM well” and stated their own dream for themselves and their families. The Houston vigil was called by Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha.