Coming out of America’s closet: undocumented and brave

In the wee hours of Jan. 2, a college student named Angy who lives in Queens posted a long list of resolutions for 2011 on

Angy

Facebook. Donate blood. Try bungee jumping. See a drag queen perform. Be a better me.…

For a 20-year-old young woman, none of it was particularly unpredictable, unless you read further. … Take a plane for the first time. Learn to drive. Get a passport.

Brought to the U.S. by her mother at the age of 3, Angy is part of a shadow generation that is American in every way except one. For years, the closest thing to official identification she possessed was the student card issued by her high school.

Nearly two million people in the U.S. share her story. Arriving illegally in the U.S. as children, they have grown up and, in many cases, thrived in a place where their future options are severely limited. They face a stark choice: Return to countries they don’t know, or spend a lifetime hiding in the place they call home.

Angy is one of a growing group of young activists – “this generation’s civil-rights pioneers,” says one immigration advocate – who have agitated for a third option. With demonstrations, hunger strikes and sit-ins, they pushed a small but powerful piece of legislation to the forefront of the U.S. political agenda late last year. Known as the Dream Act, it offered a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.

The bill came tantalizingly close to becoming law before foundering in the U.S. Senate. Now, young people like Angy are back in limbo, but they are done with hiding. “[They] aren’t going anywhere – this is their home,” says Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a group that advocates more liberal immigration laws.

Continue reading at The Globe and Mail…

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