With Congress returning from the Thanksgiving recess, a vote on the DREAM Act could happen as early as this week.

Today and tomorrow there are events across the country, calling for immediate passage of the DREAM Act.

DREAMers are fasting for justice in Texas and Indiana. The fasting has spread to multiple locations in Texas, all aimed at gaining support from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has said she will vote NO on the bill.

Started two weeks ago by a dozen students at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the hunger strike spread this week to UT campuses in Austin, Dallas, Arlington, Brownsville and Edinburg, as well as the University of North Texas in Denton, according to members of DREAM Act NOW!, the UTSA student group that organized the strike. (via MySanAntonio)

In Ohio, an entire community has rallied around Bernard Pastor, an 18 year old honor student and soccer star who is under deportation proceedings after a minor car accident. His fellow classmates and Reading, Ohio community has been activated around the issue of the DREAM Act, even organizing 19 students to visit Pastor in a detention center where he is currently being held over 100 miles away from his home.

Brandon Minor, 19, a Wilmington College student who graduated with Pastor, organized the visit Saturday and is planning another protest this coming Saturday at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton – like Morrow County’s jail, a federal detainee site.

“It’s about Bernard,” Minor said. “We’re listening to him. If he does get sent to Guatemala, we want to know where we could send him money. We will do whatever he needs.”

Jenny So, 18, of Sharonville, another 2010 Reading graduate, walked out of the visiting room to the women’s restroom to compose herself.

A few minutes later, she said, “It was great to see him but heartbreaking to have to talk to him through the glass. He doesn’t deserve this. It’s unfair. It’s wrong.”

She blinked hard. (via Cincinnati.com)

On the national front, the Wall Street Journal has officially endorsed the DREAM Act, calling it “A Worth Immigration Bill”.

The immigration debate continues to fester in the absence of any White House leadership. But it’s in the interests of the country that Republicans in the next Congress find some room for compromise, and pending legislation aimed at undocumented youths is a good place to start.

The Dream Act would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who attend college or join the military. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that he will schedule a vote on the measure during the lame duck session of Congress. (via the WSJ)

And today, Newsweek profiles Representative Luis Gutierrez in his fight for the DREAM Act and continued promise to hold President Obama to his word.

Though the two Chicago Democrats were once close, Gutierrez has spent much of the past two years badgering the president on the issue. “He was clear in his commitment to me,” says Gutierrez. And yet “everything has been enforcement, enforcement, enforcement”—more deportations of undocumented immigrants, more troops on the border. “How,” asks Gutierrez, “is this different from what George W. Bush did?” (via Newsweek)

If DREAMers are starving for the DREAM and Gutierrez is being gutsy enough to stand up to President Obama, you can certainly make a phone call. Right?

Click here to tell your Senator you’re counting on their support of the DREAM Act. Will they stand up for students like Bernard or will they cower behind the demagoguery of people like Jeff Sessions? It’s their choice, but we have to be sure they make the right now.

Call your Senator now>>

Yesterday, Representative Luis Gutierrez rang the opening bell on the fight for immigration reform in 2010. Below is a (non-exhaustive) round-up of both blog and media coverage.

To kick it off, we have Representative Luis Gutierrez’s own words about why the time is NOW:

“This is a crisis. It’s a crisis of human and civil rights, it’s a crisis of our economy and our workforce, and it’s a crisis of national security. This is why we cannot wait any longer.”

From the of Peace and Politics blog:

“I attended the press conference for the introduction of the bill and, let me tell you, the room was packed. Members of Congress, Congressional staff, members of the press, immigration advocates, faith leaders, and immigrants of all backgrounds crowded into the room, cheering “Yes we can!” The energy was fantastic. While a lot of work remains for us to achieve humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform, Rep. Gutierrez’s bill offers important elements of reform.”

Feet in 2 Worlds discuss why yesterday was both important and historic:

The move by Gutierrez means that a plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system is being introduced in a forum where no one has dared take it since 2007, when the last reform proposal died on Capitol Hill.

And the general strategy behind what CIR ASAP means for the broader political landscape of immigration reform in 2010:

Gutierrez’s effort could be considered a means of pressuring other Democrats toward a more progressive position.

Something Marisa at Latina Lista also comments on:

While Gutierrez and advocates admit that immigration reform is on the backburner for the time being for the Obama Administration, at least until the healthcare bill passes, this bill lays the starting foundation from which to eventually craft a bill that will recognize the problems that exist in our current immigration policies and clarifies the issue of border security

America’s Voice celebrates the bill, but highlights this is just the start of the fight:

“Today is the first step in what I anticipate will be a six month, all-out-fight to pass real, comprehensive reform that restores justice to our broken immigration system.  When it is signed into law, this legislation will be one of the largest leaps forward for civil rights that our nation has seen in over 30 years.”

The Service Employees International Union:

“Every day Congress delays, today’s dysfunctional system further drives down wages, costs taxpayers, devastates communities, and further undermines the rule of law. Until Congress passes comprehensive reforms, workers will continue to be pitted against each other–denied the opportunity to unite their strength and demand the labor and civil rights protections we need to lift our economy and raise living standards for everyone. This is unacceptable.”

From Duke at the Sanctuary, who dissects the future flow portions of the bill:

Perhaps the most effective method to address both labor demands and future immigration flow we’ve seen in any of the myriad of immigration reform proposals that have come down the pike in the last few years.

Rather than letting business interests, with their insatiable need for cheap, exploitable labor, dictate the flow of immigration through both legal and illegal channels, Gutierrez’s bill creates a new antonymous regulatory agency within the executive branch solely charged with setting both policy and specific levels for all future employment-based immigration.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro at Huffington Post, notes the significance of tackling the immigration debate during an election year.

Past election cycles have shown that voters reject candidates who simply demagogue this issue or adopt extreme enforcement-only approaches. For far too long, those who support the harmful status quo have been allowed to lead on this issue, even though they do not represent the can-do will of the American public. And it is clear that the immigration debate has rallied Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, who participated in record numbers in the 2008 election, in large part in response to the promise of change. Latinos are watching. The American people are watching. And we have the public support to arrive at a solution.

The Washington Post:

“For those who say that given the state of our economy, given the unemployment rate, this is not the time, I would say to you there is no wrong or right time. There is a moral obligation,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The San Jose Mercury News wrote about how this is a strong opportunity for us to get the real reform we need:

“In 2007, the last time Congress grappled with the issue, a bipartisan Senate bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., failed when Republicans blocked votes over the amnesty issue.

But Democrats think immigration reform has a better shot this time around.

“Now, we have the White House,” [Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell] Honda said Tuesday. “And now we have leadership in both houses that want to see it happen.”

Working in the Shadows came up with an analogy:

In the words of Michael Buffer, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

I predict a good clean start that lasts three or four seconds, followed by some serious dirty boxing, concluding with a fourth or fifth round knock out of the ALL CAPS crowd. From what we’ve seen with the healthcare debate, I don’t think we want this fight going into the later rounds.

I’m not going to keep quoting because I would take up way too much room for one post, but be sure to check out the rest of the coverage listed below.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights - who has put together a great one-pager about what’s in the bill.

OneAmerica

The New York Times

RaceWire

Nezua at the Unapologetic Mexican

DREAM Activist

Change.org’s Immigration blog

Immigration Impact blog

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

California NOW

The AFL-CIO

CAUSA Oregon

LUPE

Progressive South Bend

Long Island Wins

Chicago Now