United We Dream |
Obama's solicitation |
A national coalition of DREAM Act student activists is furious over Barack Obama's latest fundraising letter soliciting re-election funds based on his "support" of the DREAM Act.
United We Dream is circulating a petition calling on Obama to stop using the DREAM Act for political hay until he takes action to stop the deportation of undocumented youth.
Obama could have pushed the DREAM Act during the last session of Congress, but he didn't with any real force, allowing conservative Republicans to kill the legislation in the Senate. This week he's unveiling his latest "push" for immigration, which we've criticized as insincere and half-hearted, and now he's begging for campaign dollars so he can fix a problem he hasn't really addressed in a meaningful way.
The president has huevos to e-mail a fundraising pitch on an issue he's deliberately ignored for the first two years of his presidency, especially since the opportunity to pass the DREAM Act in his first term probably has come and gone as Republicans now own the House of Representatives.
In a statement, United We Dream wrote:
On Tuesday night, President Obama sent out a fundraising email about his immigration speech. In this email, the Obama campaign solicits for a contribution on their website and on Facebook using specifically the DREAM Act. Instead of choosing to end our pain, he has chosen to use our suffering to grow his campaign. We find this both disappointing and offensive and demand that the Obama campaign take this ad down immediately.We are tired of politicians either bashing us or praising us without ending our pain. After the president's speech we knew he was on campaign mode, but these ads just brought insult to our ever-growing pain of achieving the American Dream. Until Congress passes the DREAM Act, the President has the full authority to enable us to temporarily come out of the shadows, work and contribute to our country.