Our DREAM Act song (full) + Obama on Immigration (FULL INTERVIEW TRANscrīpt)

Dream to Belong  -The complete song in support of the DREAM Act, dedicated to all the Dreamers and in memory of Dreamer Joaquin Luna. Full credits here

Let's keep putting pressure on the ground, organizing, demonstrating, talking to people online and in person and reminding everyone that this country, founded on the ideal of equality and opportunity, can only benefit from each Dreamer's desire to educate themselves and contribute openly to this nation. Any society can only benefit from its struggle to overcome prejudice, selfishness and xenophobia, and every person can only grow from attempting to become more inclusive and compassionate.

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Univision's blog post on "Dream to Belong" can be found  HERE and includes lyrics.

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Scroll down to skip this intro and go directly to the TRANscrīpt of Obama's interview...

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On Feb 6 2012 Interview I gave an interview to Tim Paynter of Denver's 1150am radio. The first part of that interview was about our new song and the Dreamers and you can find it in my last post. In the second part I addressed questions about Obama and immigration reform and for those who don't speak Spanish, here is the gist of what I said:

While volunteering in support of the DREAM Act, I've come across some supporters of immigration reform who are understandably frustrated that the law hasn't been passed yet but who are unjustly blaming President Obama. Let's not forget the facts. While Obama, Reid, Durbin and most of the Democrats continue to push for the DREAM Act, (98% of Dems voted to pass it), Republicans as a whole have blocked it in congress, and their candidates oppose it as well, with Romney explicitly declaring he'd veto it.  Through the "Morton Memo" the administration has tried to shift ICE's focus to deporting high-risk individuals and actual criminals instead of DREAMers, (resulting in a drop in deportations according to  this story by the LA Times) sparing many who were in line for deportation and whose cases have been dropped, including several who I've volunteered for and with. I've seen this progress first hand and think it is important that DREAMers know they can appeal to ICE's  Prosecutorial Discretion as laid out by the administration and John Morton. However any president's constitutional limitations require support in congress to pass a federal law that would offer the DREAMERs a lasting path to citizenship. We need our allies in government to make the DREAM Act a reality and we need to keep acting marching and demonstrating peacefully, creating awareness and putting pressure on senators to vote for the DREAM Act. We have to pay attention to who is promoting anti-immigrant laws like HB 56 in Alabama and  SB 1070 in Arizona (Which Obama opposed). There are too many Republican politicians constantly taking anti-immigrant positions in every state, and we can stand with those who oppose them. By making sure we are doing all we can to strengthen the campaigns of senators who represent our ideals and trying to help them get elected we will also increase the number of votes in favor of immigration reform and will help those trying to  get it passed when it comes to the floor of the congress again. Here's the audio in Spanish:

so that was Feb 6.

On Feb 21, President Obama gave an interview to Piolin of Univision radio in which he tackled questions about his immigration reform promises (in similar terms to those I  used in my Feb 6 interview).  I posted about the interview on facebook when it came out bu I think it is important to read the full transcrīpt:

President OBAMA's interview with  >Piolin:Thank you Mr. President for receiving my phone call.Obama: Piolin, it’s good to talk to you my friend.Piolin: We’re going to start right away because this is what our community wants to know. During your presidency, you have not delivered the immigration reform that we were hoping for. Thousands of families have been separated by deportation, leaving their children behind, alone in this country. Do you think that you still have the support of the Latino community? 

Obama:Well, first of all Piolin, my presidency is not over, I’ve got another five years coming up. We’re going to get this done. And — and absolutely we have strong support in the Latino community because they have seen something we are working on. First of all, strengthening the economy, we were able to get the payroll tax done that provides 25 million Latinos with an extra 40 dollars in every paycheck and is going to strengthen the economy. We made sure unemployment insurance got extended because the Latino community has been so hard hit. A million Latinos are going to be benefiting from that. The housing settlement that we just passed, which will help Latino families all across the country who were taken advantage of by subprime lenders to be able to stay in their homes. The work we have done on education, to make sure millions of students — many Latino students are still getting Pell Grants and other scholarships and financial aid so that they can go to college. So, there are a lot of issues that we have worked on that have directly benefited millions of Latino families.

You’re right though, immigration reform is something we still have to get done and as I’ve told you since before I was elected president, the only way we are going to get this done fully is by getting Congress to do its job.

What we’ve been able to do is, administratively, we’ve said, let’s reemphasize our focus when it comes to enforcement on criminals and at the borders and let’s not be focusing our attention on hard-working families who are just trying to make ends meet. We’ve administratively proposed to reform the “three and 10” program so that families aren’t separated when they’re applying to stay here in this country.

So we are trying to do a lot to soften the effects of immigration, but ultimately, the only way we are going to do this is to get something passed through Congress, and that’s why we have to keep the pressure up.

Unfortunately, the Republican side, which used to at least give lip service to immigration reform, now they’ve gone completely to a different place and have shown themselves unwilling to talk at all about any sensible solutions to this issue and we are just going to have to keep up the pressure until they act.

Piolin:So, does that mean that we need to wait another five years before we see immigration reform?

Obama: We’re going to need help from Congress. And so, this election coming up, it’s important for the community not only to ask who is supportive of immigration reform when it comes to the presidency — because that will be an easy question to answer. So far, we haven’t seen any of the Republican candidates even support immigration reform. In fact, their leading candidate said he would veto even the DREAM Act, much less comprehensive immigration reform.

So the choice at the presidential level will not be that difficult. But when it comes to Congress, all your listeners need to look and see: are those members of Congress — are they committing to getting this done? Because, ultimately, unless Congress acts, we’re going to continue to be able to try to make some administrative changes to the immigration laws but, ultimately, in the end, we won’t solve the problem for so many families who are still struggling because they are living in the shadows.

Piolin:There is a perception out there that you broke your promise to achieve immigration reform; do you think you broke your promise?

Obama:Piolin, I would only have broken my promise if I hadn’t tried. But ultimately, I’m one man. You know, we live in a democracy. We don’t live in a monarchy. I’m not the king. I’m the president. And so, I can only implement those laws that are passed through Congress.

And the truth of the matter is that perceptions in the Latino community are going to be shaped by community leaders like you. And you and I have talked about this extensively, you know the fact that I’m fully committed to this issue. I speak about it in the State of the Union address; I speak about it every opportunity I get. And so, the question is, when am I going to get some help from Republicans to actually get it done?

And that’s going to depend on the community making sure that it is focused on those who are preventing comprehensive immigration reform from occurring. And since I am 100 percent behind comprehensive immigration reform. Obviously I am not the roadblock to making this happen. 

Piolin: And Mr. President, why is it that politicians always seek out Latinos come election time?  Obama: I don’t know about other politicians. I know that I speak out to you even when I’m not running for reelection, which is why we have had so many conversations on this issue.

But the fact of the matter is that, I think a lot of members of Congress, even during election time, aren’t paying attention to the Latino community and unfortunately that, I think that there is a politics that we have been seeing that is so focused on a negative attitude towards immigration. We see it at the state level in Arizona, in Alabama, and other of these states where people have been scoring political points, taking the harshest anti-immigrant stand. That’s not the kind of politics that I believe in and I know that’s not the kind of politics the Latino community is going to respond to. 

----  source: http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/18103030750/obama-i-didnt-break-my-promise-on-immigration-reform