The following article by Cam Bonelli was posted on the Sun-Current website January 5, 2018:
Activist group creates message in lights for drivers
Drivers on Interstate 494 may have seen the message “PASS THE DREAM ACT” overhead or in their rearview mirror in December.
Bloomington resident and Indivisible member Mia Olson saw the idea on Twitter and sent it to Indivisible MN.
“A group in Wisconsin started it,” Olson said. “We asked if it was OK to copy their idea, and they said, ‘Yes, please.’ It turned out they had a step-by-step guide video.”
Olson said some of the group worked for seven hours straight to create the light displays.
“It took a lot of work – drilling, pushing the lights through, gluing and cutting out an area for the battery pack to go through,” Olson said. “We got it done in one day.”
Olson said the group decided to promote the Dream Act to help those in the community.
“We decided collectively that this is affecting the most people immediately,” Olson said. “It is urgent, and the people who are affected are a vulnerable group who may be cautious about speaking up for themselves because they are worried that this administration is anti-immigrant. We wanted to speak up on their behalf. Right now, there are thousands of immigrants’ status who are in question.”
Olson said most people probably don’t know about the Dream Act, and they want to inform their community.
“Congress is saying that it can be put off, and we don’t know that it will ever be a priority to them,” Olson said. “March is the deadline to pass the act.”
Co-Chair for Indivisible MN03 Jena Martin said this was the first of the messages they wanted to show, and it will have more throughout the winter.
“The Dreamers issue really came to mind because it’s very urgent in this timeframe right now,” Martin said. “I think they are not going to pass the budget with anything Dream Act-related. Every week that goes by, thousands of DACA recipients are kicked off. It’s a pressing matter, and I feel like immigration was at the heart of Trump’s appeal. Our group is designed through local advocacy to hold Trump accountable.”
Indivisible member Anita Smithson said the group is asking Congress to support HR330 in the House and S1615 in the Senate.
“This is a clean Dream Act, with no other immigration items linked to the bill,” Smithson said. “In Minnesota, we have 6,300 DACA recipients. This is $6 million in annual GDP losses if they are deported. Nationwide, of about 800,000 DACA, 650,000 are working in the economy – the rest would be students, not working. That would be a $460 billion loss in GDP over the next decade if they are deported.”
Smithson said the Dreamers are people who are under the age of 31 and were brought to the United States before they turned 16 years old.
“They needed to be in school, either graduated from high school or equivalent or an honorably discharged veteran,” Smithson said. “They must not have a felony conviction or pose a threat to national security. These people applied for DACA status, which permitted them to work legally in the United States. They pay taxes, they work and otherwise do the same things that other Americans do, and they do so out of the shadows now and legally, thanks to DACA.”
View the post here.