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In 2014, students from the School of Journalism & New Media explored the impact of the Voting Rights Act in the Delta, 50 years after its passage. As part of that series of stories, student reporter Clancy Smith produced the following piece, which profiles Rep. John Lewis. We thought it fitting to publish it again in honor of the passing of this venerable civil rights leader.

Sunlight filters through tall leafy oak trees in the center of the Ole Miss campus as graduates and parents wait restlessly for law school commencement.

On a shaded wooden platform, Georgia Congressmen John Lewis, the featured speaker, is flanked by two flags. On his right waves the American flag, on his left the Mississippi flag with the age-old symbol of the Confederacy in its upper right-hand corner. Lewis doesnt give it a glance. He could speak about the troubled history of this most southern of southern schools, how in 1962 a bloody riot accompanied the enrollment of its first black student, James Meredith. He could speak of how, just a few weeks ago, some students placed a hangmans noose around the neck of the statue or Meredith on the same campus. He could speak of how he was once beaten nearly to death of the cause of the civil rights.

Instead, he preaches a sermon of hope, a sermon of love. If someone had told me when I first came to Mississippi on the Freedom Ride that I would be standing here today, I would have said you are crazy, youre out of your mind, you dont know what youre talking about, he says. But today, at 74, he says he loves Mississippi. When people tell me nothing has changed in Mississippi, I say walk in my shoes! This is a different state. We are better people.

It doesnt matter if we are black or white. We are one people and one family. We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters and live in peace. When he is done, the overwhelmingly white audience gives him a standing ovation, a stark contrast to what he experienced when he visited the state for the first time in 1961. At that time no one would listen to him at all.

Even now, almost 50 years later, it is hard to watch the film. John Lewis leads a band of unarmed protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Suddenly, state troopers attack with billy clubs. Deputies on horseback charge the marchers.

A defenseless John Lewis is clubbed to the ground from behind. The blows crack his skull, rendering him unconscious.

The images of that attack helped prod Congress into passing the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, which changed the face of the South by making it easier for black people to vote.

For Lewis, Selma was just another day at the office. During the 1960s, he absorbed hate and violence like few ever have. He was hit over the head with a Coca-Cola crate, pummeled with the fists of angry white men, jailed 40 times, all for daring to challenge segregation.

Through it all, he never abandoned his vow of non-violence, never stopped believing that one day race would no longer be an issue in this nation so long divided by the color of a mans skin.

Today, the young preacher boy who couldnt get a public library card or drink from the Whites Only water fountain is the Democrats deputy whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, a senior statesman of civil rights whose gentle spirit is legend.

As a young boy growing up in the country outside of Troy, Ala., John Lewis was acutely aware that black and white were treated differently. He didnt like the overcrowded classrooms, hand-me-down books or raggedy school bus that drove him and his friends past the newly renovated school for white children.

I kept asking questions. Why? Why? Lewis said. And my mother and father and grandparents would say, Thats the way it is. Dont get in the way. Dont get in trouble.

In 1957, at 17, Lewis applied to all-white Troy State University without telling his family. The college never responded. Instead of giving up, Lewis wrote a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I told him I needed his help. He wrote me back and sent me a round-trip Greyhound bus ticket, said Lewis. He invited me to come to Montgomery to meet with him.

Meanwhile, Lewiss mother, who worked in the laundry room at a Southern Baptist orphanage, learned about the American Baptist Theological Seminary for black students in Nashville. In September of 1957, Lewis hopped on a Greyhound bus to Nashville to study religion and philosophy, working his way through school. At spring break, Lewis accepted Kings invitation and traveled to meet him at the First Baptist Church of Montgomery.

I was lost for words to say, and he said, Are you the boy from Troy? Are you John Lewis? And I said, Dr. King, I am John Robert Lewis. I gave him my whole name, said Lewis. And that was the beginning.

Lewis and King became fast friends.

I loved him, said Lewis. He was my hero and if it hadnt been for him, I dont know what would have happened to me. He gave me a way out.

King offered to help Lewis file suit to get into Troy State.

He urged Lewis to talk with his parents before making a decision.

I went back and my mother and father were so frightened, said Lewis. They didnt want to have anything to do with my attempting to go there. They thought they would lose the land, my home would be bombed or burned. Lewis returned to Nashville to continue his education, working first in the kitchen, then on the food line and eventually as a janitor in the administration building. The janitorial position became particularly helpful when the student sit-in movement swept through the South.

I was able to get a secretary in administration to do the typing, said Lewis. And I liberated a ream of paper and we had these dos and donts: dont laugh out loud, dont talk back, look straight ahead, read your book, do your homework, sit up straight and all of that.

He graduated while imprisoned in 1961.

I didnt even march or participate in my graduation, Lewis said.

Instead, he was in a maximum-security cell at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, more famously known as Parchman Prison. In the spring of 1961, he had joined the Freedom Riders who traveled on buses through the South to help desegregate interstate transportation, including bus station restrooms and cafes.

One bus was attacked and burned as the riders narrowly escaped. During a stop in Montgomery, white thugs ambushed the Freedom Riders and beat them. Dozens were injured. I was hit in the head with a wooden crate, a Coca-Cola crate of all things, said Lewis. Had to get a big patch on my head. When the riders got to Jackson, they were shipped off for a 44-day stay at Parchman. There, prisoners were not allowed to go outside and only showered twice a week.

Once people were singing their freedom songs and the guards would say, If you dont stop singing your freedom song, we are going to take your mattress, said Lewis. So, people started improvising and making up songs so they couldnt take our mattress.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy invited a small group of civil rights leaders to the White House. Lewis, who only days before had been named chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was the youngest of the group that included Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Phillip Randolph, among others. They told Kennedy they planned a peaceful march on Washington. On August 28, 1963, that dream became a reality. What leaders expected to be 60,000 to 70,000 participants turned into 250,000. The dramatic scene is credited with helping pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

We were coming down Constitution Avenue, and we saw hundreds and thousands of people coming out of Union Station, so we knew then it was going to be many more people, said Lewis. It was very moving, just gratifying.

Lewis, the youngest of six speakers at the March on Washington, was 23 the day he stepped up to the podium between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

I looked to my right. I saw all these young people, black and white, standing there cheering me on, and then I looked straight ahead and I saw all those young people, men, women, said Lewis. Ill never see a sight like that again.

In 1964, what would later be called Freedom Summer, thousands of students from the North came south to help register black voters. As chairman of SNCC, Lewis recruited people to travel to Mississippi. Back in 1964, the state had a very large African-American population, but only a few people were registered to vote, said Lewis. We wanted to change that. Few people registered that summer, but the group made progress in organizing and energizing young blacks.

They were also met with violence. Three civil rights workers, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Mickey Schwerner, went missing that summer near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, their bodies were discovered six weeks later.

That was a very sad and difficult time, said Lewis. But the seeds of political activism had been planted. I think in Mississippi, during the summer in those early years, the African-American community in the state became probably the most politically involved and aware of any African-American community of any other southern state, Lewis said. Though progress remained slow, Lewis said Freedom Summer had an impact not only on Mississippi, but on the entire nation.

What happened that summer and years following, it helped educate and sensitize and motivate people all across America, he said.

A year later, a peaceful march in protest of the killing of a young man shot by a state trooper stands out as one of Lewis most frightening experiences. SNCC began its protest walk from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. Lewis came prepared. He assumed the group would be arrested so he wore a backpack with two books to read, an apple and orange to eat and toothpaste and a toothbrush to brush his teeth. When they paused to pray after being ordered to disperse, state troopers and deputies advanced, hitting people with nightsticks and bullwhips, trampling then with horses and releasing tear gas. I thought I was going to die, said Lewis, who suffered a concussion. I thought I saw death, but somehow I survived.

Amidst the beatings, hatred and imprisonment, Lewis never considered giving up. Fear never hindered him.

For a lot of people, fear is natural for them, he said. But you come to that point, you lose that sense of fear and you find something that you believe in that is so right and so necessary that youre prepared to stand up for it, fight for it, and if necessary, die for it.

Through his many trips to Washington, D.C., and conversations with elected officials, Lewis got interested in politics as a way to change things. When Robert Kennedy announced that he was running for president, Lewis offered to help.

Soon he found himself organizing voter registration efforts for the RFK campaign in Indianapolis. It was there, on April 4, 1968, that he heard of Kings assassination.

I was stunned and saddened, and I cried like the great majority of the people, said Lewis. I went back to Atlanta and helped prepare for the services, and sort of dropped out of the campaign for a week or so. Then I got back on the campaign trail.

Lewis worked hard, knocking on doors to help Kennedy win the Democratic primary in California. On election night, after the victory, Kennedy invited Lewis and a few others to his hotel suite to celebrate.

Kennedy joked lightheartedly with his visitors and invited them to stay while he went down to give a speech.

So we watched his speech on television that evening, and later when this bulletin came on that he had been shot we all just dropped to the floor and cried, and I just wanted to get out of L.A., said Lewis. I just wanted to make it back to Georgia.

Disheartened by the passing of two dear friends, Lewis made a promise to himself to continue the work of those leaders whom he so greatly admired.

I said to myself then that if I could do something to pick up where Robert Kennedy and Dr. King and others left off, I would do it, said Lewis.

After losing a first race for Congress, Lewis went to work for President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C. He returned to Atlanta after three years and got elected to the city council. A U.S. House seat in Atlanta came open again in 1986 when incumbent Rep. Andrew Young resigned to become Carters ambassador to the United Nations. Lewis ran again. This time, he was elected.

And I havent had a tough race since, he said. This year, not anyone is running against me.

Lewis is a member of the Ways and Means committee, dealing with issues related to taxes, revenue, Social Security and Medicare. He is also heavily involved in the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, his most recent arrest in October 2013 centered on a protest against the lack of immigration reform.

It marked the fortieth time Lewis has been arrested while standing up for what he believes is right.

Its a form of speech almost, said Lewis. As Dr. King would say, you have a right to protest for what is right. You have a right to petition the government. So, its a different way, a different means of petitioning your government, to make your concern known, to help to dramatize the issue.

After the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, Lewis began pushing a new voting rights law to restore some of the protections the court eliminated. He wants to make voting less complicated and more accessible so everyone can participate.

My own feeling is that the national election, the general election, should be a holiday, Lewis said. If voting is so important to our democratic society, just make it a national holiday and let everybody vote.

Lewis credits his faith for helping him handle the challenges thrown his way. Without my faith, Im not so sure I wouldve survived, he said. Its that belief, that sense of hope, that sense of optimism, that sense that you can overcome, and its also that sense of you have to work and believe that what youre working toward, in a sense, its already done.

Though harboring resentment would be easy, Lewis has never succumbed to anger.

I tell young children all the time never hate, said Lewis. Dr. King would say hate is too heavy a burden to bear. You destroy yourself. The best thing to do is be hopeful, be optimistic, and continue to work.

He knows there is work still to be done, but the change he has already seen leaves him encouraged.

I see the changes that have occurred in the state, said Lewis. The state of Mississippi has the highest number of black elected officials in any state. I meet people, young people, people not so young, all over the country who say, Im from Mississippi, I grew up in Mississippi, I followed you.

Read more from the original source:
The Almost Martyr: A tribute to Rep. John Lewis - Ole Miss News

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, police reform and civil unrest captured voters attention, the nation was in a longstanding debate about how to reform our immigration system. On one extreme, we have some who want to open up our borders to everyone, and on the other, we have those who want to stop all foreigners from coming here.

Neither position makes any sense to us. The U.S. birth rate is barely at replacement levels. In order to grow the economy, this nation needs more people than we have been willing to raise on our own.

For at least the past 40 years, immigration laws that are on the books have been poorly enforced. Some people come here on visas and dont go home when their visas expire. Our southern border with Mexico has been a sieve, allowing not only millions of people to cross illegally, not to mention the issue of illegal drugs passing through ports of entry every day. In just the last few years, the southern border has been so overwhelmed that detention facilities overflowed. Thats totally unacceptable, and yet the Congress has been unable to come up with solutions.

In addition, many small children were separated from their parents as a deterrent, causing lasting trauma to the little ones. We need to listen to our better angels, make family unification a priority in any reform effort and protect family reunification laws already on the books.

Because of congressional inaction as well as neglect by multiple presidential administrations, over time, this has created an underclass of people, non-citizens, who live under the threat of deportation and thereby are subject to blackmail, extortion, and most horrifically, sex slavery.

This, in turn, has led to local units of government becoming so-called sanctuary cities, whereby they refuse to work with the federal government to enforce immigration law.

Since the problem has gone unaddressed for so long, we now have another group of people, called Dreamers under the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, who came here as children of undocumented immigrants and have never experienced life anywhere but in the United States. It would be immoral to send them to a foreign country, when America is the only society they have known.

It is estimated that at least 10 million people are in the United States illegally. The United States needs to secure its borders, but in a way that recognizes the immigration problem was caused by 40 years of neglect. While non-citizens involved in criminal activities should be deported, we need to recognize that the vast majority of people who want to come to the United States simply want a better life.

We need to set an annual immigration level based not only on the level of unemployment in our economy, but also on the skill sets most in need, and to recognize the deep cultural benefit we all enjoy by embracing those who want to start a new life here. Then we need to give those people already here who have been otherwise law-abiding a path to legal status and ultimately to citizenship.

In discussions with Minnesota congressional candidates for the upcoming election, we urge voters to ask candidates where they stand on the various aspects of immigration policy. We think clear differences will emerge that will help voters in their decisions.

We believe the lax enforcement of immigration laws and the failure by Congress to find any kind of remedy is undermining respect for the rule of law. When voters go to the polls in November, they need to consider immigration issues as much as ever. Just because other events have pushed the issue off the front pages, federal inaction means the problem remains as serious as ever.

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Immigration reform needed more than ever | ECM Editorials - ECM Publishers

US President Donald Trump looks on before signing a plaque as he participates in a ceremony ... [+] commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, June 23, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Five years ago, President Trump declared that if he was elected president he would build a wall along the U.S. Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. That idea was first developed in the summer of 2014 as a memorable talking point for Trump to tie his real estate developer experience to his anti-immigration policy theme. That theme was part of his isolationist, America First orientation. The wall became the kingpin of his election campaign in June 2015. Since then, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), just under $10 billion have been secured to construct approximately 500 miles of new border wall. But less than 70 miles of new wall have actually been built according to one news article. Whatever the actual number of miles built, as we approach the November 2020 presidential election, no doubt the question of the wall will be raised once again. While Trump has not really succeeded with it, he will definitely have much to point to in claiming success in other areas with regard to his anti-immigrant policies.

Past Immigration Efforts

To start with, Trump focused on border security calling for an end to catch and release practices, in which certain unauthorized immigrants who were captured at the border would be allowed into the United States while they awaited court hearings.

Then came his executive order that expanded enforcement measures and personnel and tried to restrict federal funding to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, that is: those that limited their cooperation with federal immigration officials.In early 2018, Trump implemented what was called a zero-tolerance policy, under which enabled authorities to arrest and criminally prosecute everyone caught crossing the southern border without authorization. Also he instituted a policy where parents facing such criminal prosecution, were separated from their children.

Muslim Ban or Terrorist Threat Measure

Protestors in New York gather to demonstrate against the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to uphold ... [+] President Trump's travel ban against five Muslim nations on June 26, 2018 in Foley Square, New York City. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

His third presidential order banned nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States for at least ninety days. It blocked nationals from Syria indefinitely and also suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days - all ostensibly to fight terrorism. While this ban was altered because of litigation over whether it was a really a racist Muslim ban, eventually the Supreme Court allowed its third iteration to stand. Then later, the White House expanded the ban to include Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, and Nigeria and blocked citizens from Sudan and Tanzania from obtaining permanent residence through the diversity green card lottery. Trump also implemented a provision to keep out immigrants who would require taxpayer-funded services such as Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.

Humanitarian Policy

In the area of humanitarian policy, the Trump Administration has effectively halted all asylum claims on the pretext of being concerned about the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously, to stem the flow of refugees coming northbound, Trump tried to enforce safe third country agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The agreements require asylum seekers transiting through these countries to apply for protection there first, thus blocking them from applying in the U.S. and enabling American officials to deport the migrants on arrival. The agreements are facing court challenges.

In 2017 Trump tried to end the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for tens of thousands of Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Sudanese who were previously allowed to remain in the United States after environmental disasters and conflict in their home countries. In 2018, Trump ended the same relief program for Hondurans, Nepalis, and Salvadorans. These beneficiaries of the terminated TPS programs remain in the U.S. however, while these cancellations are being litigated.

Nonimmigrant Visa Bans and Family Separations

President Trump blocked access to certain nonimmigrant workers until at least the end of the year, including H-1B, H-2B, J-1 and L-1 visa applicants and their family members. He also extended his previous order banning the admission of legal permanent residents which had the effect of separating families.

More recently, after the Supreme Court ruledthat the administrations previous actions to terminateDACAwere unlawful, the Trump Administration issued a newmemoblocking Dreamers from filing newDACAapplications and restricting protections for existingDACArecipients.

At a recent news conference Trump hinted he would once again return to his proposal for a merit-based immigration program using a points-based selection system. That idea has been discussed in the U.S. since the 1970s and was a part of comprehensive immigration reform efforts in 2007, 2013 and 2017, all of which failed. However, taking Trump at his word, some law professors have proposed a more modest approach as a standalone single-issue bill, that would take the form of a 10-year pilot program. Under that proposal, each year 50,000 permanent residence visas, or green cards would be awarded to highly skilled immigrants. Borrowing from the Canadian and Australian programs for skilled workers the proposal would award points for high levels of education, age, fluency in English, work experience, family support, and demographic considerations. Probably Trumps plan will reflect this kind of approach.

There are certain states that could swing the election in favor of President Trump. They include ... [+] Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa and Arizona among others.

In short, the foregoing summary is likely to summarize President Trumps immigration platform during the upcoming election. He recognizes he is in a tough battle and could even lose the popular vote again. But it is early in the game. While it seems unlikely at the moment, if he could win key swing states in the election, states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa and Arizona among others, he could once again, pull a rabbit out of the hat and walk away with the prize. Short of trying to postpone the election due to the pandemic as a last resort, one of the key areas that will decide Trumps fate will be immigration and whether enough voters can be swayed to support him because of what he has done.

Read more:
Trumps Immigration Legacy To Be Presented In Re-Election Bid - Forbes

American and foreign students are blasting new federal guidelines that say international students will be forced to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall. (July 7) AP Domestic

Luis Chirino hasspent long hours designing, drawingand building projects to earn adegree in architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, sometimes spending all night in a studio on the Newark campus.

But Chirino, 22, who lives in Jersey City,also has wonderedwhether the long nights of studying will pay off and if he will be able to practice his chosen profession in New Jersey once he graduates. As an immigrant without legal status, he can't obtain a professional license to work as an architect in New Jersey even if he graduatesand passes the required exams.

"It's an intensive program and thatcan be discouraging,'' said Chirino, who grew up in Elizabeth and is protected from deportation through the federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals."It's hard not to get emotional about it."

But that may soon change after the New Jersey Assembly on Thursday approved a bill toallow immigrants, regardless of their status, to apply for professional and occupational licenses in the state if they meet all other requirements. The legislation was approved by the state Senate last week and is expected to be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

Governor Murphy believes that immigrants are a critical part of the fabric of life in New Jersey, and that they should not face unnecessary barriers as they seek to participate in our society and economy,'' Alyana Alfaro, a Murphyspokeswoman, said prior to the Assembly vote.

It was not clear when the bill would reach Murphy's desk, but itwill take effect immediately once it becomes law.

Assemblyman Gary Schaer, (D-Passaic)one of the measure's sponsors, said the current COVID-19 pandemic placed demands on healthcare and essential workers, and that the legislation would address labor shortages in those areas.

Our immigrant community has been indispensable throughout this crisis,: he said. "By lifting this obstacle we can utilize the abilities of every single resident."

NJ program: Advocates push for $12M boost in legal aid for NJ immigrants fighting deportation

Coronavirus relief: Passaic man camps outside NJ Statehouse, joins demand for immigrant aid during COVID-19

The legislationwould be among the most sweeping in the country and the first on the east coast that would remove all immigration barriers to obtaining professional licenses, advocates said.California, Nevadaand New Mexico are among other states with similar legislation.

In New Jersey, dozens of professions and occupations require licenses, including accountants, architects, acupuncturists, audiologist, beauticians, court reporters, cosmetologists, doctors, dentists, engineers, home inspectors, morticians, nurses, occupational therapists, optometrists, pharmacists, plumbers, psychiatrists, real estate appraisers, social workersand veterinarians.

Although federal law prohibits employers from hiring someone living in the country illegally,immigrants of anylegal status are able to work as independent contractorsor to start a business using a Social Security orIndividual Tax Identification Number. DACA recipients like Chirino gain work authorizationas part of the federal program.

Thebill though has its opponents. Some whosay the legislationwillallowimmigrants, without legal status, to compete for professional jobs thatcould go to legal residents and U.S. citizens.

"It'sadditional competition for jobs, especially at a time like this,'' said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports limits on immigration. "The law of supply and demand dictates that more workers you have to do a certain job the lower the price is going to be so it hurts them that way also."

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Assemblyman Harold Wirths (R-Sussex) voted no on the measure.

"We have rules and laws in this country and, if you come into the country illegally and you are in violation of the law, I don't think we should be granting you licenses,'' he said, noting it was a way of circumventing federal laws.

The bill though is not opposed by all Republicans in the state. Four Republican Senators voted in favor of the bill. They included Senators Chris Brown (R-Atlantic), Declan O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth),Kip Bateman (R-Somerset)and Gerry Cardinale (R-Bergen).

Ana Calderon, of Newark, is a student at Rutgers University in Newark who wants to be a doctor and would benefit from a bill being considered by New Jersey lawmakers that would eliminate legal immigration status as a requirement to obtain a professional or occupational licenses in the state.(Photo: Courtesy photo from Ana Calderon)

In high school, Estrella Rivas appliedfor volunteer opportunities at hospitals, but because she did not have legal status or a Social Security number she often received rejection notices. Rivas, who was born in El Salvador and moved to the United States when she was 4 years old, said she would call hospitals and state her case to volunteer until she was given an opportunity at Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, her hometown.At the hospital,she said shefirst was assigned to work in the emergency room and labor and delivery. Eventually, shewas given the opportunity to observe surgical procedures which she saidsolidified her resolve to become a doctor.

"So once I came to college I knew it was going to face barriers,'' said Rivas, a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. "So that's why we have to focus on the professional licensing bill."

Estrella Rivas, 22, of Elizabeth is studying biology at Rutgers University and wants to pursue a career as a pediatrician. She hopes to benefit from a bill being considered by New Jersey Assembly that would eliminate the requirement of legal immigration status to obtain a professional or occupational license in New Jersey.(Photo: Courtesy Photo from Estrella Rivas)

Rivas said many internships require a Social Security number, but proponents said the New Jersey bill could persuadecompanies and hospitals who offer internships to open their programs to immigrants without legal status.

Ana Calderon, 18, a student at Rutgers University in Newark,who also plans to pursue a medical career, said she too hopes that the bill will help her land internships. Calderon, who is majoring in neuroscience and minoring in social justice, was born in Spain and moved to the United States when she was 11years old.

"It would mean everything to me because if I'm able to get one, it means all the hard work and all of the things that I've done to get to that point is going to be worth it, and I'll be able to be a doctor in this country,'' she said, noting she too has been denied internship and hospital volunteer opportunities.

Chirino was born in El Salvador andsaid if the bill passes it will give him more reason to stay focused and achieve his dreams of becoming an architect.

"Itvalidates a lot of the sacrifices that I and my parents have made as immigrants,'' he said. "The fact that New Jersey is stepping up it makes me proud to have grown up here."

MonsyAlvaradois theimmigration reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about one of the hottest issues in our state and country,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:alvarado@northjersey.comTwitter:@monsyalvarado

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NJ Assembly OKs bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain professional licenses - NorthJersey.com

Eric Connolly U.S. House Office of Photography

In September 2017, President Donald Trump made a reckless decision that devastated thousands of people throughout our country.

It was a decision to turn his back on thousands of doctors, nurses and first responders. It was a decision to abandon members of our military who served courageously. It was a decision to put the futures of teachers, researchers and students at risk. It was his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In 2017, the president arbitrarily ended DACA, throwing the futures of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants into jeopardy. This action, and the years-long legal battle that followed, made it nearly impossible for Dreamers to plan for their futures here, even though the United States is the only country theyve ever known as home.

But on June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted temporary relief when they revoked the presidents order. This was a welcome decision, but it does not guarantee the futures of these young people who are American in every way but on paper. President Trump could decide any day to issue a new order to end the program again. Congress must act immediately to protect Dreamers from the whims of the Trump Administrations anti-immigrant agenda.

On July 15, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2021 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. The bill includes an amendment that I introduced with Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas, that will protect DACA recipients and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders in good standing from deportation, detention or denial of work authorization by Department of Homeland Security officials.

Our amendment passed the committee with broad bipartisan support, proving that both Democrats and Republicans understand the serious need for congressional action on this issue.

This bipartisan effort was encouraging, but we must do more. In order to ensure Dreamers and other young immigrants have the peace of mind they deserve, Congress must get serious about comprehensive immigration reform. This means a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants who live, work and pay taxes in the United States already.

This type of legislation would help clear our immigration backlog, alleviate the humanitarian crisis at our border and allow the immigrants who are an essential part of the fabric of our communities to come out of the shadows and live life as American citizens.

While Congress is still a long way off from a comprehensive immigration reform package, we cannot sit by while the president continues to install and act on a blatantly anti-immigrant agenda. Our amendment was an important step in the right direction, but the Senate could provide Dreamers and TPS holders permanent relief today by passing the Dream and Promise Act.

This bill, which passed the House in 2019, establishes a permanent path to citizenship for DACA-eligible individuals and TPS holders. This bill passed the House with bipartisan support, and would end the uncertainty these young immigrants have had to live with since arriving in the United States.

We cannot continue kicking the can down the road. Its time to finally protect these young immigrants. We have the tools and we have the legislation. Its time for the Senate to step up and take decisive action.

U.S. Rep Pete Aguilar, a Democrat and former mayor of Redlands, has served in Congress since 2014. He is seeking his fourth term in the Nov. 3 election.

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It's time to protect the Dreamers | Government & Politics - Redlands News