DREAM Act and Farmwork at Center of Student Labor Week of Action

The week was put together by the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), an "initiative that engages student groups in economic justice campaigns." Across the country, numerous organizations with similar goals -- like M.E.Ch.A and the Student Farmworker Alliance -- collaborated to extend their reach as widely as possible. The Week of Action focused on precisely what Palmquist conveyed through his diagram; in the midst of a shared economic crisis, workers and students need more than ever to work closely together

At Duke, and in North Carolina -- which maintains a large farming industry and has a high state ranking in unauthorized immigration -- it was the DREAM Act, as well as support for farmworkers, that stood out.

Initially proposed in 2001 as the Student Adjustment Act, The DREAM Act -- unsuccessfully reintroduced to the Senate in 2007 -- aims to protect students who come to the United States as undocumented children and remain in citizenship limbo. According to the DREAM Act's co-sponsors in the Senate and House, every year about 65,000 undocumented high school students "face unique barriers to higher education, are unable to work legally in the U.S., and often live in constant fear of detection by immigration authorities." If the act passes, these young people would be eligible to become American citizens and able go to college or join the military.

>According to Colorado State Senator Chris Romer (D), "The DREAM Act is an enormously important piece in economic policy." Undocumented immigrants make up a group of over eight million workers across the country and contributed more than 550 billion dollars to the American economy in 2008, according to a study by the Immigration Policy Center in the same year.

Not surprisingly there is strong opposition to the act. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo (R) referred to it on Fox News as the "Nightmare Act" and emphatically condemned it as "nothing but an amnesty for illegal immigrants disguised as an educational bill." Tancredo voices the concern that many have in these times of economic crisis, worrying that the government will prioritize immigrants' rights and that the act will "place severe strains on state budgets and harm middle class families."

In tandem with Farmworkers Awareness Week, which took place simultaneously, Week of Action also worked to raise awareness for the rights of farmworkers, "the most vulnerable workers in our economy" according to SLAP.

In Cary, North Carolina, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) held a food drive to raise awareness about farmers in the country. According to AFOP member Emily Draakge, there has been a recent increase in people's awareness regarding their food and where it comes from. But while many have moved to buying food that comes from actual farms and not factories, farmers' rights are rarely given consideration, despite being one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S., according to the Department of Labor. Another of the organization's main concerns is the farmworkers' children, who Draakge emphasized, are dropping out of school "at an alarming rate."

Events continue to take place across the country, extending the mission beyond SLAP's Week of Action. According to SLAP's national coordinator Maria Escobar, there were around one hundred events that occurred during the week, varying from silent marches honoring workers, to moving speeches, like that from Alejandro Chavez (grandson of labor trailblazer Cesar Chavez) at Glendale Community College in Arizona, that reminded students of the importance of working together to support worker rights.

A SLAP chapter at the University of Pennsylvania is undertaking a long-term campaign to influence the school's investment in HEI Hotels & Resorts, a company that they deem to have a "a dubious human rights track-record."

Adena Wayne, a freshman at UPenn, joined SLAP because "It was disturbing for me to hear about that my university is investing money in a company that doesn't treat its employers fairly and I decided to take action." According to Wayne, SLAP is doing a good job in making other students aware of the issues faced by employees and even though their reaction is rarely to join SLAP, students in general seem very supportive of the group's actions.

Despite the need to work on the relationship between workers and students, here at Duke University, barely ten students made it to the extremely-under-the-radar USAS event, an unfortunate but expected response given that Duke doesn't have a SLAP chapter on campus. However, USAS's initiative did get students interested in forming a campus group to collaborate with future USAS's campaigns. Such a group would be beneficial at Duke, and other campuses nationwide, in raising awareness of these vital issues and in engaging members of the community in initiatives like those highlighted during Week of Action.