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Detroit raised and undocumented youth Dayanna Rebolledo “Comes Out of the Shadows” in Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia, April 5, 2011: Undocumented youths ‘came out’ of the shadows to share their stories. The youth participated in this action as a part of a larger national movement in which undocumented youth are “coming out of the shadows” and dispelling myths about their lives as immigrants.
Recently, Georgia passed a ban which would deny acceptance for undocumented students at Georgia universities.
Dayanna Rebolledo, an undocumented student from Detroit, MI and a lead organizer of Detroit based group One Michigan for immigrant rights, stated: “I am doing this because I believe everyone has the right to equal opportunity to education. I am here to ‘come out’ of the shadows to tell the presidents of the top 5 Georgia universities to refuse the ban and set the example for other universities to do the same.”
On Tuesday, Dayanna will be joined by 7 other undocumented youth in ‘coming out’ and declaring their status, they are: David Ramírez, Andrea Rosales, Viridiana Hernández, José Rico Benavides, Georgina Pérez, María Marroquin, and Dulce Guerrero.
All of the youth are members of The Dream is Coming project – www.thedreamiscoming.com. Some of their previous actions have resulted in the arrests of undocumented youth. “It is time for those against us to decide which side they are on.
As undocumented youth we are no longer going to stand-by while our rights are taken away,” says Mohammad Abdollahi, an undocumented youth arrested last May while staging a sit-in at the Tucson offices of Sen. John McCain.
According to a July 2010 Migrant Policy Institute report, Dayanna is just one of the estimated 25,000 undocumented youth who are currently living in Michigan. She joins the over 2.1 million who reside in the United States.
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