Are you an artist or writer looking for a good way to earn some extra cash? This is a chance to express yourself through art or writing, learn about your rights, and get a $300 scholarship if you win.
Artwork and written Submissions:1st Place $300 – 2nd Place $150 – 3rd Place $75
Students may also compete in teams of up to three to share a prize.
1. Creativity Contest Overview
Drawing from our personal experiences, research, and viewpoints, create a written or artistic work that answers the question provided below:
How can the enforcement of immigration laws, including the proposed dream act and the michigan Secretary of State’s recent denial of DREAMers’ drivers licenses, impact the “American Dream” for youths and their families?
II. Submission Rules and Guidelines
Written entries (poetry OR essay) must be 1,000 words or less and sent as a word document. Artwork (Painting, sculpture, sewing, etc.) may be delivered to the michigan ACLU metro detroit office at: 2966 woodward Avenue, Detroit MI 48201
Email entries to [email protected] with “Creativity Contest” in the subject line, OR mail/deliver entries to: ACLU Metro Creativity Contest 2966 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48201
Include a cover sheet with the title of your entry and your name, address, phone, number, email address, and the name of your school, your grade, your teacher, and how to contact the teacher if you win.
ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY MIDNIGHT, MARCH 15, 2013. Late submissions will NOT be considered! Winners will be announced at the ACLU of Michigan Annual Meeting in April of 2013. For more information, contact Tarek Baydoun at [email protected] or 313.729.3737.
2013 ACLU Creativity Contest Supplemental Materials
Contest applicants are encouraged to draw ideas and inspiration from the following supplemental materials. If you choose to directly quote excerpts from these materials, please add citations. To read the entire articles, visit the provided source websites.
1) The “American Dream”
In the deffinition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or acheivement” regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independance which proclaims that “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Source: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/american-dream/students/thedream.html
2) WHAT IS THE DREAM ACT?
Each year, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant students graduate from American high schools and embark on uncertain futures. Their inability to legally work and receive financial aid stalls, detours, and derails their educational and economic trajectories. Most importantly, at any time, they can be deported to countries they barely know. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) act is a federal bill aimed at providing immigration relief to these young people. The passage of this bill would grant many undocumented youth access to legal residency and federal financial aid – thus removing legal and economic barriers to higher education and increasing their contributions to America and the liklihood of upward mobility.
Source: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/issues/DREAM-Act
3) “DREAMer” Benita Veliz
September 5, 2012: Three months after President Barack Obama announced some undocumented young people would be granted work authorization and deportation reprieve, Democrats gave them another big acknowledgement: a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. Benita Veliz, a 27-year-old who came to the United Staes as a child, became the first-ever undocumented immigrant to speak at a party convention when she introduced Obama endorser Cristina Saralegui to the stage Wednesday night. Although Veliz spoke for only about two minutes, her speech was considered a major nod to the importance of immigration reform. Veliz spoke about her own story, graduating high school as a valedictorian when she was 16 years old and then college at the age of 20. “I feel just as American as any of my friends or neighbors,” Veliz said. “but I’ve had to live almost my entire life knowing I could be deprted just because of the way I came here.”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/benita-veliz-speech-dream-act_n_1859733.html
4) DREAM Deferred Action
August 15, 2012: The DREAM Deferred Action program comes at a high cost. The application is $465 and comes with the riskand fear of making one’s undocumented status public. Some young people may look at the limited benefits of two years of work authorization and relief from deportation (In spite of what you may have heard, the DREAM Deferred program doesn’t allow access to public benefits or educational financial aid) and decide that this program isn’t for them, or isn’t for them right now.
Source: http://www.aclumich.org/blog/2012-08-15/dream-deferred-today
5) ACLU MICHIGAN SUIT: DREAMers’ DRIVERS LICENSES
December 19, 2012/Detroit – three young immigrants and One Michigan, a youthled organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants, filed a lawsuit today challenging the state’s policy of denying driver;s licenses to immigrant youth whom the federal government has allowed to stay and work in the country. Plaintiff Leen Nour ElZayat, a third-year pre-medical student at Wayne State University, said she worries about continuing her studies and accepting a job if she cannot drive to school or work.
“I need to be able to drive so I can get a job and attend medical school, which I have wanted to do since I was a little kid,” said El-Zayat, 20, who has lived in the United States since she was eight. “I just want to serve as a role model for my younger siblings and continue contributing to my community.” El-Zayat was brought to the U.S by her family after escaping the was in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her parents had moved the family from their native Lebanon to the Congo only a year before to secure their personal safety.
“Michigan’s governor has said that his goal is to become the most ‘pro-immigration’ governor in the country; there is nothing more pro-immigration than allowing young people to fulfill their dreams of working and going to school,” said Miriam Aukerman, staff attorney with the ACLU of Immigrants’ Rights Project and the National Immigration Law Center. “Secretary Johnson’s argument that someone can be authorized to work, however, somehow not authorized to be present in this country, defies commonsense and breaks the law.”
The federal lawsuit seeks to require Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to issue driver’s licenses to young immigrants who qualify for the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and who are otherwise qualified for a license. The DACA program allows some DREAMers – a term commonly used for a certain group of immigrant youth who were brought here as children – to live and work in the United States for a renewable period of two-years, without fear of deportation. Johnson has refused to issue licenses to individuals granted deferred action under DACA even through Michigan law requires her to issue licenses to qualified residents who are authorized under federal law to be in the country, and even though the state issues licenses to all other immigrants who receive deferred action.
Source: http://ww.aclumich.org/issues/immigrant-rights/2012-12/1794
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