VIDEO TRIBUTE: One Month of #JSA Student Organizing // Plus, Anthony Muse No-Show at Town Hall with Sen. Ben Cardin

BACKGROUND: Maryland Juice has produced a special video chronicling what one short month of organizing by the #JSA activists looks like. What started as a campaign to stop the deportation of Jorge Steven Acuna, an area student, has morphed into a vigorous youth-driven campaign to defend the Dream Act and draw attention to the problem of Secure Communities deportations. But more importantly, we are witnessing the political coming-of-age of the children of immigrants around the region. Many thanks to the Tea Party and the Maryland GOP for the assist -- they get a large chunk of the credit here!

BEN CARDIN & ANTHONY MUSE TOWN HALL: The video below takes you through a 2-minute summary of #JSA's recent efforts, including rallies, civic association meetings, candlelight vigils, marches, town hall meetings, voter registration drives, and more. The piece also includes shots from #JSA's town hall meet & greet with U.S. Senator Ben Cardin this weekend. #JSA organizers tell Maryland Juice that State Senator Anthony Muse had confirmed attendance at the event but stood them up without explanation. I guess he didn't want to explain to them why he voted against the Dream Act:

VIDEO: #JSA SPEAKS // Jorge Steven Acuna Details Detention by Homeland Security at Rockville Rally: "Forever Thankful"

For those of you following the #JSA movement triggered by the detention and planned deportation of Jorge Steven Acuna and his family, we have a video link to his rally speech. Below you can listen to JSA speaking at a gathering in Rockville Town Center yesterday:

www.LetHimStay.net

BREAKING: Rep. Chris Van Hollen Reports Jorge Steven Acuna & Family Have Been Released // One Year Stay for Deportation

UPDATE: Casa de Maryland is still planning on hosting the rally in Rockville today at 3:30. The event will be in Rockville Town Square, and is designed to highlight the problem of deportations more generally. They hope to draw attention to the situation of others in a similar position to Jorge Steven Acuna.

Maryland Juice just received the following breaking news from Rep. Chris Van Hollen's office. Jorge Steven Acuna (aka #JSA) and his family have been released!

"I'm pleased that ICE reviewed the facts of the case and decided to release Jorge and the Acuna family and stayed their removal for a year. In light of the circumstances in this situation, it was the fair and humane decision." -- Congressman Chris Van Hollen

Thanks to the politicians who are stepping up in this fight. Let's keep the momentum going!

Rep. Chris Van Hollen & Montgomery County Councilmembers Respond to Planned Deportation of Jorge Steven Acuna #JSA

Yesterday, Maryland Juice reported on a sudden and new movement for immigrant justice in the Free State. The campaign emerged due to the planned deportation of Jorge Steven Acuna -- a Dream Act student at Montgomery College. Casa de Maryland earlier today provided details on his case (read here). Essentially, Jorge and his family have been detained by ICE after their application for asylum status was rejected. They came here over a decade ago due to political violence in Colombia. The quality of their prior representation is in question, given that their attorney was later disbarred.

The issue has rallied the community in Montgomery County and beyond, as young people have launched a social media-driven awareness campaign to save their friend. Their initial target for their communications was Rep. Chris Van Hollen, since Jorge and his family are residents of Van Hollen's 8th Congressional District. Their efforts are getting noticed. Below we print a message from Rep. Van Hollen's office on the matter, along with a statement of support from all nine members of the Montgomery County Council:

CVH: "Congressman Van Hollen is deeply concerned about Jorge and the Acuna family.  He has shared his concerns with ICE and has spoken personally to the Maryland Field Office Director to urge him to issue a deferment of removal proceedings against this family." -- Bridgett Frey, spokesperson for Congressman Chris Van Hollen.

PRESS RELEASE

Montgomery County Council Statement on 
Pending Deportation of Acuña Family

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 12, 2012—All nine members of the Montgomery County Council today signed a statement expressing their concern about the Department of Homeland Security’s detention and pending deportation of Germantown resident Jorge Steven Acuña (age 19), his mother, Blanca, and his father, Jorge.

“We urge the White House and the Department of Homeland Security to intervene in this terrible situation,” the statement reads. “We also call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform to finally fix this broken system.”

The complete Montgomery County Council statement on the detention and pending deportation of the Acuña Family:

We are deeply concerned by the Department of Homeland Security’s detention and pending deportation of Germantown resident Jorge Steven Acuña (age 19) and his mother, Blanca Susana Acuña and father, Jorge Acuña.

This issue was brought to our attention because of the incredible outpouring of support and activism by students at Montgomery College. More than 4,000 people have signed a petition and joined a Facebook group in an effort to stop this unjust action by the federal government.

Jorge’s parents brought him to the United States from Colombia when he was 8 years old. He grew up in Montgomery County, was an honor student at Northwest High School, and is only a semester away from graduating from Montgomery College. His parents, in an effort to do the right thing and seek legal asylum status, were caught up in our nation’s broken immigration system and now face the prospect of deportation. The entire family is currently being held in an ICE facility on the Eastern Shore.

In a similar situation earlier this month in Florida, ICE used its prosecutorial discretion and decided to defer deportation of an 18-year-old high school valedictorian who was born in Colombia and came to the United States at 4 years old. We encourage ICE to use the same good judgment again, this time in the case of the Acuña Family.

We stand committed to working with Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski to help the Acuña Family avoid deportation. The Acuña Family’s attorney has prepared an emergency stay application and the Montgomery County Council is strongly supportive of this request.

We urge the White House and the Department of Homeland Security to intervene in this terrible situation. We also call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform to finally fix this broken system.

For additional information:

• Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/300409916692389/
• Change.org Petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/jsa
• Twitter Hashtag: #JSA
• Florida Case: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/07/us-usa-florida-student-idUSTRE8261KA20120307
• www.lethimstay.net

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MoCo Residents Fight Back Against Politicians' War on Immigrants // Students Fight Deportation of Their Friend #JSA

UPDATE: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, all nine members of the Montgomery County Council, and Casa de Maryland have published responses to the case of Jorge Steven Acuna.

Jorge Steven Acuna = #JSA

BACKGROUND: In the course of the last few years, Maryland Juice has been evangelizing the power of the Internet and peer-to-peer information sharing to advance social causes and political candidates. Over the weekend, numerous readers have flagged the latest experiment in social change, driven by otherwise ordinary individuals. Rather than tackling a global issue -- like the now famous Kony 2012 effort -- young people in Montgomery County are trying to make a difference in their own community. Their efforts center around a young man named Jorge Steven Acuna.

A reader who has been helping this cause provides information about Jorge: "There is a young Germantown kid – Jorge Steven Acuña – who was picked up with his parents by ICE to be deported after their multi-year application for asylum was denied.  It is a very typical story.  What is different here is that the community has exploded around it. Jorge is a resident of the 8th Congressional District and a Montgomery College student (future surgeon as his YouTube bio says). All of his supporters started out as apolitical young people who grew up in Montgomery County but have become totally politicized by the case."

LAME MARYLAND DEMOCRATS: Members of the Maryland Congressional delegation, along with state and county leaders, are completely LAME on immigrant justice. For the last two years, I have watched Democrats in other states fight back against rampant and careless deportations, reject the ridiculous "Secure Communities" program, and file private bills for DREAM Act students. But none of that happens in Maryland (aka "The Free State"). Once again, this Democratic complacency has led to youths taking matters into their own hands.

A NEW CAMPAIGN IS BORN: Friends of Jorge Steven Acuna have launched a multi-faceted campaign to raise awareness of his cause and have launched a viral YouTube video, Facebook effort, Twitter hashtag (#JSA), and change.org petition. Their request is simple: They want Rep. Chris Van Hollen to intervene, and they are doing everything they can to make sure he gets their message. See their kick-off video and numerous examples of guerilla marketing below:

CONCLUSION: Indeed, Maryland Juice has wondered why there has been deafening silence from Maryland Democrats (who are high-ranking officials in the Party) about Barack Obama's record-setting deportations of (mostly Latino) immigrants, and their seeming lack of interest in doing anything about Secure Communities. I was just in Dublin, Ireland last week and learned a great deal about the flood of immigrants to the United States during the great famine in Ireland. I am planning to write about my trip soon, but in the meantime, I have to point out that the parallels between the Irish immigrants of the last century and the immigrants of today are obvious. The biggest difference is that today's immigrants have a different skin color and speak a different language. The fact that this difference allows for such a massively lame response today is sickening.

Our political system stinks, and we're getting sick of this. 
Young people, I think it is time for a political rumble. 
We need to dislodge the oldsters if things don't start changing.