DREAMers Send Themselves to Detention, And Find So Many More DREAMers Behind Bars

The Obama administration refuses to follow its own deportation policies, and activists are calling the president out on it.

By Julianne Hing Aug 01, 2012

Viridiana Martinez and Marco Saavedra, DREAM Act activists who are undocumented, have done what many consider the unthinkable: the two activists approached immigration agents and placed themselves into deportation proceedings. Saveedra and Martinez, along with five other activists, are being detained in the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. While in detention they’ve met dozens of people who ought to be granted deportation under the Obama administration’s memo outlining who ought to be a high priority for deportation and who ought not be detained and deported. Among those the Obama administration has said it doesn’t want to waste its resources deporting are those with no criminal convictions and those who have long ties to the U.S. Yet, Saveedra and Martinez have [found and catalogued](http://action.dreamactivist.org/broward/) the cases of many whose cases make them perfect candidates for deportation relief, confirming what experts and advocates have long argued–that the Obama administration has consistently promised sharper, more discriminating enforcement and reneged on even his own administration’s reforms. "Everyday I am meeting new people who have been detained for months and months for nothing more than driving without a license, we have one case of a father detained after dropping off his 11-year old wheel chair bound son at school," Martinez said in an email appeal sent out this week. "These stories are not supposed to be happening, but they are, right in our communities."