BOSTON – Immigrant advocates have staged sit-ins, held rallies and gone on hunger strikes in recent days in an 11th hour bid to get Congress to pass legislation that would give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship by going to college or serving in the military.
As Congress gets closer to a possible vote on the bill, called the DREAM Act, college-aged undocumented immigrants are literally shedding blood for the cause.
On Friday, a group of undocumented college students, or “DREAMers” as they called themselves, donated blood at Harvard University and other colleges. The students said they wanted to show the rest of the country that they are ready to perform community service and are good citizens, even if they don’t have U.S. citizenship.
“As someone who is undocumented … I’m not scared about giving blood,” said Megha Sharma, 22, whose family came to Massachusetts from India seven years ago and who donated blood Friday for the first time. “I’m scared about the vote in Congress,” she added.
The DREAM Act is in the pile of legislation awaiting action in the final days of the current Congress.
Myrna Orozco, a 20-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., who is spearheading the national effort, said supporters have been donating blood in the name of the cause for about two weeks. So far, she said “DREAMers” have given blood in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas and Virginia, with more states targeted in the coming days.
Orozco, who was brought to the United States from Mexico as a child, donated blood Friday at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, where she is a student.
