Jennifer Angarita in AFL-CIO Field Mobilization sends us this report.

From marches to teach-ins, activists across the country have mobilized around the DREAM Act, a common-sense immigration bill for students who were brought to the United States at a young age and who serve in the military or attend college for at least two years. Many have even risked deportation and detention to raise awareness of their cause. Matias Ramos is a prominent DREAM leader and UCLA graduate who was detained last year by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) while traveling.

Sept. 15-Oct. 15, Latino Heritage Month, offers a time to recognize the contributions of the nearly 47 million Latinos living in the United States and to highlight the issues facing our Latino brothers and sisters.

During the second panel in today’s national symposium on “Jobs, Justice and the American Dream,” panelists made it clear that now is the time for a massive effort by progressives to come together at all levels to build a movement that reclaims the moral vision that King had and to force needed social change in our nation.  They agreed that Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of social justice is not limited to African Americans and poor people. It encompasses all people who are oppressed or denied their human rights, including working people who are either immigrants, middle class, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender (LBGT) or young.

The AFL-CIO and the King Center’s national symposium on Jobs, Justice and the American Dream will get underway shortly and you can follow it with our live Twitter feed here and on Twitter with the hashtag #jobsjustice.

On Aug. 26, two days before the official dedication of the historic Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C., the AFL-CIO and The King Center will host a national symposium to explore how far we have come in fulfilling King’s dream of a nation of economic equality and justice for all people.

When the 45 AFL-CIO Union Summer 2011 interns are asked what they did for their summer vacation, they won’t have any stories about lounging on the beach or backpacking through Europe. But the will tell about making a real difference in people’s lives and about how much that involvement has contributed to their sense of social justice.

Even though her family came to this country legally and has followed the law, Kosa has been told she would be deported in less than a year.  Despite years of hard work and achievement, she cannot become a citizen under current immigration laws.

The United States faces grave immigration and citizenship challenges, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and the nation must confront those challenges “with a movement to fight against intimidation, and for an economy and a nation that honors the dignity of all workers and our fundamental freedoms every single day.”

Our elected leaders should act quickly to protect the interests of our nation’s youth and working people by enacting the DREAM Act and by bringing relief to these young people who continue to be jailed and deported, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. 

Latinos face tremendous challenges that threaten their prospects for a better life, according to new report.

The report, “Latino Workers in the United States 2011,” released this week by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), provides an in-depth look at the state of Latino workers.