A little about me and my internship

Hi, all

I just became a senior this Jan. Term and I am majoring in Political Science. Aside from being a student, I am also a mom. I have a son who is two years old, his name is Jayden Alexander and he is the cutest boy in the world! I was born in Mexico but was raised here in Oregon since I was nine months old.

This past fall I interned with a non-profit named Causa. It is Oregon's immigrant rights organization and the largest Latino advocacy group in the Northwest. During my first internship with them I helped organize community events throughout Oregon to help non-citizen immigrants apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival. It is an Executive Order that President Obama announced on June 15, 2012. Causa held pre-screening clinics to start the application process in which close to 300 persons attended per clinic.

This spring I am doing a second internship with Causa. My duties this time around have been to schedule appointments with all of Oregon's state legislators and federal legislators. We are meeting with all 97 legislators because there are 3 key issues that the organization is going to be advocating for. At the state level, we are advocating for a tuition equity bill and drivers license bill. Tuition equity would allow undocumented youth to pay for school at in-state costs, instead of the international rate we are currently charged. The drivers license bill would restore the 2007 requirements to get an ID or drivers license in place of today's requirements. This bill is our priority at the state level because immigrants who do not have proof of legal status do not fulfill the requirements. If we do not pass a bill like this by 2014 there will be 80,000 drivers in Oregon without a license or car insurance. At the federal level, we are advocating for a comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize all 11 million undocumented immigrants and create a path to citizenship. 

I have already attended meetings with state and federal legislators and I feel very lucky to have done so. My dream is to become Oregon's first Latina federal Senator and this has been a great experience to see what a career like that entails. Some of the meetings have been great and we have received the reactions we had hoped to hear, but we have also been in meetings where the legislator is not supportive. It shows that one cannot change a legislator's mind on an issue with one meeting, and sometimes many meetings won't make a difference either. Sometimes the legislator's personal opinions will never let them move on a subject no matter what good of an argument you present to them.