Marcelino Jose

Los Angeles – As UnitedWeStay launches on this day, all eyes are focused on the May Day marches and protests around the country – gatherings of solidarity that have already been happening nationwide over the past years. Calls for social justice echo from every city and across very diverse landscapes with a relentless focus on comprehensive immigration reform, wage fairness and criminal justice for all. If our nation is to move forward, these issues must be addressed not just in the streets, but in the courts and legislatures.

At UnitedWeStay, our mission is to focus on the stories of undocumented Americans — to be their publishing platform, to inundate the opposition with so many stories of determination and courage that stereotypes are forever extinguished. We will zero in on the humanity of the immigration issue by providing a welcoming space for real people to tell their raw, compelling stories.

Our goal is to reframe the immigration conversation and to make it not about the same knee-jerk, one-sided, us-versus-them scary polemics. We want to inspire the undocumented who’ve settled for a life of fear and uncertainty to stand up and tell the nation why they’ve earned a better life. We want to make their stories the news and stir the pot of complacency – to rage against social injustice and engage people in seizing the power of 11 million stories with one dream.

DACA and DAPA are just the beginning of what must become a fair, enduring and legally elegant solution to keeping families together and to enriching this country with the potential of this truly diverse, driven and talented human resource.

Turning the Realization of Personal Dreams into National Reform

While we gather stories, UnitedWeStay will also serve as a hub for immigration news, facts and resources. We believe we can’t change anything unless we’re aware of what’s going on. Being well-informed increases our ability to influence events. And we come full circle by rewriting the news, rewriting history with our millions of stories.

At UnitedWeStay, it’s all about what we can do to leverage our 11 million stories into a force that sweeps across the nation — changing minds, touching hearts and making laws more just. Here’s how you can join this movement:

• Send us your stories – about yourself, family and friends.
• Share the stories you find here with others.
• Become a neighborhood reporter, gathering stories from your community about how people are helping each other.
• Inform every one of important events both here and on social media.
• Express your thoughts – your opinions, outrage, solutions.
• Combine your like-minded organization’s efforts with ours so we can get more done.

Good Citizenship Is More Than an Accident of Birth

We cannot allow ourselves to be defined by where we are born, but rather by who we are, why we’re here, what struggles we somehow overcome and the differences we make in peoples’ lives.  At UnitedWeStay, we’re not advocating political positions; we’re advocating for the rights of all those undocumented Americans living in the U.S. The more united we become through our stories, the greater the possibility that we get to do more than dream – we get to stay.