Campus Ministries and Dreamers

Resources and Ideas

Key advocacy dates

  • September 25th: House of Representatives begins to collect signatures for a “discharge petition” on theDream Act, which is a procedural tactic that allows a majority of the House (218 lawmakers) to force avote on a bill.
  • October 5th: The last day DACA recipients can renew their status, leaving less than a month for 154,000Dreamers to apply or be at risk for deportation. This week we need to make 800,000 calls to Congress for the 800,000 Dreamers who could lose DACA.
  • October 16- 20: Dreaming for the Future: Dreamers & Higher Education theme week
  • October 25: This will be a national day of action. We need to hit the streets to demonstrate our unity insupport of Dreamers and urge Congress to pass the Dream Act.
  • LIRS and ELCA will be coordinating with Center for American Progress, who is the organizational lead for this week. If you have ideas for other activities, feel free to share with us!

Website where events will be posted:

The Full List of Theme Weeks Through December

Things that the Campus Ministry Network can do

  • Campus petitions:
  • To do this, it would be important to have a way to enter these petitions electronically to coordinate with Advocacy in DC who could develop an online petition platform.
  • Ideally these petitions would collect signers’ faith background, college/university, and address information. This detail would be helpful so that we can lift up Lutheran student voices and LuMin’s work in particular to Congress.
  • Rallies: Participate in existing rallies during higher education week OR help set one up
  • Story-collection of allies and Dreamers
  • In-District visits to Members of Congress and calling Members of Congress (This can be that week and/or on-going)
  • Social media campaign on twitter and FB (ELCA & LIRS Communications)
  • Bible study’s/services that are DACA focused.
  • Following October 5th, there could be ministry opportunities to DACA recipients who may not have made the filing deadline to renew their status.

Useful websites/resources

  • Bishop Eaton’s statement on DACA:
  • Network for ELCA Colleges and Universitiessigned on to this letter about DACA
  • American Federation of Teachers Resource on DACA
  • ELCA Advocacy toolkit (on the Advocacy toolkit tab) with information about
  • How to reach members of congress
  • Writing a Letter to the Editor
  • Advocating in your state
  • Interfaith Immigration Coalition’s Dream Sabbath Toolkit
  • Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s Action Alert to support the Dream Act 2017