The ridiculous portrayal of millions of illegal immigrants cowering in the shadows of society is difficult to swallow when they have appeared for years on news broadcasts, at border stunts, “gesturing” to the cameras and more. Somehow, they do not appear to be living in fear to me.
The latest star of this shadow culture is Astrid Silva, whom Obama will highlight in Las Vegas today. Astrid had a sweet story shared by Harry Reid back in the summer of 2013:
“It was time to come out of the shadows and share her story,” Reid said. “So she spoke up. She told her story. And she gave me the first of many heartfelt letters, cards and notes.
Truth is, Astrid had known Harry Reid for some time before this “coming out of the shadows” moment. In this 2012 piece from The Blue Nevadan, her 2009 meeting with him was glowingly described. In fact, she went on to help him beat Sharron Angle in that 2010 campaign:
Organizers then took her to meet the senator. Terrified, she told him, “I am a DREAMer.” She was afraid of getting arrested or harm coming to her family. To her, political parties had always been “the government” and she had just told the third most powerful man in the United States that she was undocumented. He reassured her and told her she would be able to finish school. She began volunteering for him and the Democratic Party the very next day.
She and a number of DREAMers/DREAM Act supporters worked hard to help Reid defeat Sharron Angle in 2010. In 2011, they worked for Chris Giunchigliani for Las Vegas Mayor because her opponent, Carolyn Goodman, is opposed to the DREAM Act. In 2012, they worked to get both the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law repealed and the DREAM Act passed. Although the DREAM Act failed, she was elated at the successful repeal of DADT.
In May 2011, Astrid graduated with her Associate’s Degree in political science. Two months later, she co-founded DREAM Big Vegas with some of the volunteers she had been working with the past year. Today, she is an organizer for PLAN Action and President of the Clark County Young Democrats.
Highlighted in this article from the AFL/CIO, she was an organizer in 2012 for a fun Facebook group called Citizen4Me, where American citizens could link up with “DREAMers”, marry them and make them legal. Of course, it was illegal and surely all meant in fun. It sure was public, though, for so many hiding in the shadows.
Citizen4Me Facebook Group Is Meant to Be Satire
Astrid Silva, a DREAMer from Nevada, told VOXXI she and several other DREAMers created the Facebook group in response to Kyl’s comments. She said the group is meant to be “very sarcastic and very funny.”
“A lot of us think Sen. Kyl’s comments are really out of touch with reality, and people are starting to see how silly his idea really is,” she told VOXXI.
Silva noted that getting married for the sole purpose of obtaining citizenship is a federal felony. She also said not everyone qualifies for that route to citizenship. Same-sex couples, for example, can’t help their partner obtain citizenship through marriage. Also, those who entered the country illegally often cannot obtain citizenship even if they marry a U.S. citizen.
Astrid won an award from the American Immigration Council back in April, praised by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) where she is on staff . (Amazing how many illegal immigrants are employed in very public ways.) The award ceremony also honored Elisio Medina from SEIU; no surprise there.
The American Immigration Council’s Immigrant Youth Achievement Award winner is Astrid Silva, an organizer for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
The American Immigration Council also will honor Eliseo Medina of Service Employees Union International, GALA Theatre founders Rebecca and Hugo Medrano and immigration reform leader Jeanne Butterfield.
PLAN has many member groups who are the usual progressive backers of everything this administration does, including Planned Parenthood, SEIU, ACLU and the Sierra Club.
Clearly, community organizer Astrid and her employer, PLAN, are just the same old network behind everything this administration does. To portray her today in Las Vegas as some fearful yet heroic immigrant, finally able to “come out of the shadows” could not be more disingenuous. It appears she has been in a bright spotlight for some time.
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