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When Republican House member Steve King of Iowa was asked recently about the DREAM act for young immigrants who were brought to the US as minors, he acknowledged that some of those young immigrants were certainly valedictorians.

But then he went on to say, “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds, and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

King invoked the vivid image saying that drug dealing immigrants would get legal status as a result of the proposed immigration reform bill currently in front of the House.

Attempting to counter this type of demonization, a group of 3 young immigrants this week carried out a very public action to draw attention to the broken immigration system. They essentially deported themselves to Mexico and attempted to cross back into Arizona over the border legally.

As of now, Marco Saavedra, Lizbeth Mateo, and Lulu Martinez, along with 6 others who were already in Mexico, are being held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona.

GUEST: Domenic Powell, a founding member of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), an undocumented youth-led national network of activists

Visit action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome for more information about petitions and other efforts to release the nine activists.

Visit www.theniya.org for more information about NIYA.