Cesar Vargas Of Dream Action Coalition Joins Bernie Sanders' Campaign

Cesar Vargas, co-founder of the pro-immigration reform group Dream Action Coalition, has accepted a position on the campaign of Democratic candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to a news release. Vargas is an undocumented-immigrant lawyer; he praised Sanders for his position on immigration reform.

"For Dreamers and our community, Sanders is a strong choice: He is great on immigration in general, stood with us on the border children and he wants to get the Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group and other corporations out of politics," Vargas said, according to a news release. "At the same time that Bernie is trying to chase them out of DC, Hillary is accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from GEO and CCA's registered lobbyists: One day they will call in several hundred thousand dollars worth of favors and skew the discussion on immigration reform to keep their detention facilities full."

Vargas, who is an undocumented immigrant and has been living in the U.S. since he was 5 years old, passed the New York state bar exam on his first try in July 2011 and went on to become a nationally recognized activist in the immigration rights movement. He was actively involved in the fight for the Dream Act and immigration reform, and eventually went on to help establish the Dream Action Coalition. The coalition “seeks to establish local, state, and federal policies that secure fairness for the diverse immigrant community without discrimination based on immigration status or national origin.”

If elected president, Sanders has promised to make sweeping changes in terms of immigration reform. He vows to sign an immigration reform into law that would bring 11 million undocumented workers “out of the shadows,” sign the Dream Act into law to offer the opportunity of permanent residency and eventual citizenship to young people who were brought to the U.S. as children, and expand President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to include the parents of citizens, the parents of legal permanent residents, and the parents of Dreamers, according to his website.

"We respect the work that Secretary Clinton has done, and appreciate her discussion with Dreamers earlier this year," Ryan Campbell, communications director for Dream Action Coalition, said in a news release. "When we think of who is in our corner the most, and who will reform the legislative process to actually make immigration reform possible, Sanders is the obvious choice."