How you can help:

-Sign the petition asking ICE officials to release Cindy and stop her deportation HERE

-Donate on this ChipIn to help pay for Cindy's legal fees and bail.

-Call ICE officials John Morton (202) 732-3100 and Tim Robbins (213) 830-7911 and saying "Hi my name is ______ and I am calling to urge you to release and stop the deportation of DREAM Act eligible UC Santa Barbara student Cindy Reyna, alien #205310046"



About Cindy's Case:

We write to humbly request that you take immediate action to stop the deportation of DREAM Act-Eligible student, Cindy Reyna (A#205310046). Despite both President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s announcement that DREAM Act eligible youth are not a priority for deportation, a UC Santa Barbara student was stopped at a police checkpoint and detained by local law enforcement in Santa Barbara County Jail on Thursday February 23rd and was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the morning of Wednesday February 28th and is now facing deportation. Cindy is now being forced to leave her family, life, school and dreams behind in Santa Barbara



Cindy is a young, ambitious, and hard working student who came to the U.S. at the age of 15 on a visa from Guatemala. Her father, a U.S. citizen tried to petition citizenship for Cindy, but while pursuing her college career she aged out of the broken immigration system. She is a senior at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Communications and Linguistics with a 3.8GPA; her scholastic and personal achievements include interning for Univision, the only Latino/a serving television station in the country, recognition in Santa Barbara City College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society as well as the President’s honor roll, certificates of special congressional and legislative recognition signed by Lois Capps and Pedro Nava and a Miss Santa Barbara County model.



On June 17th, 2011 ICE director John Morton issued a memorandum known as the “Morton Memo”, which aims at prioritizing deportations geared towards people who commit criminal offenses. Morton issued a statement regarding the prioritization of DREAM Act eligible students as a low-priority and that undocumented students would not be targeted for deportation under enforcement programs. Yet despite these statements made by the Obama administration and ICE, Cindy is in the process of deportation and is in a detention center in Camarillo. In a recent announcement, Secretary Napolitano stated new guidelines for Prosecutorial Discretion. According to these guidelines, Cindy Reyna is not deemed a priority for removal by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and merits a favorable exercise of discretion.



Cindy is not a criminal; she is a student, a hard-working individual, a member of the community and a potential college graduate. She is a clear depiction of a DREAM Act student, who hopes to take full advantage of the opportunities that were not just handed to her, but which she has tirelessly worked for in order to succeed. Cindy needs your support now more than ever. Her future is in your hands. We urge you to respond to this emergency by signing this petition, to Regional Director Tim Robbins; and ICE Director John Morton in order to stop any possibility of her deportation. Doing so can make the difference in whether Cindy stays in this country or not.