Between The Lines - Lorella Praeli: President Obama’s Executive Order Stopping Deportations of Young Undocumented Immigrants (Week Ending June 29, 2012)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Apart from Obama's Executive Order, Young Undocumented Immigrants Continue Struggle for Path to Citizenship

RealAudio MP3

Posted June 20, 2012

excerpt of talk by Lorella Praeli, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus

On June 18, two dozen Latino high school and college students filled a small conference room at Yale University Law School to hear some of their peers discuss President Obama's June 15 executive order halting the deportation of undocumented immigrants between the ages of 16 and 30. Specifically, the president’s directive effects immigrants without a green card who were brought to the U.S. by their parents, who've lived here continuously for at least five years, have no criminal record and are in school, in the military or are veterans. The executive order also makes these individuals eligible for working papers for the first time. The so-called "grant of deferred action" is valid for two years and can be renewed, but it does not establish a path to citizenship and is not law, so it can be reversed by any future president.

One of the speakers at the Yale Law School gathering was Lorella Praeli, an undocumented Peruvian immigrant who, like all the young people who call themselves Dreamers, considers herself more American than anything else. The DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for young people brought to the U.S. as children, has been introduced in Congress every year since 2001, and in 2010 came within a few votes of passage.

Praeli is a leader of both Connecticut Students for a Dream and a member of the United We Dream National Coordinating Committee. In this talk recorded by Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus, she tells a bit of her personal story and gives a behind the scenes look at the strategy the Dreamers employed in targeting President Obama's campaign offices.

LORELLA PRAELI: These are the faces of the people that will benefit from this: the people that this really makes a difference to. I want to thank Lucas, but I want to say the reason I do what I do – which is fight every day and trying to change as many lives as possible to join the fight – is because I have a very clear understanding that nothing changes if we are not involved, that nothing changes if we are not asking for it. So, my name is Lorella Praeli. I am undocumented. I am from Peru, and when I had a car accident when I was 2-1/2. My family sought medical treatment here in the U.S. For many years, we traveled back and forth between Tampa and Peru, and my family decided to settle in the state of Connecticut when I was 10 years old. At that point, I went to middle school here, graduated from New Milford High School, got a full ride at Quinnipiac University, and graduated last year with a degree in political science and sociology.

Back in 2010, many of us were a little heartbroken. Many of us looked at the DREAM Act, in Washington, D.C., and since then, everyone said nothing can happen in the next three to five years. Nothing can really happen. In Washington, D.C. three months ago, we had progressives telling us to just take it slow, to not put too much pressure on President Obama, because it was an election year. And I am part of CT Students for a Dream, but also part of the United We Dream network, which is the national organization that organizes youth in 37 organizations in 25 states. We had a very different idea of what it would mean to actually change something in the U.S. and bring some action into the immigrant rights movement, and that meant shifting the focus from Congress, where we know there's a lot of Republican obstructionism at the moment, and focusing on the executive (branch). And so the Yale Law School – I want to recognize them for a second because they were one of our strongest allies, going in and meeting with people at the White House, and really pushing for this. Lawyers played a very important role in breaking down the legal objection. Individuals are confused, right, some people are saying legally, this is not possible, and they did all the work to prove that legally, this was possible, alongside 96 law professors in the country.

But that aside, after recognizing it, this is a victory of the youth, the immigrant rights movement, the DREAM movement in the U.S. At a moment when no one thought we could do this, that we were too young, that we didn't have enough experience, that we didn't have policy people as part of our staff in United We Dream. We proved this country wrong. The U.S. is ready to recognize us. It's ready to integrate us one step farther, but we celebrate with caution. We celebrate with caution because this is not a permanent solution, because it is up to everyone in this room, and everyone listening and reading all the news from here, for us to actually get a permanent solution – it is not enough just with the Dreamers, that it is also our parents, it is the friends that we know, the people who are working really hard and contributing in many ways, and are not being recognized.

So, I just want to say what a moment and what a great victory this has been. The last few months, and especially the last week, has been crazy for me, traveling back and forth to D.C. and making sure that our voices are heard, that we're not taken for granted, and our dreams are valued, respected and now one step made possible. So thank you for being here, thank you for your courage. Diego was the first person I called – we found out around midnight the night before – and the only person I wanted to call at that moment was Diego. I remembered meeting with him and I told him, "You have to hold on because we're working on this national campaign." And he goes, "Lorella, I already decided." And I'm really pushy, to be really frank, I'm a really pushy person. And I'm like, "Diego, you have to wait, because it's coming, it's gonna happen, and it was all about hope. It was all about hope and a lot of hard work." And I called Diego and had a real emotional moment, because I thought, here's someone who's been here since he was 8, who's graduated from high school in the state of Connecticut, and who's basically thought that this country – where we hear you can do anything, you can be anyone – has failed him. And I think Friday is a big testament to the exact opposite of that. The world is yours, and it belongs to all of us to take on this opportunity and to bring real change to the immigrant community, to the lives in the state of Connecticut and in other parts of this country. Thank you so, so much. (Applause)

Find information about the United We Dream National Coordinating Committee at www.unitedwedream.org.