By DANIEL SHOER ROTH
The students' efforts were so quick and efficient that after just a few days of being held at an immigration detention center, brothers Jesús and Guillermo Reyes were set free.
With the help of digital technology and a spirit of solidarity, this group of students -- U.S. citizens and immigrants alike, with or without documents -- showed how unity can be stronger than a judge's order in the cause of justice.
In Miami, where activism for one's convictions is scarce -- and youth are pigeonholed, often for good reason, as superficial and materialistic -- the group Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER), which was behind the effort to free the Reyes brothers, gives one hope.
As in the case of Colombian brothers Juan and Alex Gómez, who almost were deported in 2007, the student friends of the undocumented Reyes brothers organized the community to pressure immigration officials and South Florida's members of Congress.
This time, fortunately, they achieved results quickly.
``We focus our strategy on community colleges that are open to everyone, immigrants and citizens alike,'' said SWER organizer José Luis Marante. ``For us, it's unsettling to know that there are young people who talk just like we do, have the same ambitions, but they can't move up in society. That's the paradox.''
Marante, a 26-year-old Cuban American, is part of what sociologists have classified as the Millennial Generation, born between 1980 and 1995, well-versed in digital technology and supportive of progressive ideas.
These young people rally to the cause of their undocumented classmates because they see them as equals and not as violators of the law, since they came to this country as young children with their parents, grow up here and speak English fluently.
SWER is part of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and was founded in 2005 when its members could be counted on one hand and they would meet in friends' homes. Now the student group has 13 college chapters in Florida.
One of the founders is Gaby Pacheco.
Pacheco is a 24-year-old Ecuadoran with a student visa whose family was detained in 2006 for not having their paperwork in order.
On Nov. 14 Pacheco received a call telling her a student from Miami Dade College had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The next day, Sunday, she found out her friend Jesús Reyes, who like her had been student president at Miami Dade College's Kendall campus, was the one in trouble.
With experience earned in other cases the group has tackled, Pacheco and her SWER companions started a Facebook page to collect signatures.
In the process they found out that Kelly Vargas, a childhood friend of the Reyes brothers, had collected 600 signatures at El Rey Jesús (Christ the King) church in Tamiami.
``Monday and Tuesday we didn't do much because the priority was to get a lawyer who would represent the brothers,'' Pacheco said.
The Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami took charge of the case and won a reprieve: a one-year deferral of the brothers' removal order.
By Wednesday, ``we stopped our lives,'' Pacheco said, to organize a demonstration held Thursday, which was followed by an evening vigil.
``This is a group with positive energy. We don't work for our ego, because we know that what we're doing is more important than our own selves,'' she said.
When Guillermo and Jesús, Venezuelans ages 21 and 25, were free to leave detention on Friday, our community -- and especially their classmates -- celebrated another victory.
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