By: Ashmar Mandou

La FuerZa Juventud, Latino Youth Organization, held their weekly “Promise Watch” outside of ICE headquarters Monday afternoon to urge President Barack Obama to keep his “promise for executive action” by the end of summer. At the rally, La FuerZa Juventud stated it is now offering a $2,000 scholarship lottery for 18 year-old Latinos with a voter registration card.

“There is power in numbers,” said one Latino youth member. “If we get more youth to register, the more say we have on issues that directly impact our community.”

There are 900,000 Latino citizens who turn 18 every year and become eligible to vote. La FuerZa Juventud is currently registering voters this summer across at different sites across Chicago to secure Obama’s commitment to extend the deferments he gave to dreamers to undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children.

Familia Latina Unida Co-Chair Elvira Arellano, who recently returned from Rhode Island and New York where she had been speaking out for humane treatment of the children at the border, joined youth and encouraged more teens to register to vote as well as demand the Obama administration implement DACA for all.

“The two million deportations during this administration have fed the crisis at the border by separating families. Those coming to the U.S., from the dangerous conditions in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are coming here because they have family members here. We owe it to these children to immediately reunite them with family members while they pursue cases in court,” said Arellano.

The scholarship drawing will take place on August 30th at the end of Familia Latina Unida’s “30 Days of Dignity” voter registration campaign next month.