In today’s Arizona, the fact that Mohammad Abdollahi (pictured) is willing to speak up would be cause enough for concern. Abdollahi, who has been in the United States since the age of 3, risks arrest and deportation simply by being visible. Under the state’s new, anti-immigrant law, his mere presence means risking his continued residency in the only country he has ever known well enough to call it ‘home.’

Add to that, however, the fact that Abdollahi (who currently lives in Michigan) is gay, and originally from Iran, and you can begin to understand the true courage behind his current sit-in at the office of Senator John McCain.

If he is arrested, the 24-year-old faces deporation to one of the most notoriously homophobic countries in the world. Lesbians and gays are routinely tortured, and even executed, in Iran. There is little doubt that, if he is forced to return there, Abdollahi will, too, face unspeakable persecution simply because of who he is.

And yet, he is not deterred.

As journalist Todd Heywood first reported today in the Michigan Messenger, Abdollahi is risking his very life in order to press for passage of the DREAM Act, a critically important piece of legislation which would give young, undocumented people like him a path to citizenship and an opportunity to remain in the United States.

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