Generation 1.5

Calling On All DREAMers!

2010-12-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

Watch this Video:

10 Reasons to Pass the DREAM Act

2010-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

I liked this, so I thought I'd post it.

10 Reasons We Need The DREAM Act
Posted by Stephanie Valencia on December 03, 2010 at 03:25 PM EST

In the coming days, Congress will vote on the DREAM Act – a common-sense piece of legislation drafted by both Republicans and Democrats that will give young people who grew up in the United States a chance to contribute to our nation by pursuing a higher education or serving in the U.S. armed forces. It’s limited, targeted legislation that will allow only the best and brightest to earn their legal status, and applies to those brought to the United States as minors through no fault of their own by their parents, and who know no other home.

Here are 10 reasons we need the DREAM Act:

1. Like Ginkgo Biloba, It’ll Make Us Smarter: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has stated that passing the DREAM Act will “play an important part in the nation’s efforts to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020,” something vital for America to remain competitive in today’s global economy.

2. For Ivan Rosales: With the DREAM Act, young people like Ivan Rosales, who came to the United States when he was a year old, can become doctors and work towards a cure for cancer. Ivan’s brother, a National Guardsman, and his brother-in-law, an Iraq veteran, inspired his dream to serve as a doctor in the military, before going on to work as a cancer researcher. Without the DREAM Act, Ivan and others like him have no way to even stay in the country, much less serve it.

3. Uncle Sam Says, The DREAM Act supports our troops: Secretary of Defense Gates has written to DREAM Act sponsors citing the rich precedent of non-citizens serving in the U.S. military and stating that “the DREAM Act represents an opportunity to expand [the recruiting] pool, to the advantage of military recruiting and readiness.

4. For Gaby Pacheco: So Gaby Pacheco, who was the highest ranked J-ROTC student in her high school and president of her college student government, can serve in the Air Force and eventually live out her dream of working with special needs children.

5. It Helps Separate The Bad Guys From The Good Guys: Secretary Napolitano
believes this targeted legislation provides a firm but fair way to deal with innocent children brought to the U.S. at a young age so that the Department of Homeland Security can dedicate their enforcement resources to detaining and deporting criminals and those who pose a threat to our country.

6. For David Cho: So David Cho, who graduated from high school with a 3.9 GPA, plays seven instruments and is the drum major at UCLA, can live his dream of serving the United States in the Air Force.

7. It’s Bipartisan: The DREAM Act is a bipartisan piece of legislation designed to stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents by giving them the chance to obtain legal status by pursuing a higher education, or by serving in the U.S. armed forces for the country they've grown up in and love as their own.

8. For Cesar Vargas: So Cesar Vargas, a proud Brooklyn kid, can live his dream to serve in the military as a JAG officer or on the front line as an intelligence officer with the Marines. He wants to “earn [his] place next to the great heroes of our nation that have and are fighting to defend our Constitution."

9. It Will Help Our Economy: According to a recent UCLA study, students that would be impacted by the DREAM Act could add between $1.4 to $3.6 trillion in taxable income to our economy over the course of careers, depending on how many ultimately gain legal status. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the DREAM Act in its current form will cut the deficit by $1.4 billion and increase government revenues by $2.3 billion over the next 10 years.

10. It’s The Right Thing To Do: It’s just plain common sense and it’s the right thing to do. For more information on the DREAM Act, view the fact sheet.

Stephanie Valencia is an Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/03/10-reasons-we-need-dream-act

DREAM Act Needs Your Calls!

2010-12-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

How to call congress:

If you have never called a member before don’t stress. It is pretty easy:

1. Dial the switchboard 1-866-587-3023
2. Ask operator for a member from the target list
3. When receptionist picks up leave a message urging the member to vote yes on DREAM.

The week of DREAM Act is finally here and we need to step it up right now. We are focusing on calls all this week and need you to really step it up here. Below is a detailed target list, you can easily call all of the members and leave a quick message of support, if you can’t for whatever reason call everyone then pick at least 5 from each list and call them.

Call the switchboard (866-587-3023) and ask for the following members:

Senate Democrats:

Conrad (ND)
Dorgan (ND)
McCaskill (MO)
Webb (VA)
Warner (VA)
Landrieu (LA)
Pryor (AR)
Tester (MT)
Hagan (NC)

Senate Republicans:

Hutchison (TX)
Brownback (KS)
Murkowski (AK)
Kirk (IL)
Bennett (UT)
Voinovich (OH)
Snowe (ME)
Collins (ME)
Lemieux (FL)
Lugar (IN)
Bunning (KY)

Representatives:

Cooper, Jim TN-05, Tanner, John TN-8, Bishop, Sanford GA-02, Boccieri, John OH-16, Boucher, Rick VA-09, Dahlkemper, Kathy PA-03, Hall, John NY-19, Herseth-Sandlin, Stephanie SD-AL, Holden, Tim PA-17, Kirkpatrick, Ann AZ-01, Kissell, Larry NC-08, Marshall, Jim GA-08, Michaud, Michael ME-02, Mollohan, Alan WV-01, Nye, Glenn VA-02, Peters, Gary MI-09, Ross, Mike AR-04, Shuler, Heath NC-11, Spratt, John SC-05, Visclosky, Peter IN-01, Wilson, Charlie OH-06, Barrow, John GA-12, Peterson, Colin MN-07, Murphy, Scott NY-20, Arcuri, Michael NY-24, Baird, Brian WA-3, Boyd, Allen FL-02, Deutch, Ted FL-19, Ellsworth, Brad IN-08, Higgins, Brian NY-27, Matheson, Jim UT-02, Miller, Brad NC-13, Owens, Bill NY-23, Ryan, Tim OH-17, Schrader, Kurt OR-05, Scott, David GA-13, Stupak, Bart MI-01, Chandler, Ben KY-06, Adler, John NJ-03, Space, Zach OH-18, Halvorson, Deborah IL-11, Pomeroy, Earl ND AL

Taken from www.dreamactivist.org

Immigrant Students

2009-01-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

Immigrant Students, DREAM Act Supporters Hoping Obama Will Take Up Their Cause
By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

As the much-anticipated presidential inauguration of Barack Obama approaches, one group of immigrant activists in particular is feverishly pushing for their cause to be heard by the incoming president. They are young undocumented immigrant students who grew up in the U.S. and their supporters, who are hoping that the new administration will push for passage of the DREAM Act, a law that would allow the students to become U.S. citizens provided they meet certain conditions.
Undocumented students, hoping to come out of the shadows.

Hoping to come out of the shadows. (Video capture: ADreamDeferred.org)

Their cause got an extra bit of support through an online contest organized by Change.org, a social action network (not to be confused with the president-elect’s website Change.gov.)

For the last few weeks, the site hosted an online vote to select “the best ten ideas for change,” which will be announced today at an event at the National Press Club.

The contest was born as a response to Obama’s call to Americans to get involved in their government. “We started the Ideas for Change in America initiative in the hope that we could translate the energy behind the Obama election into a citizen-led movement for change around the major issues we face,” the organizers said.

Thousands of ideas were submitted and over 600,000 votes were cast. Activists for causes as varied as marijuana legalization, gay marriage, and green energy mobilized to make their voices heard and to gather votes for their ideas. As of 5pm EST Thursday, when the vote closed, passage of the DREAM Act stood in eighth place, making it one of the ten winners. (Marijuana legalization was first.)

Undocumented students campaigned actively online to drum up votes for their cause, as one of them narrates here.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) would give undocumented students brought to the U.S. by their parents conditional legal status and eventual citizenship if they met all of the following requirements:

* they were brought to the United States before they turned 16, are below the age of 30,
* have lived here continuously for five years,
* graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED
* have good moral character with no criminal record and
* attend college or enlist in the military.

The DREAM Act emerged in response to the plight of thousands of immigrant students who, after growing up here, could not continue a normal life after graduating from high school or college because of the manner in which they entered the country — many of them when they were infants.

“Many American students graduate from college and high school each year, and face a roadblock to their dreams: they can’t drive, can’t work legally, can’t further their education, and can’t pay taxes to contribute to the economy just because they were brought to this country illegally by their parents or lost legal status along the way,” Change.org said.

The bill was in Congress in 2007. But it failed a Senate vote to defeat a Republican filibuster. On the occasion, The New York Times editorial board commented,

Who could be threatened, after all, by new high school graduates who were brought here by their parents, grew up in America, and yearn to get a college degree or to serve the country in uniform — but are stuck in a paperwork trap that can’t be opened?

But the Senate’s message was like a speech from a prison warden in a bad juvenile-delinquent movie: You’re illegal. You’re going to stay that way. We don’t like your kind.

DreamActivist.org, a site created by undocumented students, has plenty of stories of those who would benefit from this bill. Like that of Piash, a Bangladeshi-born student, who says he only learned that he was undocumented during his sophomore year of high school.

“I came home to show my parents that I got a 100 on my driver’s ed class and I wanted to go to DMV to get my learner’s permit,” he writes. “My parents told me that my dad’s asylum case was still pending in court and they didn’t know how long it would take… I was an American in every way except where it really mattered: documents.” (DreamActivist lists dozens of blogs started by other students.)

In addition to this largely symbolic victory, the students’ cause seems to have won one of the most important votes: that of the incoming president, who has expressed his support for the bill in the past. Now, they hope Obama will help make it law.

http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/immigrant-students-dream-act-supporters-hoping-obama-will-take-up-their-cause/

Last Day! Vote for DREAM Act on Change.org!

2009-01-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

Have you voted yet? Have you told everyone you know to vote? If not, what are you waiting for? There only a few hours left! Voting ends TODAY at 5pm ET. Vote here. Currently we are in 8th place and only the top ten will be counted, so let's keep DREAM Act on top.

Just a quick reminder to everyone, if you have already voted please log back into your account and make sure your vote has actually registered with the site. Once you are logged in click the DREAM Act idea and the vote box should be red, if the vote box is blue then you have not yet voted.

Exercise Your Right to Act

2009-01-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

Time is ticking away to vote at change.org for DREAM Act. Voting ends Jan. 15th! Vote here!

ALSO:

The Obama website has decided to follow the lead of change.org and is now allowing for people to create ideas and also vote / comment on them. An idea for the DREAM Act has already been created, now we just need the votes to get us ranked.

Like the change.org idea, this one also requires you to create an account however it does NOT require you to confirm your account so one less step. Click the above link and you will be prompted to make an account, after doing so click back on the link and vote up (or down. . .). Each vote up is worth 10 points, the top idea currently has 900 votes and so we only need 900 to 1000 to get noticed! Go here to vote on the Obama website (different from change.org)!!!!!

Video: An Unfinished DREAM

2009-01-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

Interested in DREAM Act? Want to help pass the DREAM Act? Check out this video, An Unfinished DREAM.

Then after watching it make sure to rate it, comment on it,favorite it and send it around to friends / post on blogs etc. The more attention the better!

Let's get the national spotlight on Obama's promise to pass the DREAM Act.

Also don't forget if you haven't voted already, to vote for the DREAM Act at change.org.

CHANGE.ORG: FINAL ROUND VOTE JAN. 5-JAN. 15

2009-01-05T16:29:00.000-08:00

(copied from About.com:Immigration Issues)

If you support the DREAM Act, now is your chance to help make the issue a priority in 2009.

On January 16th, Change.org will present its top 10 "ideas for change" to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The top 10 issues are chosen from Change.org's Ideas for Change in America competition, created in response to president-elect Barack Obama's desire to have more American people involved in their government.

In addition to the January 16th presentation, Change.org will also launch a national advocacy campaign behind each top 10 idea to help turn issues like the DREAM Act into policy.

Final round voting begins today and ends at 5pm ET on Thursday, January 15. You can vote for the DREAM Act online at Change.org. (Note: You'll need to do a quick registration if you don't already belong to Change.org. Once you confirm your e-mail address, you can vote for the DREAM Act. Your vote is confirmed when the vote count button changes to from "Vote Now!" to "Voted.")

The children of undocumented parents should not be punished by denying them a chance at legalization. This path to citizenship isn't a free ride: the DREAM Act requires that these children attend college or enlist in the military and show good moral character. Be the voice for these children. Vote now

Go DREAMers!

2008-12-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

Advocates of the DREAM Act are motivated and read to mobilize the moment Obama is sworn into office:

Some See DREAM Act Within Reach
by Charles Dervarics

Barack Obama’s presidential victory is fueling widespread optimism among student groups that Congress and the next White House will endorse long-debated legislation to help undocumented students gain legal status.

These organizations see an opportunity to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, through which undocumented students who complete high school and two years of college could gain conditional legal status and eventual citizenship.

“Our strategy is to get it done in the first 100 days [of the new administration],” says Shanta Driver, spokeswoman for BAMN, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary.

Groups such as the United States Student Association, based in Washington, D.C., also share that view. “The DREAM Act is one of our top priorities for the first 100 days,” says Angela Peoples, USSA legislative director.

Congress in the past has considered the DREAM Act as a standalone bill and as one part of a comprehensive immigration reform package. Student groups want the former option for 2009.

“The best plan for the DREAM Act is as a standalone bill,” Peoples says. With its focus on helping children who came to the United States with their parents, the public can view it as an education access issue rather than “a large, divisive immigration plan.”

BAMN, USSA, change.org and others already are focusing on the Obama transition effort, while many blogs from students and nonprofit groups are rallying support for January. USSA also is planning call-ins, a fax campaign and a pledge card effort to inundate Capitol Hill, Peoples says. “A lot of students are mobilized,” she adds.

Full article can be read here.

Almost Normal...

2008-12-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

It is very encouraging how many DREAM Act news articles have surfaced in the last few weeks. This particular article I enjoy because it focuses on older DREAMers - not the ones who are just graduating High School, but DREAMers who graduated college. As difficult as it is for undocumented students who just graduate high school, it only gets more difficult as the years tick by and especially after earning a degree - four long years of hard work - that is now useless. While in college, DREAMers can pretend they are almost normal. Don't have a car? Can't afford it with college expenses. Work as a waitress? Plenty of 'college kids' take those jobs. After you have a college degree, it gets a lot hard to explain why you still don't have a car and still work as a waitress.

Well-educated and undocumented

by JESSICA TERRELL

Thousands of undocumented college graduates face major hurdles while looking for employment. Most were brought here by their parents.

Carried into the United States in her mother's arms, Maria became a criminal when she was just over 2-weeks-old.

Of course, she did not know that at the time. Maria found out that she was an illegal immigrant when she began applying to colleges at 17, and told herself that if she was unable to gain U.S. citizenship by the time she was 30, she would leave the country forever.

Now 22-years-old and a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, Maria, who is still undocumented, said that she tries not to think about her lack of citizenship and the obstacles it could create for her future.

Maria is one of thousands of students in Orange County who have been able to attend college through AB 540, a California law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, rather than the higher fee charged to non-California residents.

The Register is withholding the full names of the undocumented students at their request and under newspaper policy that recognizes the potential for retaliation against them.

Undocumented students are ineligible for state or federal financial aid, but do get help under a policy that allows them to pay the same fees as California residents. For example, non-California residents pay an additional $20,608 a year at the University of California; up to $10,170 at the California State University: and up to $170 per unit at community colleges.

Since AB 540 was enacted in 2001, a growing number of undocumented students in California have been able to pursue college degrees. There are no statewide numbers on how many undocumented students receive help through the program or how much they receive.

While the bill has opened doors to some undocumented students, it has also created a big debate about the legality and merit of subsidizing education for illegal immigrants. And for students like Maria, who would not otherwise have been able to afford higher education, AB 540 has created a huge unanswered question: What happens after graduation?

Full article here.

Not "A Mexican Thing'...

2008-12-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article bringing to light the fact that not all undocumented students are Mexican. Though I understand that this is an Asian Newspaper, it would have been nice if the author had added a line or two about other regions of the world that a lot of Americans don't associate with where undocumented students could be from, such as Europe.

Not ‘A Mexican Thing’: Undocumented Asian students face stigma and lack of financial aid, job experience

Picture an undocumented student, and the first image to pop up is unlikely to be an Asian one.

Yet a recent report by the University of California Office of the President revealed that 40 to 44 percent of undocumented students in the UC system are Asian. This is definitely not “a Mexican thing,” which is how one undocumented student characterized the Asian community’s dismissive views towards undocumented immigration.

“People will ask you: ‘Are you AB 540? Because obviously you are not Latina,’” explains Tam, a 24-year-old of Vietnamese descent who recently graduated from UCLA (the last names of the undocumented students in this article have been withheld to protect their identities).

The 2001 state law AB 540 lowers the cost of tuition at California public universities for students who attended a high school in the state for at least three years. According to the UC Office of the President, over 1,639 students have benefited from AB 540; out of those, 1,200 were legal residents or citizens.

Out-of-state students attending California colleges filed a suit in 2005 challenging the law, objecting to the state’s practice of allowing illegal immigrants to pay significantly lower tuition than they pay. The suit was dismissed by the Yolo County Superior Court in 2006.

But on September 15, the Court of Appeal in Sacramento issued a ruling that challenges AB 540 on the grounds that it contradicts federal law, which holds that states cannot grant educational benefits based on residency.

But life continues for those who have made it to college. Faced with financial burdens and legal concerns in addition to the normal college student worries about classes and career, today’s unexpected and overlooked Asian undocumented students are screaming for help.

Tam came to the U.S. when she was six years old, and like many Americans, she wanted to go to college. Although undocumented students come from low-income families, they are not eligible for any kind of state or federal financial aid. Tam needed her parents’ help to pay for school, but she refused to ask.

“My major was English and I did not want to deal with ‘We’re paying for your education, so you will have to study what we want,’” explained Tam, who paid for school with money from work and private scholarships.

Ana, a third generation Japanese Peruvian, could not find enough scholarships to cover the costs of attending college without financial aid. Her parents are low-wage employees who could not afford it either. An aunt helped her secure a loan, but it is not subsidized by the government, as some student loans are, and interest is accrued every month. Yet it is helping her go to college.

“This how I paid my first year, and how I plan on paying my second year,” she said.

Not only she will get out of college in debt, but Ana is also frustrated about her future. Because of her legal status, she won’t have the same experience as fellow graduates in civil engineering.

“It doesn’t matter if you were admitted into the university, you are still not able to get internships and jobs, which are the real stuff,” she said. Without experience and legal status, Ana doubts she will be able to utilize her degree when she graduates.

Currently, the only path to legalization for these students is the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which would allow undocumented students who have graduated from college in the United States to receive conditional residency and eventually legalization. The future of the bill is uncertain, but with the bill’s fiscal implications along with the current economic recession, support for it is low.

Furthermore, there is not much information for undocumented Asian students on how to even get to college. Those that exist are mainly in Spanish or English.

“Asian students who aren’t fluent in English or Spanish can’t access this information, so they have trouble getting the information they need to pursue opportunities and make knowledgeable decisions,” said Kathy Gin, co-founder of Educators for Fair Consideration, an organization that provides scholarships to low-income first-generation college students.

One’s immigration status is also a sensitive topic for Asians, and among Asian families, talking about it to even just ask for help is a taboo.

“When we came here and we were filling out the high school paperwork, my mom would say ‘Don’t talk about it,’” said Ana, who did not know the gravity of her status until she was enrolled in school.

Roseanne Fong, new student program director at UC Berkeley, explains that Latino students are more outspoken about one’s status.

“Asian students are more reluctant to come forward,” Fong said. “I have to read between the lines. For Chicano/Latino students, by the first email, they will tell me about their status.”

This silence and shame may be related to culture.

“From what I can infer, students from Asian families enforce ‘secrecy’ for fear of being deported-this explains the fact that they have to be very guarded and careful,” said Jere Takahashi, director of the Asian Pacific American Student Development Program at UC Berkeley. “They have fear that [if they speak up] it will lead to investigation and eventually deportation.”

Nevertheless, the stereotype of undocumented students being solely Latinos can benefit and harm Asian undocumented students. On the one hand, Asian undocumented students don’t suffer from many of the negative stereotypes facing Latino undocumented students. But silence means isolation, according to Gin.

“While undocumented Latino students can often seek support from Latino student groups or academic programs targeting Latino students, Asian undocumented students may not know whom to reach out to,” Gin said. “They may have trouble finding communities in which they can comfortably, openly and safely share their experiences with other students.”

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/10/13/not-mexican-thing-undocumented-asian-students-face-stigma-and-lack-of-financial-aid-job-experience/

CHANGE.ORG: VOTE FOR DREAM ACT

2008-11-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

What is Ideas for Change in America?

Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven effort to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies. You can help by submitting an idea for how you would change America, discussing ideas with others, and/or voting for your favorites

There's a page on change.org to pass the DREAM Act. You must register with valid e-mail address before the vote can be counted (registration is painless and easy). DREAM Act idea is currently in first place under Immigration on the site, so let's keep it that way by adding more votes. Vote here.

UC Berkeley Students Call On Obama to Enact the Dream Act

2008-11-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

by Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday November 14, 2008

UC Berkeley students joined the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) Thursday to launch a national campaign urging President-elect Barack Obama to enact the federal Dream Act, which would legalize federal financial aid and open a path of citizenship for undocumented immigrant college students across the nation, who are otherwise entrapped in complicated paperwork.

Held at the MLK Student Union on campus, the event—which was organized by BAMN and co-sponsored by Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education, the Latino Business Students Association, the gender and women’s studies and Spanish and Portuguese studies departments at the university and the Chancellor’s Student Opportunity Fund—started with a group of undocumented students from around the Bay Area testifying about their struggles in the absence of federal financial aid.

Calls to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s office for comment were not returned by press time, but a campus spokesperson confirmed that the chancellor supports the Dream Act. Birgeneau wrote an op-ed piece in support of the act for the UC Berkeley student newspaper The Daily Californian, Nov. 5.

In California, undocumented students have the right to attend a public university but are not allowed to apply for financial aid, something Thursday’s participants said they would aggressively push for once the new president is sworn in.

BAMN activists also called upon UC Berkeley to become a sanctuary campus and welcome African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and other minority and immigrant communities.

“We want to make the era of change and hope real,” said BAMN organizer Yuvette Felarca, who also teaches at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley. “When we see the nation elect the first black president and yet we see that the percentage of blacks and Latinos on campuses like UC Berkeley and UCLA is so low, we need to make a change.”

Shanta Driver, national chairperson for BAMN, asked students to seize this important moment in history to start a new kind of civil rights movement which would oppose racism and bring equal opportunities to all.

“Over the last few weeks we have seen a real change in America and it has presented us with an opportunity to leave our mark on our nation,” she said to applause from the audience. “If it’s possible for America, with such a strong and deep history of racism to do this, then anything is possible. We need to resolve deep social problems and engage in a real debate and discussion on racism. “

She said that Obama should enact the Dream Act within his first 100 days in office.

“If the people who worked for Obama’s victory decide after inauguration day that their work is over it won’t happen,” Driver said. “We have to continue to be leaders of the movement that put him in power.”

Driver added that if the Dream Act failed under Obama, then generations of young people would ask, “If a black president couldn’t do it, then who can?”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 1301, which incorporates the California Dream Act, on Sept. 30, citing a staggering state economy. Thousands of students who had mobilized in support of the bill were disappointed by his decision.

“The governor said that although he shared the author’s goal of making affordable education available to all California students, given the precarious fiscal condition the state is facing right now, it would not be prudent to place additional demands on our limited financial aid resources as specified in this bill,” said Francisco Castillo, a spokesperson for Schwarzenegger.

Castillo added that the governor supported a local bill which allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.

Gabriella, a UC Berkeley undocumented student from El Salvador who has been in U.S. since October 2005, said that even with in-state tuition, it is difficult to make ends meet

“The reason my dad brought me here is because he wanted me to have a better life,” she said. “But my transition to UC Berkeley has been very different than that of the other students. My dad earns less than $10,000 a year. I couldn’t get enough scholarship to live on campus so I am living with my best friend’s sister in Davis. I have to commute three to four hours every day. “

Gabriella—who wants to go to law school—said that when she started out as a sophomore at her high school in California, she didn’t speak English and never imagined going to community college, let alone UC Berkeley.

“Right now I can’t get a job because I don’t have a Social Security number and residence,” she said. “Sometimes I have to skip meals in order to pay for the shuttle. I had to sacrifice many things to be at UC Berkeley. Usually people have gym, clubs or homework sessions after class, but I can’t go to any of those. My future is pretty uncertain and if the situation doesn’t change I might have to drop out. I have hope that the Dream Act might get passed one day.”

Zaira, another undocumented student at the university, echoed her thoughts.

“It’s hard to describe the life of an undocumented student on campus,” she said. “We act the same as the other students but our efforts are not reciprocated by the education system. All undocumented students are equal and deserve the same rights. There’s no reason why we should get the leftovers of education. I want to ask those opposing the Dream Act to give me one reason why it shouldn’t be made a reality.”

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-11-13/article/31612?headline=UC-Berkeley-Students-Call-On-Obama-to-Enact-the-Dream-Act

New Movie Highlights DREAMers

2008-11-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

In the trailer for the new movie "Crossing Over" one of the immigrants being followed in the storyline is a undocumented high school student. Maybe this movie will inform more Americans about the merits of the DREAM Act.

“You would uproot a fifteen-year-old teenager who came to this country when she was three years old?”

“She’s illegal. She’s removable.”

Movie synopsis:

Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In 'Crossing Over,' writer-director Wayne Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find -- and create -- in 21st century L.A. -

Watch trailer in link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ16kYrSErM

Ask President-Elect Obama to Pass the DREAM Act

2008-11-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

Have you heard? Change.gov is asking you to tell them your ideas and how to help solve the biggest challenges of this country.

Take a minute and let them know that the passage of the DREAM Act should be a priority.

Please submit it here.

Will Obama Forget about DREAMers?

2008-11-09T13:41:00.000-08:00

Obama winning the Presidential election was a big step toward the passage of DREAM Act, but in no shape or form does it guarantee it. Advocates for DREAM Act must continue pushing, and not allow this issue to be thrown to the side or put on the back burner.

Members over at DAP have recently found two quotes Obama made about the DREAM Act while he was running for President.

P: There are many students as we speak listening to this show. Will you bring back the DREAM act and would it be part of your priorities in your first year as president?

O: As I said before, the DREAM Act is something I have been a sponsor of in the past. Dick Durbin, my senior senator from Illinois and I have worked diligently on the issue. I was a supporter of the DREAM act when I was in the state of Illinois and we were able to get it passed. I think it is the right thing to do. I think it is something that I will continue to work on.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/tneil/CPrg

OBAMA: Well, I just think that it is very important for everybody to vote. And so, I hope that people are moving forward with early voting. You’ve got an opportunity I think in this election to choose somebody like myself, who has worked for 20 years alongside people of all races, as a community organizer, somebody who was a civil rights lawyer, somebody who as a state legislator at the state level, helped to promote our version of the DREAM act so that children could go to college, regardless of their citizenship status. At the federal level, somebody who has worked not only on immigration reform, but also on the DREAM Act, also on making sure that we are dealing with the dropout situation in our communities. So I think you can have confidence that I will be a champion for the values of South Texas when I am president of the United States of America. I hope everybody considers voting for me, and I hope they take the time to vote early.

http://www.radiobilingue.org/nr_080222.htm

Let us work on pressuring President-elect Obama to keep his word.

Chancellor's Message to the President-Elect

2008-11-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Robert J. Birgeneau

Dear Mr. President:

As America awakens this morning, you will already be taking on the heavy mantle of leadership. You will be looked upon to solve, among other things, the problems of our faltering economy, failing health care, increased global warming and an uncertain energy future, and the war in Iraq. In the midst of all this, I want to remind you of a precious resource that is ready to help and one that is outstandingly good America's higher education system.

Higher education in the United States, both private and public, is the envy of the world. We lead the world in education, research and innovation. We have a National Academy of Sciences formally charged with advising government. The National Academy of Sciences pointed out in a report that we must bolster science and engineering if we are to retain America's global leadership in innovation. The Department of Energy supports almost 50 percent of all federally funded research in the physical sciences and the National Institutes of Health is paramount for support of research in our health and life sciences. These investments are critically important for the nation not only to provide support to faculty to carry out basic and applied research but to attract and train graduate students who will be the next generation of discoverers and innovators. We must also broaden support for humanities and social sciences as part of a strong research ecosystem. Today's great global challenges cross many disciplines and require solutions that bring perspectives that are social and humanistic as well as scientific.

There is much incontrovertible evidence of the benefits of higher education both to individuals and to society. According to the US Census Bureau, the national median annual income of college graduates without advanced degrees is $51,700, while those with only a high school education earn just over $30,000 and those without a high school diploma earn less than $20,000 a year. Those with only a high school education are twice as likely to be unemployed and three times as likely to require public assistance as college graduates. Better-educated people are more likely to vote and to participate in the civic life of their communities. Education helps with the development of the critical thinking skills that are necessary to succeed in a global society. To give every qualified student the opportunity for a college education, we must look at significantly increasing financial aid for those with need. This must be done through increasing grants, not loans. Students who are already financially disadvantaged as they enter college should not also graduate disadvantaged with high debts. Programs that offer loan forgiveness to encourage college graduates to go into public service positions, which are often low-paying, should be aggressively implemented.

There is one group of students in particular who need your immediate attention-undocumented students. Our failure to give these students a path to success and to citizenship is a terrible waste of young talent-talent that this country desperately needs. Each year across the nation, 50,000 to 60,000 undocumented students graduate from high school after having spent at least five years in this country. The Dream Act, which provided access to financial aid and a thoughtfully mapped-out path to citizenship, became entangled in the failed immigration bill. It is time to revive and pass the act on its own merits.

Finally, you should know that universities genuinely want to provide the best education possible to our students. We value our autonomy and understand that with that privilege comes responsibility to those who support us. We have always been and will continue to be fully accountable. Proposals to tax our endowments and to impose upon us highly bureaucratic measures of accountability will take us in the wrong direction. We should preserve the policies that have made it possible for our higher education system to be the envy of the world. In that way, we can pledge our help to you, Mr. President, to bring the power of our unparalleled system of research and education to work in support of a better America and a better world.

http://www.dailycal.org/search.php?search_string=Robert%20J.%20Birgeneau&type=author

It has been a year...

2008-10-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that a year has now passed from DREAM Act's defeat in the Senate last year. It was a painful day, and it was painful for weeks after. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about that day. It gets harder every year, and especially as you get older. When I was eighteen and I had just heard about the DREAM Act from my laywer I was hopeful for its passage, but not so concerned about what it could mean for my future. I am now twenty-four years old, and the passage of the DREAM Act in the next two years will *decide* my future, at least in this country.

I graduated with a Bachelor's degree two years ago, and I have just begun to pursue my masters. It is strange being back in school after two years off. I feel like I am there for different reasons than so many of my fellow classmates. They are there to advance their career. I am there to buy time, as well as advance my career. Though first and foremost to buy time; so that the degree I already earned, tucked away in a drawer, isn't gathering dust and losing its value.

I am grateful that I can continue to pursue my studies. There are so many other DREAMers out there who just graduated high school and college who can't afford any higher education. Then there are the DREAMers who are under threat of deportation. The hopes and future of thousands of de-facto Americans who call this country their home rests on the passage of DREAM Act. I am hopeful with a new president the DREAM Act will become a reality. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be writing a very different entry.

Obama's Education Advisor Mentions DREAM Act

2008-10-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

In Debate, Education Advisers to McCain and Obama Focus on K-12 Issues
During the course of three 90-minute debates between Barack Obama and John McCain over the past four weeks, the two presidential candidates faced only one question about their approach toward education.

That left lots of ground for their education advisers to cover when they squared off last night in their own 90-minute debate at Columbia University, in New York. Those wanting an elaboration of the candidates’ competing visions for higher education, however, were likely to have been disappointed once more.

The moderator, Susan H. Fuhrman, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, asked the two education advisers — Lisa Graham Keegan of the McCain campaign and Linda Darling-Hammond of the Obama campaign — only one question directly on the topic of higher education. Ms. Fuhrman spent a total of four minutes getting their answers, before moving back to other education topics.

In that four-minute span, the two advisers cited a few of the priorities for higher education that the candidates have highlighted on the campaign trail, as well as some issues that have received less attention.

Asked by Ms. Fuhrman how the country could “preserve access to higher education” given the nation’s economic turmoil, Ms. Keegan said that Mr. McCain, a Republican, wanted to do more to help high-school juniors identify the college they will attend.

By their junior year, programs should be in place so that students “are already being connected into high-level vocational training for life-sustaining skills work if that’s where they are headed, or they are already engaged with the community college or a university,” said Ms. Keegan, a former Arizona superintendent of public instruction.

Similar to what President Bush has tried unsuccessfully for several years, Ms. Keegan also called for combining dozens of federal higher-education grant programs. “All of these grant programs have got to be under one umbrella so that they are easy for families, they are accessible, there is transparent information about schools,” she said. “And that would create a much greater pool of money that’s available for them.”

Ms. Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, cited the often-repeated promise by Mr. Obama, a Democrat, to offer students the possibility of a $4,000 tax credit to pay for college. “That will pay about two-thirds of the cost of college at a public college or university, and will enable virtually all young people who are qualified, have made the grades and are ready to advance, be able to go to college,” she said.

Mr. Obama also wants to keep raising the amount of the Pell Grant “so that it more closely approximates what people actually have to pay” for college, said Ms. Darling-Hammond. And she said he supported passage of a federal “Dream Act,” one leading version of which would provide permanent legal residency for the children of illegal immigrants who finish two years of college or enroll in the armed forces.

Ms. Keegan later expressed Mr. McCain’s support for financing basic research, “primarily in the area of science and technology,” after Ms. Fuhrman asked the two advisers for the candidates’ opinion of federally backed research. Ms. Keegan also pointed out Mr. McCain’s oft-stated opposition to research projects in which Congress earmarks money for a specific institution.

Ms. Darling-Hammond took the question as referring to research on ways to improve education at the elementary and secondary level — an interpretation that reflected the overwhelming focus of the debate — and responded with a broad call for the federal government to help identify effective teaching strategies. —Paul Basken

http://chronicle.com/news/article/5370/in-debate-education-advisers-to-mccain-and-obama-focus-on-k-12-issues

Local students help others reach education dreams

2008-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

They have a DREAM

The bleak outlook on attaining legal status can be disheartening for all immigrants, but especially for students whose status and situation are unaccounted for in the current immigration system.

"For minors as well as anyone else, especially those from Mexico and Central America, 90 percent have no way of obtaining legal status, an example of why our system doesn't work," says Mark Silverman, director of immigration policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center of San Francisco.

Currently, undocumented people, including minors, can become legal either through an application filed by their employer, a family member with legal status — parents, siblings and spouses — or through the foster system, but Silverman points out that these people cannot work legally.

"These students don't have the route," he says. "That's the basic, current situation."

An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools in the United States every year. Without a route toward legal status, they are left with few options.

"All of these laws are technically designed for adults," says Lynette Parker, Santa Clara University clinical supervising attorney at the School of Law Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center. "The kids either fall into one of four categories or they don't. There's just not much designed for young people."

This growing group of undocumented immigrants needs to be accounted for and given a chance to give back to their communities, Parker says.

"The economy needs an influx of young people," she says. "It needs their dreams, visions and willingness to put some muscle behind them because this huge generation that's aging and retiring cannot."

Silverman agrees.

"These students are our future. It would be a shame if society would squander this future."

Silverman is an advocate of the DREAM act, a law proposed to the U.S. Senate in 2005 that would allow undocumented students brought into the country as children the chance to gain permanent legal status.

However, he emphasizes that this act is no free ride.

These students would be given a six-year temporary residency during which they attend either a four-year or two-year college or serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Along with this, they would be required to complete and uphold other standards outlined in the act, including keeping a clean criminal record and performing up to 900 community service hours.

After the students completed their education or time in the armed forces, they would be given probationary permanent residency for six years and start down a path toward citizenship.

"It has had a lot of bipartisan support, including, at the time, by Sen. [John] McCain," Silverman says. "People may blame Cesar's parents, but how can they blame him? These kids didn't choose to be here."

Although the bill is stagnant at the moment and McCain is no longer a supporter, Silverman says there should be a better idea of its potential success in November when the country elects a new president.

"I want the DREAM act to be passed because I want these bright immigrant students to help pay my Social Security," he says.

To U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the plan of action is obvious.

"Basically, these young people are de facto Americans," Lofgren says. "They were raised and brought up in this country."

She says that the argument that these individuals shouldn't be rewarded with legal status for breaking the law is illogical.

"Amnesty presumes that you've committed some fault," she says, which doesn't work if the children are being brought here along with the family.

The arguments, Lofgren says boil down to one thing: "racism in America — and as a country, we're better than this."

Read the rest of the article here.

Update: Juan Gomez

2008-08-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

Once facing deportation, student heads to college

BY KATHLEEN McGRORY AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

Just a year ago, Killian High star grad Juan Gomez barely avoided a forcible return to his native Colombia, a country he scarcely knows, when classmates, civic leaders and members of Congress rallied to help him stave off deportation.

Now he's off -- not to South America, but north to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., alma mater of Bill Clinton, where he has been admitted as an international student on scholarship.

Shortly after stepping off an early flight from Miami on Thursday, Gomez, 19, found himself engaged in an all-American activity -- shopping at a Target to outfit the dorm room he will share with a student from California.

''It's been really exciting,'' Gomez said before leaving Miami.

For Gomez, the one off-note was the absence of his parents, who were deported to Colombia in October.

''They were a little sad that they won't be able to go up with me,'' Gomez said.

Julio and Liliana Gomez brought Juan and his older brother, Alex, to the United States in 1990 with tourist visas in a fruitless bid for political asylum, but the family stayed in the country for more than a decade despite a deportation order.

When immigration authorities detained the family last year, Juan and Alex became causes celebres, symbolizing the plight of tens of thousands of young immigrants who are in legal jeopardy because they were brought to the country as children by their parents without authorization.

A widely publicized grass-roots campaign led by the teens' friends led to two principal efforts, including a bid to pass the so-called DREAM Act, which would allow young immigrants in their situation to stay by going to college or serving in the military. That effort stalled amid last year's acrimonious debates over immigration.

Then came private bills filed by U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Sen. Christopher Dodd that, if passed, would allow the brothers to stay permanently. Immigration officials granted the young men a stay of deportation until Congress takes up the bills sometime early next year. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also has backed efforts to let the brothers stay.

Opponents of the DREAM Act have said Congress should not reward immigrants who flout the law regardless of their youth or talents.

''We can't solve the problem by encouraging more people to come here,'' said Mike Cutler, a former immigration agent and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, a group that advocates cuts in legal and illegal immigration.

``Do I feel bad for this kid? Yes. But it comes back to parental responsibility. Bringing a child unlawfully into this country with all of that uncertainty jeopardizes the well-being of that child.''

Supporters say it's foolish to cast away bright, able young people whose education represents substantial public investment.

''To deport them or waste their talents is a terrible brain drain for our country as well as a loss of the tax dollars already invested in their education,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which represents the Gomez brothers.

After their parents and grandmother were deported, Juan and Alex continued to live in the family's Kendall home. Juan took a job at a local Outback Steakhouse to save money for college. Alex, 20, has also been working at a restaurant and will attend Miami Dade College. He hopes to be a firefighter, his brother said.

Juan spent a year studying in Miami-Dade's Honors College.

''It was a great year,'' he said. ``I made some good friends. But in the middle of the year, I decided I was going to apply to schools again.''

The acceptance to Georgetown as a transfer student came with a $42,000 competitive scholarship, not quite enough to cover tuition and expenses for a year. Juan will be a sophomore and take courses in business and finance, preparation for a career in investment banking or law.

He was accompanied to Washington by Bette Ellen Quiat, the mother of buddy Scott Elfenbein, now at Harvard, who helped organize the campaign for the Gomez brothers.

Quiat was helping Juan pick out cool-weather clothes and dorm furnishings as he spoke on a cellphone.

''I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this stuff,'' Juan joked. ``I'm really appreciating this help.''

Otherwise, the unflappable young man said he was not in the least cowed by the new challenge he's taken on.

''Honestly, I'm not nervous at all,'' he said.

Nor has he given up on staying for good. He said he will continue to hope for passage of the private bills and push for the DREAM Act.

''I wouldn't have applied [to Georgetown] if I really thought I'd be leaving in a year,'' he said. ``I feel like my best chances of staying in this country are going to a prestigious institution like Georgetown.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/front-page/story/652781.html

Should Colleges Enroll Illegal Immigrants?

2008-08-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Some of my fellow DREAMers that I know are featured in this article. Not the best DREAM Act article, but certainly not the worst. Check it out below:

Should Colleges Enroll Illegal Immigrants?
A new front line in the immigration debate: access to higher education

By Eddy Ramírez

She was a national finalist for a prestigious science award and graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class. Now, a senior at a public university in Illinois, she is poised to graduate in the spring with a degree in bioengineering and a 3.84 grade-point average. Despite her impressive academic credentials, Cecylia faces an uncertain future. A native of Poland, she has resided in the United States unlawfully for most of her 21 years. Unless federal immigration laws change and allow undocumented students like her to become legal residents, she won't be able to put her degree to use and work as an American engineer.

For this woman and other undocumented students, who asked not to be identified by their full names for fear that they or their families could be at risk, graduation day—whether it's high school or college—is filled with worry. While a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitles illegal immigrants to a free education from kindergarten through high school, neither Congress nor the courts have figured out what to do with the estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrant students who graduate from high school each year once they decide to attend college. Resolving the question of their access to higher education ultimately depends on a federal decision on whether—and how—to move the estimated 11 million-plus illegal immigrants in the United States toward proper citizenship status. A proposed federal law called the Dream Act would enable undocumented students who have attended U.S. schools and met other conditions to gain legal status and qualify for some student aid. But, so far, the meas-ure has failed to win enough support in Congress, leaving states to cobble together their own policies for handling these students in higher ed.

Statewide ban. Some legal scholars believe the federal government has already made a stand. In 1996, Congress passed a law barring states from giving unlawful residents "postsecondary education benefit[s]" that they don't offer to U.S. citizens. But since then, state legislatures in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and six other states have waived out-of-state tuition fees for illegal immigrant students.

The pressure for a firm federal decision is building, though it doesn't appear Congress will address the issue soon.

Heightened concern about the slowing economy and illegal immigration already has led some states to close the doors of higher education on undocumented students. This summer, South Carolina became the first state to ban such students from all of its public colleges and universities. Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and Oklahoma have also drawn a line in the sand and now deny illegal immigrants in-state tuition benefits. Supporters of these policies say that scarce education dollars should be spent on making college more affordable for U.S. citizens, not illegal immigrants. "At a time of economic hardship for so many Americans, we need to worry about American students," says William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee.

Gheen's group has vigorously opposed colleges offering admission and discounted tuition to undocumented students in fast-growing North Carolina. On August 15, the state's 58 community colleges will consider whether to remove or continue a ban on illegal immigrants. Community college officials adopted the ban in May after the state attorney general's office advised them that admitting unlawful residents conflicted with federal law. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has since told the state that federal law does not bar colleges from admitting illegal immigrants. Immigrant-rights groups are now urging North Carolina's community colleges to once again open their doors to all students.

Advocates of open access say it's cruel and wrongheaded to deny undocumented students higher education and an opportunity to obtain legal status. They argue that these students would ultimately pay more taxes and make greater contributions as professionals and citizens. Jacqueline, a native of Mexico who has lived in North Carolina since she was 8, says undocumented students like her should not be punished for their parents' actions. "So unless they literally kick me out," the 20-year-old says, referring to the pending decision by the community colleges, "I won't leave." Jacqueline says she wants to become a teacher one day and help immigrants learn English. Graig Meyer, who heads a mentoring program for students in the area and has taken Jacqueline under his wing, says: "We have a huge teacher shortage in the state. And [Jacqueline] is exactly the type of student we should be encouraging to go to school."

While an overall crackdown on illegal immigrants in North Carolina has caused some families to flee the state, undocumented students there and elsewhere say they have no intention of returning to their birth countries. Mark, a native of the Philippines who has lived in rural Illinois and California since the age of 5, has grown up a typical American teenager. He listens to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and roots for the St. Louis Cardinals. "English is the only language I speak," says the 25-year-old, who lost legal status after overstaying his visa. "I couldn't see myself ever going back."

Like other illegal students, Mark lives in a state of limbo. He's working to pay for community college classes while waiting for Congress or the courts to take action. To raise awareness about their plight, Mark and other "Dreamers," as undocumented students call themselves because of their hope for Dream Act legislation, have sent letters and made calls to members of Congress. They have also forged strong communities online, where they tell their stories and sometimes raise money for their education.

Facing uncertainty about how their citizenship status will affect their chances of getting a job, some undocumented students currently enrolled in higher education are staying in school longer and, in some cases, pursuing postgraduate degrees. Preshika, a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from Fiji who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, is considering law school while she waits for a green card. In Cali-fornia, she and other graduates of the state's high schools are exempt from paying the steep out-of-state tuition fees that would otherwise discourage many of them from going to college. She already has two degrees: a bachelor's in political science and a master's in international relations.

Tuition lawsuit. But California and other states are now under heavy pressure to repeal in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, represents a group of students who are suing California. Their suit alleges that California is violating a 1996 federal law that prohibits states from favoring illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens. California's tuition rate for out-of-state students is about four times the in-state tuition that undocumented students living there are eligible to receive. According to Kobach's calculations, California taxpayers spend $200 million every year to subsidize the in-state tuition of an estimated 25,000 undocumented students enrolled in the state's public colleges. A judgment in favor of Kobach and his clients might force California to reimburse out-of-state students and drop its in-state tuition policy for illegal immigrants. An appeals court is expected to issue an opinion on the matter soon.

Zan Brennan, the mother of a 2005 graduate of the University of Kansas, says it's an outrage that illegal immigrants in states like California and Kansas can claim in-state tuition while U.S. citizens from neighboring states must pay higher fees. In 2005, her daughter, Brigette, unsuccessfully sued Kansas after being told she would have to pay out-of-state tuition even though she went to a Kansas high school. The reason: Her family lived on the other side of the state border, in Kansas City, Mo.

Cecylia, the undocumented student from Poland, remains hopeful that a new president and federal lawmakers will support a pathway for students like her to become legal residents. Her professors have encouraged her to pursue graduate school. But Cecylia shows little enthusiasm for the idea. For her, graduation day could be bittersweet.

Operation Scheduled Departure: Immigrants, Deport Yourselves

2008-07-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

By Suman Raghunathan

Could the nation's undocumented immigrants please stand up? The government will be happy to deport you.

In a move that speaks to the bind policymakers find themselves in these days on the issue of immigration -- jostled between the complexity of the issue, its deep politicization and the lack of vision Washington leaders have brought to the topic in the post 9/11 era -- the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) will encourage the nation's roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants to simply volunteer to turn themselves into immigration authorities for deportation in the coming months.

ICE Director Julie Myers leaked the new federal effort on Univision this past Sunday at the end of an interview with Jorge Ramos, the anchor of the popular public affairs show "Al Punto" and in advance of an anticipated formal announcement next week.

Entitled "Operation Scheduled Departure," the still-unannounced program would allow undocumented immigrants without criminal records to turn themselves in at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices nationwide. In exchange for "self-deporting," the immigrants would be processed and get a few weeks to pack their belongings and get their affairs in order before leaving the country -- without being put in a detention facility.

The program does not provide any other incentive for undocumented immigrants to volunteer to leave the country through the program.

What's interesting is Myers' announcement of the program on national television to only Univisión. There have been no other announcements about the program to the mainstream media from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for deporting undocumented immigrants.

The Houston Chronicle picked up on the Al Punto news segment but was unable to get comments on the policy from ICE or Department of Homeland Security officials in San Antonio, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

In her interview with Ramos, Myers noted that ICE deported approximately 274,000 undocumented immigrants last year, an agency record.

Myers' announcement comes on the heels of a wave of controversial immigration raids nationwide, and is reportedly in response to comments from immigrants in deportation proceedings who said they would prefer to "self-deport" rather than be confined in federal detention centers. A national debate on federal deportation policies was sparked in particular by a May 2008 raid in Postville, Iowa, which was the largest single immigration enforcement action in the nation's history and rounded up nearly 400 undocumented meatpacking plant workers. Testimony from Erik Camayd-Freixas, a federally appointed interpreter for many of the immigrants and a Florida International professor, sparked questions about immigrants’ due process in the proceedings.

Immigrant rights and immigrant restrictionist groups alike scoffed at the plan's impracticality, noting that many undocumented immigrants have family roots in the U.S., including children who are American citizens.

"Just when you thought the Bush Administration would ride quietly into the sunset, along comes another harebrained scheme that can't have been carefully thought out. We are not going to deport our way out of our current immigration mess, nor is it likely that most or even many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants here will choose to leave on their own," said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum in a press release.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/feet-in-two-worlds/operation-scheduled-depar_b_115949.html

Waiting for 2009...

2008-07-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

I found this over at DREAM Act -Texas. The author of this piece has eloquently said the very many things all us DREAMers feel in regards to the DREAM Act and fully living our lives.

I am just waiting for 2009 to come, if the DREAM doesn't happen by then i will be out of here!

I hear this more and more from fellow DREAMers, just waiting on 2009 to come by; we are kind of waiting for something better to come along. Students with one or two degrees are getting burnt out already. They/We are itching to learn, experience, practice... to really live! Many of us feel betrayed by the sentence: "hard work pays off" I don't know how many times I have said this to others and how many times I've heard somebody saying this to me, but it's definitely a sentence that everytime i hear it, i can't help but to grin. As positive as i really am though, i have been telling myself more that if by 2009 nothing happens nothing will ever happen... or was anything ever going to happen?

I mean, by 2009 i should be finally done with school, other things should be settled, and most importantly: new horizons are surely waiting somewhere else, no? It is very hard to describe the feelings going through me right now when i am almost reaching 24 years of age- I mean, it is like this itch to go and see the world, to learn, to hope that there are better things out there waiting to be devoured by our passion and hunger. Many DREAMers are now adults, we are in our mid-20's, we are thinking of other things like: really living our lives! (whatever that fully entails)

Will Obama or McCain bring some sort of resolution in 2009? Not just for DREAMers, what about our parents? Will they also be ‘forgiven’?

I don't know- all i know is that I am not angry anymore. I am done with the questioning of why things are the way they are. I finally understood that there are people in the world in far worse situations than I am. Sure, it takes a big toll in my life and the life of other DREAMers to be in this state of limbo. Some of us have had to drive and struggle to other states just to get an ID, or have a bachelor's and master degree but continue to work in the restaurant kitchen, we have two jobs to make rent on top of classes. Some of us are still writing papers at three in the morning and can't help but to stop and say out loud: "hold on, why am i doing this again?"

What i believe at this point is that CHOICE rests in the power of our hands. We can choose to continue fighting here, for us, our families. On the other hand, we can now look for other alternatives; this is not giving up but understanding that the world does not end in this land of the 'freedom.'

Educating aliens best choice for all parties

2008-06-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

Reasonable people don't blame children for the alleged sins of their parents, but when it comes to illegal immigration, some opinions change.

Take those of Assemblymen Richard Merkt and Michael P. Carroll, both R-Morris. They have introduced a bill that would bar illegal residents from attending any college in the state.

This bill has no chance of passing. Of course, if it did, it would be amusing to see state government try to force a mandate on private colleges. But let's forget about the practical and concentrate on the philosophical.

Just who are these illegal residents looking to go to college?

A story in the Daily Record on Sunday identified one of them, Felipe Vargas, a sophomore at Morristown High School. Vargas, we read, is getting good grades and wants to study art and maybe become a teacher.

Yes, Vargas is in this country illegally. But it was hardly his choice. His parents brought him to the United States from Colombia when he was 10. Vargas is now growing up very much like any other American teen.

The knee jerk reaction by some -- all one needs to do is to read our online forums -- is to deny this young man a seat in a college classroom for starters and to ultimately throw him out of the country.

But why? The most important point is that Vargas and others in similar predicaments across New Jersey committed no infraction.

Many were brought to this nation at a very young age by their parents. It's not as if they had any choice in the matter.

As the immigration debate has simmered for more than a year now, the anti-illegal immigrant faction has a simple solution: throw them out of the country. They seem unmoved by the fact that is not going to happen.

In fact, the only legislation seriously considered by Congress -- it was backed by President Bush -- would have eased the path to legal status for most illegals working in the United States.

The unfortunate failure of what was a compromise bill to pass has meant that the status quo remains. That's no way to deal with a problem.

But as long as the status quo remains, there are going to be a lot of people like young Vargas. These are youngsters who are going to school in the United States and who are being educated not as Colombians, Peruvians, or Mexicans, but as Americans.

And the question is an obvious one.

When these students graduate high school, what would be better for them and the country? For them to go to college or, if Merkt and Carroll have their way, for them to be denied entry to college?

The answer is as obvious as the question. An educated person contributes much more to society than one who is not educated. A contrary bill -- Merkt and Carroll introduced their bill as response to the other one -- in the Legislature would grant some undocumented immigrants in-state tuition to public colleges. Ten other states do that.

That is the way to go. The fiercest opponent of illegal immigration should realize that an educated young person is of greater benefit to society than a non-educated one.

It's time to look beyond the scathing condemnation of "illegal alien" and consider the bigger picture.

Fred Snowflack is editorial page editor of the Daily Record. Contact him at fsnowfla@gannett.com., or at (973) 428-6617.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/COLUMNISTS01/806180428/1100/COLUMNISTS

DREAMERS Earning Degrees

2008-06-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

So I haven’t posted on this blog for awhile...

Here’s an update on the biographies I’ve been collecting from DREAM Act Students. I’m listing once again degrees either earned or in the process of being earned: It always amazes me how accomplished DREAMERS are despite all the roadblocks of being an undocumented student. Legal or not, these accomplishments are something to be proud of.

Bachelor of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering
Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics/Mathematics
Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry
Bachelor of Sciences in Electrical Engineering
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Global Studies and Maritime Affairs (Minor in Maritime Law)

AAS in Nursing RN
Accountant and Spanish Major
Physiological Sciences Major
Emergency Medical Technician (3rd Top Student)

Undocumented Students are Allowed to Attend College

2008-05-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

It appears it is now official:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not require any school to determine a student’s status (ie., whether or not he or she is legally allowed to study). DHS also does not require any school to request immigration status information prior to enrolling students or to report to the government if they know a student is out of status, except in the case of those who came on student visas or for exchange purposes and are registered with the Student Exchange and Visitor Program.

Full statement by ICE can be read here.

The immigration line to the U.S. is really a black hole

2008-04-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

Enough of the anti-immigrant rhetoric already.

It's bad enough that radio shock jocks and cable TV personalities demonize undocumented immigrants. But what bothers me even more is the reflexive response by well-meaning Americans that undocumented immigrants ought to "get in line and wait their turn."

What they don't realize is that our immigration system is so broken that there is no line.

When my parents and I immigrated to the United States back in 1965, it was simple. My father, an architect, went to the consulate in our hometown in Colombia and inquired about a student visa that would allow him to work part time while going to graduate school, and have my mother and me accompany him. After a brief conversation, the consulate officer gave him the paperwork for a resident visa. My father filled out the application and paid the fees, we all got medical checkups, and six months later we were being welcomed by Mother's Cuban family in Miami.

Since then the "line" has become a black hole. Around 1979, my father petitioned to have his elderly parents join him in America. He believed it would be a speedy process. How wrong he was. My grandfather died in 1985 waiting his "turn in line." My 83-year-old grandmother had to wait three more years, living alone, before her turn came up.

About five years ago, my husband (an American citizen) sought to bring his younger brother to the U.S. with the hope of starting a business that his brother could help manage. He learned the waiting period would be 15 years.

Today, a hardworking, low- or semi-skilled individual has virtually no possibility of immigrating legally to this country, and even professionals find it almost impossible. It's not that these immigrants refuse to go to the post office and fill out the paperwork; the doors of the post office are essentially closed.

Immigrants have three ways of getting here legally.

One is through family petition, which makes available 500,000 visas annually and results in years of waiting, depending on the relationship to the petitioner and country of origin. It is not uncommon for spouses of American citizens to wait two to six years to join their husband or wife. The waiting period for the sibling of an American citizen of Filipino origin is about 22 years. (During the waiting period, the family member generally cannot enter the United States for visits, since once you petition for a resident visa you cannot apply for a tourist visa.)

Another way is through sponsorship by an employer. The employer needs to demonstrate that no American can be found to fill the open position. This route ties the immigrant to that employer and can result in exploitation.

The last resort is the annual lottery for entrants who demonstrate a high-school degree or five years' work experience in an occupation that requires this degree or its equivalent. Last year, more than 1.5 million hopeful entrants worldwide sought to be one of the lucky winners of the 55,000 annual visa slots. The odds make it a true jackpot.

Americans of European descent should ponder how many of their immigrant ancestors would have qualified for entry under today's immigration system. Those who say their ancestors followed the rules should ask what those rules were. Did your ancestors do more than arrive at Ellis Island?

To more recent immigrants who protest that they waited their turn in line, I say that the only difference between us and an undocumented immigrant today is timing. We got to the line just in time, before it, in effect, closed.

When Americans tell immigrants who seek the American dream and to reunite with their loved ones to go through the system, to get in line, I have to ask: What system? What line?

Cristina Lopez is the deputy executive director at the Center for Community Change. She wrote this for the Progressive Media Project.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/042008/04132008/370068/index_html?page=2

ACTION ALERT: Shuler/Tancredo Proposal Moving Forward

2008-04-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

You may have heard that last month the House Republicans began the process that, they hope, will force a vote on the Shuler/Tancredo “SAVE Act” in the House of Representatives. Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA) filed a discharge petition for the Shuler/Tancredo bill and GOP leadership hopes to get enough signatures to force through this ill-conceived measure.

The Republicans only need 218 signatures in order to bypass normal committee procedures and force the SAVE Act to the floor. There are already 185 signatures on the discharge petition!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SAY:

PLEASE DECLINE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO DISCHARGE

H.R. 4088 THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

(ALSO KNOWN AS THE "SAVE" ACT)

AND, IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS A CO-SPONSOR OF H.R. 4088

PLEASE WITHDRAW YOUR NAME AS A CO-SPONSOR OF

H.R. 4088, THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

See if your Rep. is a Sponsor Here:

http://clerk.house.gov/110/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis5.htm

Your Representatives' phone number is online here:

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/mcapdir.html

OR

CALL THE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD AT:

202-225-3121

A Dream Deferred

2008-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this new DREAM Act Blog brought to you by Brave New Films that features the voices of college students from all over the United States.

Watch the video!

Read their stories!

Demand a pledge from Clinton, McCain, and Obama to enact the DREAM Act in their first 100 days. All three of them have co-sponsored the federal DREAM Act in the past. Sign the petition!

Tuition Protests in MD

2008-03-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

I've found in general people like to complain, but rarely do they actually do anything about it. In the state I live in there has been a lot of problems with the state budget, and daily you hear this person say this should be changed or that. They need to recognize that change will not happen unless you act by writing, calling, and rallying.

That is why I always find it refreshing when you see young people protesting for something they believe in. It shows they care enough for the cause to do more than just complain. Below is a recent article about a rally in Maryland to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students living in that state:

Immigrant Community Protests College Tuition Rates

Students protested at the University of Maryland Monday to demand easier access to higher education and paths to citizenship for illegals.

A number of former and present high school students, who are living in the U.S. illegally, rallied in support of legislation that would allow undocumented students living in Maryland to qualify for much more affordable in-state tuition rates.

Under the current law, immigrants are considered out-of-state residents. "As of right now, I can't afford one credit to go to college," said high school graduate Jenifer Merando. Merando said her goal of attending the University of Maryland has been delayed. Instead of studying, she's working to make enough money to pay out of state rates. "Because I don't have that money one year has been wasted since I graduated," she said.

Montgomery Blair High School student Manuel Flores said he just wants a chance to live the American dream."I love this country."

"They want to really blur the lines between legal and illegal," said protester Susan Payne. She continued to say people in this county illegally should not have the right to take slots away from in-state residents. "And why should they get an exemption because quote, 'their parents brought them here against their will, when they were young children.' Well their parents chose to willfully violate federal law."

The legislation pending before the Maryland General Assembly has a number of qualifiers, like the illegal immigrant must graduate from a Maryland high school.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0308/506031.html

NEW VOICE~ DREAM Act Article

2008-03-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

NEW VOICE has a weekly feature of original, nonfiction essays by college, high school and middle school students. This week there is a well-written essay by Ariadne Reza, a senior at Long Island High School about the DREAM Act.

America has always been viewed as the land of opportunity, where people go to seek a better life. There are some, however, who were brought to the United States illegally when they were young. These are the children of illegal immigrants.

As they grew up, immersed in American culture, they lost all memory of their country of origin and became Americanized. Unlike their parents, they can barely remember their country of birth.

When these children graduate from high school and are ready for college, they find out that in some states they are ineligible for financial aid. Their illegal status also makes it nearly impossible to find meaningful work, making college an unreachable dream.

The DREAM Act or, The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), would grant these undocumented citizens legal residency after a conditional period of six years.

Students would have to meet certain requirements, such as graduating from high school and living in the United States for at least five consecutive years. They must also have arrived in this country before age 15. Finally, they must show "good moral character" or the absence of a criminal record.

Opponents say this act is basically rewarding criminals, but these students didn't choose to immigrate to the United States. Some argue this act would cost the government money because certain rights would have to be extended to them. But the DREAM Act would do the opposite, since the government would be able to collect revenue from new taxpayers. And people who have worked hard in school will have a chance to stand out in society.

Congress should reconsider the DREAM Act to give deserving immigrant students the opportunities for which this country is renowned.

NEW VOICES is a weekly feature with original, nonfiction essays by college, high school and middle school students. Send submissions of up to 400 words to Opinion Department, Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747. Or send e-mail to: newvoices@newsday .com or fax to 631-843-2986. Please include a photograph of yourself along with your address and your telephone number.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oprez145612846mar14,0,3313544.story

H.R. 4408 Must Be Stopped~ Call to Action

2008-03-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Republicans have pushed this bill to vote even though it has not been evaluated in committee. It is urgent that everyone contact their representative.

On November 6, 2007, Rep. Shuler (D-NC) introduced H.R. 4088, the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 (the "SAVE Act"). The Shuler bill, which now has over 139 co-sponsors takes a deportation-only approach to immigration reform. Anti-immigrant Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is a co-sponsor of H.R. 4088, along with a who's who of the least immigrant-friendly members of Congress.

The bill will:

Target minor children and families for detention and mandate the creation of a new family detention center modeled after the infamous T. Don Hutto Facility;

Confiscate private land of citizens through eminent domain for building more fences which have already proven ineffective at curbing immigration;

Increase militarization of the border through additional body armor and firearms for agents; and impose a mandatory electronic employer verification program known as the Basic Pilot Program (re-branded as E-verify) on the entire American workforce. This highly controversial program lacks necessary safeguards to protect American workers from wrongful termination and improperly identify at least 2.5 million workers as ineligible for employment. The program would also destabilize the economy by immediately removing at least 7 million undocumented employees from the entire U.S. workforce at one time.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SAY:

PLEASE DECLINE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO DISCHARGE

H.R. 4088 THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

(ALSO KNOWN AS THE "SAVE" ACT)

AND, IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS A CO-SPONSOR OF H.R. 4088

PLEASE WITHDRAW YOUR NAME AS A CO-SPONSOR OF

H.R. 4088, THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

See if your Rep. is a Sponsor Here:

http://clerk.house.gov/110/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis5.htm

Your Representatives' phone number is online here:

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/mcapdir.html

OR

CALL THE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD AT:

202-225-3121

Students Lobby in D,C. for DREAM Act

2008-03-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

Another group of high school students are headed to D.C. to lobby for the DREAM Act. This is good news because we cannot let Congress forget about the DREAM Act even on an election year. Read the article below and view the video at the end of the article.

Students head to D.C. to lobby for Dream Act

A group of 10 Tennessee high school students -- many the children of illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as long ago as 10 years -- embarked Wednesday on a journey to Washington D.C. in hopes of improving their future.

The group will join students from more than 30 states in lobbying federal lawmakers to pass a nearly seven year old bill that would grant them conditional legal status. The bill, known as the Dream Act, would clear the way for these students to earn legal residency and the ability to work if they graduate from college or serve in the armed forces. The bill, which has bipartisan support, is currently stalled in the Senate by a filibuster.

States are required to provide kindergarten though 12th-grade educations to students regardless of their legal status. Each year an estimated 65,000 undocumented students -- the number in Tennessee is unknown -- who have lived in the United States five years or more graduate from high school. Right now, these students can attend some Tennessee colleges and universities, but they are not eligible to receive federal and state financial aid.

But as the students left Nashville with hopes that their stories of academic achievement in Tennessee would help convince federal lawmakers to pass the Dream Act, state lawmakers may raise new hurdles for the students.

A pair of bills introduced to the Tennessee House and Senate this year would specifically bar the state's public colleges and universities from admitting illegal immigrants. The bill's house sponsor plans to introduce it to a House Committee next week.

VIDEO: Hear what four students from Nashville have to say about their situation and the prospects of influencing lawmakers in Washington.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NEWS01/80305053/1002/news01

Washington Post Defends Immigration Articles

2008-03-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Immigration Coverage in the Crossfire
by Deborah Howell
Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B06

Readers who oppose illegal immigration often complain that The Post has too much sympathy for those living in the United States illegally and too little for those who oppose such residents.

They prefer that The Post use the term "illegal alien" and are disturbed that they sometimes are called "anti-immigrant" when they say they do not oppose legal immigration. While the Post covers many immigrant groups, most of the coverage of illegal immigration has involved Hispanics in the suburbs because that's where the controversy is.

Leslie Wilder of Alexandria wrote last fall: "Am I the only one annoyed by The Post's constant glorification of illegal immigrants? Hardly a week goes by without either an uplifting or heart-rending article."

These readers also criticize The Post's editorial page, which has consistently opposed local attempts to suppress services for immigrants, but editorials are not in my purview and do not affect news coverage.

This issue has flared nationally and locally, especially in Herndon and in Prince William County, in Virginia, and in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, in Maryland. Several readers were upset about a Feb. 23 headline on the Metro section front: "Anti-Immigrant Effort Takes Hold in Md." A secondary headline made it clearer: "Grass-Roots Movement Expands Beyond Montgomery in Targeting the Undocumented."

John Mac Michael of Alexandria wrote: "Your recent article on growing opposition to illegal aliens (immigrants?) in Maryland once again used the familiar ploy of labeling those citizens who oppose illegal aliens as being 'anti-immigrant.' This is baloney. There is a clear difference between the two classes, and I certainly welcome those who are here legally."

The headline should have been more precise. The story also drew fire from pro-immigration activists who said it didn't make clear that most people appearing at a Mount Rainier City Council meeting favored declaring the city a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants. A correction was published.

My review of immigration stories, mostly local, over the past year and several months, showed that the coverage was mostly straightforward and informative. Because it is a huge issue, reporters throughout the Metro staff cover immigration, and three do so full time. Ashley Halsey, associate Metro editor, supervises the coverage.

A Jan. 10 story by staff writer N.C. Aizenman laid out particularly well how differently illegal immigrants and their opponents view breaking the law. A Washington Post-ABC News poll also gave national and local looks at what people are thinking.

A few "anti-immigrant" references have popped up in recent stories -- and shouldn't have. The Post also went astray in a March 18, 2007, story about a federal raid on a New England plant; the story reported on what happened to illegal immigrants swept up in the raid but never quoted immigration officials. I also worry that advocacy groups on both sides of the issue are quoted uncritically.

Readers are right that some journalists tend to write sympathetically about the underdog. But you cannot ignore the human story. "It's impossible to cover this issue without the challenges faced by people who are here illegally. We have tried not to be repetitive in those stories," Halsey said.

Have the views of those against illegal immigrants been fully told? My review included many stories quoting opponents -- as well as their march on the Mall last spring. Some feel they've been portrayed as racist and xenophobic. While some have been quoted expressing views that might be interpreted that way, most have not. Halsey said it has been "very challenging to write effectively about people opposed to illegal immigration, because they are very passionate and seem suspicious of our motives and are less welcoming to our attention when we try to talk to them about their motivations."

But there are stories that could be done that would give readers better context. How many legal immigrants are admitted to the United States every year and from what countries and in what categories? Do some racial or ethnic groups get more visas than others -- or tend to overstay visas more? There haven't been big immigration raids locally. Why? Do businesses that hire illegal immigrants think they won't be caught doing so?

Is it possible to quantify how illegal immigrants affect public school expenditures, crime and housing? Just how bad are the problems? Halsey said this is a daunting job, because trustworthy figures are hard to come by.

On terminology, Chip Beck, a State Department officer and former U.S. consul, believes it's important to use "illegal alien." Beck, who said he was not speaking for the State Department, said, "Foreign nationals who come across the border without papers or who overstay their visa are deemed 'illegal aliens.' Those are the legally correct terms. . . . The correct terminology is not derogatory but carries precise meanings under law." He sent a copy of the federal law that says: "The term 'alien' means any person not a citizen or national of the United States."

The Post does not use "alien" in news stories and prefers "illegal immigrant." Even if "alien" is legal terminology, to me, it sounds like someone from outer space. "Undocumented workers" is also discouraged. The Post stylebook says of "undocumented": "When used to describe immigrants, this is a euphemism that obscures an important fact -- that they are in this country illegally."

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022903332.html

The Politics of Immigration Weekly Round-up 02/18/08

2008-02-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

CCIR: Coalition of Comprehensive Immigration Reform
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 18, 2008
CONTACT: Marisa McNee 917-733-2351

The Politics of Immigration Weekly Round-up 02/18/08

The buzz around immigration in the context of the presidential race quieted down a bit this week. Interestingly, the excitement was around Latino turn-out at the polls – the one segment of the electorate that has been undeniably energized by and against the hate interwoven in the immigration debate. For the GOP candidates hoping to capitalize from immigrant-bashing, immigration has been a flop at the polls.

As candidates continue traveling the country on the quest for the presidency, the Latino vote is proving to make the difference in some of the largest and most competitive primaries in 2008. One has to wonder how any political party that continues to fear-monger and demagogue the immigration issue could expect to win a national election alienating the Latino vote, and increasingly tiring the rest of the country awaiting for real solutions on this issue.

Read on for the weekly round up on the politics of immigration…

In the News

The Washington Post editorial page weighs in on the reality of immigration issue thus far in the 2008 election cycle:
“IN THE AFTERMATH of last summer's national debate over immigration reform, elected officials of all stripes were stunned by the popular passion and fury unleashed by the failed effort in Congress to provide an eventual path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Many Republicans concluded hopefully -- and many Democrats reckoned fretfully -- that immigration would be the premier wedge issue of the 2008 campaign. But with the presidential primaries in their homestretch, it now appears that both the hopes and the fears were overstated.”
Washington Post, Nativism's Electoral Flop, Feb. 14, 2008

And after yet another round of primary races last week the evidence continues to mount—the sleeping giant is most certainly alive and awake:
“In the Texas primary on March 4, one-quarter of the registered voters are Hispanic and the two Democratic front-runners are grappling for their support. For Sen. Barak Obama, Hispanic voters are key to gaining more momentum toward the nomination. For Sen. Hillary Clinton, Hispanics could reinvigorate a sagging campaign.

In Florida's own primaries last month, Hispanics pushed Sen. John McCain within striking distance of the Republican nomination. In the neck-in-neck Democratic race, Hispanic voters have stood solidly with Clinton, but may finally be flirting with the candidacy of Obama, who has enjoyed little support from them so far.”
“Political analysts and strategists have long watched the growing number of Latinos in the United States, predicting their political power. But until this year, Latinos have not gone to the polls in large numbers. Menendez said the harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric that led to the defeat of the immigration bill is driving Hispanics to the polls…”
Florida Sun-Sentinel, Presidential Candidates Seek Support from Hispanics, Feb. 17, 2008
Spanish Language Press (Our Translation)
And the Spanish media was paying attention to McCain’s trajectory, and the potential for immigration reform in the context of what the presidential field is shaping out to be. Chicago’s La Raza newspaper had this to say about McCain…

“He has also gone against the current of his party in other things, and that is what makes him stand out from a group in which everyone wants to be more anti-immigrant than everyone else. And this is what is going to make the battle more interesting: John McCain was a co-sponsor of the Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill, introduced in 2006 and that, even though it didn’t go anywhere, it laid the foundation for a broader discussion about comprehensive immigration reform during a dark period.

McCain is not representative of the anti-immigrant wing of the Republican party, that at this point is not a wing but the entire body, with some extremities that do better because they refuse to add to the xenophobic choir of those who insist, like Pete Wilson did, “that we are not ant-immigrant, only anti-illegals.” Those of us that listen know what they are in reality.”

“It is to say that McCain could help save the Republicans from themselves and from the damage that they have caused the fastest growing population of the United States. Of course immigration is not everything: Latinos also worry about the Iraq war, education, healthcare, and other issues that equally affect us all, regardless of race and origin.”
La Raza, The Figure of John McCain, Feb. 8, 2008

And Jorge Cancino at Univisión Online had this to say about immigration reform:

“The three leading candidates in the primary elections (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, for the Democrats, and John McCain for the Republicans), have something in common: they support immigration reform with a path to legalization.

It will be necessary to follow the developments of the primary elections until its known which candidates will be the nominees for the presidency in the November elections. There it will be possible to evaluate the probability of immigration reform. And the key date could be March 4th, when primary elections are held in the state of Texas, where an important percentage of Hispanic voters live.”
Univision Online, Immigration Reform has Probabilities: Clinton, McCain, and Obama Support It, Feb. 11, 2008

On the Blogs
Dave Neiwert has a second post of a three part series up at Firedoglake refuting the extremists in the immigration debate:

“The prescriptions offered by both the nativists and corporate conservatives are poisonous, likely to harm the body politic both culturally and economically, perhaps even at a catastrophic level.

There's a good reason for that: Much of the right -- the nativists particularly -- have been whipped up by scapegoating artists relying on a series of popular delusions that are built on a foundation of falsehoods and distortions. They are fundamentally untrue in important ways, so much so you can't properly call them "myths" -- "canards" or "popular delusions" would be more accurate.

The existence and persistence of these delusions is the chief reason progressives have largely been on the defensive when it comes to dealing with immigration. And it's an unfortunate fact: If they want to make any headway and forge their own approach to the debate, their first job is going to necessarily entail debunking the nativists' canards, and dispelling many of the popular delusions about immigrants. The public isn't going to follow a rational program if they continue to cling to old falsehoods.”

And Markos has a message for Democrats who want to run to the right on immigration: Psst Rahm? Immigration is killing Republicans

“We've seen the past two years the immigration issue doesn't decide elections, and that even a majority of Republicans aren't frothing in the mouth about it. To wit, Virginia, where Republicans based their entire 2007 off-year state legislative election strategy on demonizing immigrants, the primary exit polls for Republican voters, showed this (page two):

How to handle illegal immigrants
Path to citizenship: 26
Temporary worker: 28
Deport them: 44

That is, the most hard-core Republicans, the ones who bothered to turn out in a year when Republicans are mostly staying home, are more likely to support ways to keep undocumented immigrants in this country than they are to demand deportation.

Not that it's stopped Rahm Emanuel from continuing his efforts to the Democratic caucus to the right on the issue, obsessed with the notion that this is somehow a new "third rail" of American politics. But third rails kill. And if anyone is about to get burned by anti-immigrant sentiment, it's the GOP…

This is one of those great times that doing the right thing is also the best politics. Rahm's jihad against immigrants isn't based on the numbers. The numbers are clear. If he persists, there can be only one other explanation.”

Other Resources
• For a closer look at 2007 races, visit www.Immigration2007.org
• For a look at polling and public opinion on immigration and legalization, visit the National Immigration Forum’s website at www.immigrationforum.org
• For a look at the Latino electorate and the impact of the immigration debate, see NDN’s report, Hispanics Rising
• For a comprehensive look at the Latino electorate, see NCLR’s report The Latino Electorate: Profile and Trends

Find Alternate Finances...

2008-02-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

...That is what undocumented Arizona college students were told in recent letter. The Sunburst Scholarship, awarded $12,000 to around 207 Arizona DREAMERS who graduated from Arizona high schools, basically bringing the cost of tuition for these DREAMERS to in-state price, since they are now forced to pay out-of-state-tuition. Next year there will be no more Sunburst Scholarship.

In any normal universe, the Sunburst Scholarship would hardly be controversial. The students in question have done nothing wrong: Surely, Lou Dobbs wouldn't suggest that they should have defied Mom and Dad as 3-year-olds, or even third-graders, and vowed to stay in Mexico unless their parents obtained valid visas. (Well, okay, maybe Lou Dobbs would suggest that. Sigh.) In the loony anti-Mexican climate in Arizona today, though, the scholarships were truly an act of courage, and ASU President Michael Crow should be applauded for them.

But the demise of the Sunburst Scholarship raises real questions.

For one: When ASU realized the funding had run dry, why did it not contact leaders in the Hispanic community to come up with a transition plan? The activists I've talked to said they'd heard that the scholarships were being terminated only after getting calls from frightened students. Turns out the students learned they were being cut off in a letter from the school telling them to look for alternate financing for next fall. Clearly, this could have been handled with a bit more grace.

Here's another question: Just how hard did ASU work on getting donations for this scholarship? I haven't heard any direct requests for support. Granted, I'm not rich and not an ASU alum; I wouldn't blame anyone for leaving me off their fundraising list. But with an issue like this, you'd think a public plea would be in order — if nothing else, a story in the newspaper urging people to give. I can't find any evidence that ever happened. When we last heard about this issue, President Crow made it sound as though the matter was taken care of. ASU had found private funds. Period.

Which makes me wonder this.

Did ASU really run out of money? Or was it just easier not to raise it?

With legislators breathing hot air and an angry mob at the gate, it surely would be easier for ASU to cut 207 Mexican-born students adrift than to keep fighting.

"The fact that they're stopping these scholarships makes me feel like the pressure was greater than they could take," says Luis Avila, a local Latino activist and recent ASU grad.

I hope Avila is wrong about that. But I have to admit he may be on to something.

The rest of the article can be found here.

LETTERS FROM DREAMERS

2008-02-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

I saw this over at DREAM Act Texas, and I knew I had to immediately make a post about it. I'd like to applaud all the DREAMERS who took this initiative and have given all of us a voice.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DOCUMENT IMMIGRATION PLIGHT IN NEW BOOK
Phoenix, Arizona
February 6, 2008

A compelling account of the struggle that students without legal status in
the U.S. are facing has taken the form of a bilingual book. Under the title of
Documented Dreams, the Arizona-based Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
(HISI) has published a collection of letters written by students from
Gateway Early College High School, and compiled by the school’s principal —
and 2008 ‘Living the Dream’ award recipient— Yvonne Watterson

The letters were written in response to the anonymous and generous
donations by people from the community, who made financial contributions
to help students unable to qualify for in-state tuition continue taking college
classes. The group of High School students then decided to write thank you
letters to show their appreciation.

Watterson revealed that after reading the letters from students, “a book
seemed the obvious way to capture forever their collective thanks. The
students wanted to thank the strangers who were making their continued
college education a reality. They could only convey their gratitude
anonymously, from the shadows.”

The idea for a book emerged simultaneously with the defeat in the U.S.
Senate of the Dream Act last Fall. Millions of students were hoping to
regularize their status and be able to continue with their education.

“Mrs. Watterson contacted us, we read the letters, and immediately jumped
into giving form to the book project”, stated Eduardo Barraza, HISI’s
director. “We recognize that we are living in a historical turning point;
publishing the students’ letters is an attempt to ensure we accurately
record history as it happens before our eyes, and in the voice of its
protagonists: the students themselves.”

Documented Dreams is a book of enormous human value, mainly because it
symbolizes the aspirations of millions of students caught in a sociopolitical
midpoint. The book will further contribute to the efforts of keeping students
taking college classes at this early college program, as it will be used as a
tuition fund-raising tool.

For further information visit www.hisi.org/books.html or call 480 – 983–
1445.

Book Details: Documented Dreams • Edited and compiled by Yvonne
Watterson • Photographs by Eduardo Barraza • ISBN: 978-0-9797814-3-8
• Paperback • Language: Bilingual in English and Spanish. $25.00 Minimum
Donation

Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues © 2008

http://www.hisi.org/documented_dreams_press_release_02062008.html

Bizarre Proposals

2008-02-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

Bizarre Proposals To "End" Illegal Immigration
by Maurice Belanger of the National Immigration Forum

In 2007 our determined public servants on Capitol Hill outdid themselves coming up with new ways to target "illegal immigration," and make it the new fear-driven wedge issue of American politics. Following is a snapshot of some of the strangest and ugliest proposals drafted by Members of the 110th Congress thus far. Do they offer real solutions or simply false promises to end illegal immigration? You be the judge.

What Part Of "Legal" Don’t You Understand?

Leading anti-immigration Republican Tom Tancredo’s OVERDUE Act (H.R. 4192) is an overblown mishmash of bad immigration enforcement ideas and radical changes to our legal immigration system. Some of its most extreme provisions would all but end the legal family immigration system, severely restrict employersponsored immigration, and reduce the number of refugees we protect in the U.S. to just a trickle. While Representative Tancredo claims his goal is to end illegal immigration, it is hard to see how such dramatic cuts in legal immigration would do the trick. In fact, the Tancredo bill would probably have the opposite effect, since increased illegal immigration is directly tied to our outdated legal admissions quotas.

Department of State or Department of Genetic Testing?

Representative Tancredo’s H.R. 4192 contains other head-scratchers, like the section straight out of George Orwell's 1984 that would require anyone who qualifies for family-based legal immigration to give up a swab of their DNA to a government agent. Representative Tancredo was apparently so pleased with this— ahem—novel idea he even introduced it as a stand-alone bill, H.R. 3860.

All Most Some Persons Born or Naturalized?

Proposals like Representative Nathan Deal’s (R-GA) Birthright Citizenship Act (H.R. 1940) would gut the 14th amendment by denying U.S. citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. The amendment that granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized" in the U.S., including freed slaves, was aimed at eliminating second class "non-citizenship" policies. Not only are proposals like H.R. 1940 plainly unconstitutional, but it is absurd to think that creating more undocumented people would somehow reduce the number of undocumented immigrants.

No Visa, No VISA.

Undocumented workers have been accused of a variety of ills, but opening bank accounts and applying for credit cards were never on the list until Senator David Vitter (R-LA) introduced S. 2393. The Vitter bill would deny undocumented immigrants the American Dream of making purchases on credit. This, combined with a provision to end the nefarious practice of undocumented workers saving money in U.S. banks, would close a gaping loophole that has allowed so many of them to buy goods, pay sales tax, and help bolster the nation’s economy.

All Immigration, All the Time?

This year, Republican Members of Congress proved it is possible to turn any debate into a referendum on immigration when they targeted the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2786) with immigration-related riders. Amendments filed by Representatives Steve King (R-IA) and Tom Price (R-GA) would have made sure no money in the bill could be used to hire or house undocumented immigrants (and even some legal residents). If only those provisions had been in place during the 17th century! But seriously, excluding the undocumented from employment and public benefits is already the law of the land. This was just a replay of the Republican "broken record" strategy of making every debate an immigration debate. Which leaves us taxpayers to wonder: when will it be time to put this onetrick pony out to pasture and get back to the People’s business?

No Immigration Check, No Farm Check.

This year, Republican Members of Congress and presidential candidates also made community policing a wedge issue, by railing against police departments that encourage crime victims and witnesses—even the undocumented—to work with the police and report crimes. In one of the most comical jabs at community policing, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) filed two amendments to the farm bill (S.A. 3707 and S.A. 3705) that would deny agricultural subsidies to farmers located in so-called "sanctuary cities." This phrase, which has become a dirty word in Republican circles, refers to cities and states that refuse to inquire about the immigration status of crime victims and witnesses. The Gregg amendments to the farm bill were a total non sequitur but did raise an interesting point: why are people in cities getting farm subsidies in the first place?

Bipartisan Bad Ideas.

Many immigration proposals introduced in the 110th Congress are supposed to reduce the undocumented immigrant population—estimated at 12 million or so— through enforcement alone. Dubbed "enforcement-first," "enforcement-only," or "comprehensive enforcement bills," these are actually "expulsion-only" bills, and offer no more of a solution to illegal immigration than the status quo. In 2007, Representative Heath Shuler (D-NC) teamed up with former anti-immigration lobbyist Representative Brian Bilbray (R-CA) to introduce H.R. 4088, a bill that would drive undocumented immigrant workers off our tax rolls but not en masse out of the country. The Shuler-Bilbray bill would push undocumented workers further into the shadows and into the arms of unscrupulous employers, creating ever-more-exploitable workers and putting wellmeaning employers out of business. Recycling the current failed immigration enforcement policies is hardly a recipe for change, whether the bill is bipartisan or not. Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Senator David Vitter, have introduced companion bills (S. 2368 and S. 2366, respectively), making this a bipartisan, bicameral bust.

Solutions or Sound Bites? We Report, You Decide. Even Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), the uber-immigration hawk, would admit that rounding up and deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants is a pipe dream (or the dream of someone smoking a pipe). It would take the government nearly fifty years and cost U.S. taxpayers over $200 billion just to carry out these deportations at the current (record-setting) rate. Yet one of the most popular Republican "solutions" to the problem of illegal immigration is to turn all 12 million undocumented workers into criminals. Bills sponsored by former House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) (H.R. 4056) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) (S. 2294) fall into this category. In addition to an expensive deportation, the Sensenbrenner-Kyl approach would treat these immigrants to a taxpayer funded criminal trial, court-appointed counsel, and a stay in a Federal prison before their flight out.

Want more unrealistic, budget-busting, sounds-tough immigration laws we have no chance of enforcing? Then pass these bills. If you want solutions, though, you’ll have to look beyond these shallow sound bites and silly proposals.

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2008,0206-belanger.shtm

Obama a Leader for Immigration Reform'?

2008-01-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

Representative Gutierrez, original sponsor of Strive Act 2007 and co-sponsor of DREAM Act House version, certainly believes so.

In a new add aimed at the Hispanic voting block, Rep. Gutierrez is quoted:

“We know what it feels like being used as a scapegoat just because of our background and last name,” says Representative Luis Gutierrez, whose district includes part of Chicago, in Spanish. “And no one understands this better than Barack Obama!”

Obama also recently released an ad featuring Caroline Kennedy's endorsement.

Both ads can be viewed here.

Which Presidential Candidate Will Best Help DREAMERS?

2008-01-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

Someone over at DREAM Act Portal posted this article, and I decided to post it on my blog. This article briefly mentions each of the candidates position on DREAM, and for most it parallels their position on comprehensive immigration reform. The information that Mitt Romney would support DREAM Act is surprising, and I am not sure where the author of the article received this information from.

Where Do Presidential Candidates Stand on The DREAM Act?
by Dina Horwedel
Jan 27, 2008, 22:30

As the presidential race heats up, a segment of the non-voting population as well as voters on both sides of the debate to help undocumented students access college will be watching to see where the candidates stand on the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).

This failed federal legislation would have provided permanent legal residency for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, under the age 16, by their parents. Under the latest version, they would need to complete two years of college or enroll in the armed forces and would need to have lived in the U.S. for five years before applying for such status. The law would have also made it easier for undocumented students to access in-state tuition, rather than the higher out-of-state tuition that keeps many students from fulfilling their higher education dreams.

Because the U.S. Congress failed to pass the law, the DREAM Act has been a distant dream, and a crazy quilt of laws remain at the state level. In Arizona this month, voter-approved Proposition 300 took effect, and nearly 4,000 students at universities and community colleges were denied in-state tuition after failing to prove legal residency, according to the state’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee report.

Although undocumented residents can’t vote, citizen on both sides of the debate are considering where the parties stand on immigration. Fifty-seven percent of Latinos, the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, self-identify as Democrats or are leading towards the Democratic Party, according to a newly released nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. The center states that although Latinos only comprise approximately 9 percent of voters nationwide, their votes could swing the presidential election because of their numbers in states that are expected to be hotly contested, including Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico.

Following are the presidential candidates and their positions on the DREAM Act.

Democratic Candidates

Sen. Hillary Clinton

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York supports the DREAM Act, according to her official Web site. Clinton notes that U.S. immigration laws are inadequate and poorly reflect national values of respect and compassion. She advocates a strict but fair immigration policy that provides a way for undocumented residents to obtain legal residency while working towards citizenship. As part of that policy, Clinton “strongly” supports the DREAM Act, which she says “provides a path to citizenship through military service or higher education for children who were brought to the U.S. by their parents.”

Clinton also provided the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) with a statement voicing her support of the DREAM Act: “I will continue to strongly support the DREAM Act, which enables undocumented students to pursue higher education, attend college legally, and pursue legal residency. Access to college is part of the American dream and we have to make it easier for all individuals to get there, and to graduate… As President, I will work even harder to build a stronger America for everyone. I am committed to a diverse administration that reflects America. Diversity is not a campaign slogan or a catchy phrase… it is a commitment to government that reflects the people it serves,” she says.

Sen. John Edwards

Sen. Edwards’ camp released this prepared statement to Diverse, made in October 2007, about Edwards’ support for the DREAM Act. “Immigration is central to the story of America, but today our immigration system needs a fundamental overhaul. Our security is threatened by borders we cannot control. Our economy is harmed by an underground economy featuring a large and unprotected labor force. And our values are violated when 12 million people live in the shadows of our society, vulnerable to abuse and fearful of deportation,” he said.

“We need to overhaul our immigration laws and that should include giving children who grew up here the opportunity to build a better life. I co-sponsored the DREAM Act when I was in the Senate to give young people who consider the United States their home, have worked hard in school, and have stayed out of trouble, the chance to go to college and pursue their dreams.

“And it simply should not even be a matter for debate that young men and women who proudly wear our nation’s uniform, who demonstrate their willingness to fight and die for this country, should receive all the opportunity that America has to offer,” Edwards said.

Sen. Barack Obama

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois supports the DREAM Act. Obama’s campaign headquarters provided the following quote from a statement about his support for the DREAM Act to HACU: “Our immigration policy should be legal, orderly, humane, and safe. And we should give immigrant children the chance to attend college. I supported and helped pass the Illinois state version of the DREAM Act, and I have worked hard with Senator Durbin to move the federal version of the bill through the Senate. I believe that all students, regardless of national origin, deserve an equal opportunity to a high quality public education. Under current law, students who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children and who have stayed and excelled in and out of school have no hope of attending college with affordable in-state tuition.”

Republican Candidates

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

When it comes to immigration, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani states on his official Web site: “Real immigration reform must put security first because border security and homeland security are inseparable in the Terrorists’ War on Us. The first responsibility of the federal government is to protect our citizens by controlling America’s borders, while ending illegal immigration and identifying every non-citizen in our nation. We must restore integrity, accountability and the rule of law to our immigration system to regain the faith of the American people.”

Giuliani does not state on the site where he stands on the DREAM Act, and his team did not return calls to Diverse.

Gov. Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has a hard-line stance regarding the DREAM Act and any other immigration policy that would allow undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition.

Huckabee states on his official Web site: “I oppose and will never allow amnesty. I opposed the amnesty President Bush and Senator McCain tried to ram through Congress this summer, and opposed the misnamed DREAM Act, which was a nightmare because it would have put us on the slippery slope to amnesty for all. Because once we open that door even a crack, we’ll never get it closed again.”

Sen. John McCain

Arizona Sen. John McCain is on the front lines of immigration reform in his home state. McCain has served as an advocate for educating undocumented students and allowing students in good standing to obtain a college education while paying in-state tuition.

McCain was a co-sponsor of The DREAM Act of 2007, and an earlier Senate bill that provided for comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act of 2006. McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act of 2005.

Gov. Mitt Romney

On his official Web site, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accuses fellow candidates Giuliani and Huckabee, and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, for being soft on immigration. His record as governor of Massachusetts includes vetoing a plan that would have permitted undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.

Yet, Romney advocates immigration law reforms that would allow undocumented college graduates to remain legally in the United States. He says on his Web site that this would keep American globally competitive by providing for an educated workforce.

http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10553.shtml

Okla. Immigration Law Blamed for Death

2008-01-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

Is this what Americans want to happen in this country? Parents too afraid to get the hospital treatment their sick baby desperately needs for fear of deportation. Oklahoma recently passed some of the toughest immigration laws against illegal immigrants in the country, and an innocent US born child is dead because of it.

Okla. Immigration Law Blamed for Death
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Edgar Castorena had diarrhea for 10 days and counting, and the illegal immigrant parents of the 2-month-old didn't know what to do about it.

They were afraid they would be deported under a new Oklahoma law if they took him to a major hospital. By the time they took him to a clinic, it was too late.

A ruptured intestine that might have been treatable instead killed the U.S.-born infant, making him a poster child for opponents of House Bill 1804 months before it was enacted as the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007.

"The sad part of it was the child didn't have to die if House Bill 1804 didn't ever come around," said Laurie Paul, who runs the clinic where Edgar was finally taken. "It was a total tragedy because the bill was there to create the myths and untruths and the fear."

The law, billed by its backers as the nation's toughest legislation against illegal immigration, took effect Nov. 1. It bars illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs or state assistance and makes it a felony to harbor or transport illegal immigrants.

A final portion of the law goes into effect July 1, requiring private companies to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires.

While it's difficult to characterize which state has the toughest immigration-related law, Oklahoma's goes beyond most because it includes the clause about harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, said Ann Morse, program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures' Immigrant Policy Project.

"What I think these laws may have are unintended consequences on the general public," Morse said recently. "How does the law get implemented? Who is the target?"

The crackdown has caused thousands of Hispanics to flee for neighboring states, with as many as 25,000 leaving northeastern Oklahoma alone, according to the Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The law's fallout also can be seen in the struggling businesses, worker shortages and widespread fear among immigrants who say they are afraid to drive to church or the market because police might pick them up.

"I feel like I'm in some kind of Nazi country where if they see your color, you'll be stopped," said Maria Sanchez, a 22-year-old student who is looking to leave Oklahoma rather than risk waiting the seven years it will take to get her papers. "I can't work, I can't study, I can't go out, there's no point of me staying here."

Civil rights leaders call the law xenophobic and redundant, and say other states will wrongly look to Oklahoma to push their own anti-illegal immigrant legislation. Business and church leaders also have been vocal opponents.

"Oklahoma was settled by immigrants ... which means that diverse is normal in Oklahoma," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders. "It's difficult for us to understand a state which is so Christian, that to have all this animosity toward immigrants is completely outrageous."

Supporters — described by Dan Howard, the founder of an anti-illegal immigration Web site, as "good, American, God-fearing people of the heartland that bleed red, white and blue" — say the law is necessary because of Washington's bungled immigration policy. They also believe the law has helped deter crime and punishes the companies that make money on the backs of illegal labor.

The bill's Republican author, state Rep. Randy Terrill, said similar versions have been introduced or are under consideration in more than a dozen states. Last year, more than 1,500 pieces of immigration-related legislation were introduced across the country, with 244 becoming law in 46 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"More than half the nation will soon be modeling Oklahoma's bill," said Terrill, who plans to introduce a companion piece this year that would make English the state's official language, order schools to report how many illegal children are enrolled and require people or businesses who transport, hire or rent to illegal immigrants to forfeit property.

Terrill said there's no correlation between his bill and Edgar's death, noting that the child died in July, months before the law took effect, and that the law provides an exception for emergency medical care.

"To the extent that these illegal alien parents deprived their own child needed and necessary medical care because of their ignorance of the law, then they should be in prison, frankly," Terrill said.

Edgar's parents are believed to have gone underground following the boy's death, returning either to Mexico or going to stay with family in Arkansas, according to interviews with people in Tulsa's Latino community.

Far from the halls of the state Capitol, fear leads illegal immigrants to develop elaborate emergency plans for their children in case the youngsters should find their parents missing.

Irene Maldonado, 24, has been designated as the one to call in case her sister-in-law gets deported. Meanwhile, she worries if her husband, Jose, will come home on weekends from the construction jobs he works throughout the state.

She has legal residency, he doesn't.

"I don't know if he has less fear, or he's trying to be the macho guy," she said.

Illegal immigrant Maria Saldivar, 44, searches for what little factory work she can to support her three children. Past employers now ask for papers.

"Every time I look for a job, it's always the same thing," Saldivar said in Spanish through a translator. "There was more work for me to do before."

Even workers with proper paperwork are leaving for jobs in neighboring states rather than split up their families.

"My guy who runs my framing crew, he had 70 workers, and as of Nov. 1, he lost 35 of them," said Caleb McCaleb, who runs a homebuilding company in Edmond. "My painter has lost 30 percent of his work force, my landscaper has lost 25 percent of his work force."

Some in Terrill's own party doubt the wisdom of his legislation.

"We've removed not only those here illegally and working, but those who are here legally," said state Sen. Harry Coates, a Republican who voted against 1804 and wants to repeal portions of the bill. "I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I understand economics."

Vicente Ruiz, a 47-year-old legal immigrant who runs his own electrical contracting business, put it more bluntly: "It's all about making money, and if everybody moves away, the whole state is going to suffer."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jqUdqSm2H_sgJK2_XVdxEN7k8IwAD8UD38TO0

More On In-state Tuition

2008-01-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Though I never liked the emphasis on in-state tuition when dealing with the DREAM Act - all DREAMERS would gladly take legal status in lieu of in-state- but with DREAM Act unlikely to be brought up until 2009, the battle for lower higher education costs for all takes center stage.

While surfing the web for more information on in-state tuition I came upon an interesting paper titled Postsecondary Educational Access for Undocumented Students: Opportunities and Constraints. The paper is long, thirty-five pages in length. I'll highlight in this post the sections I found most important.

I found this particular passage discussing Plyer vs Doe very interesting in regards to the debate about accepting undocumented students into institutions of higher education:

One of the most important statements to date on undocumented immigrants’ access to public education was the landmark US Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe (1982), a case related not to postsecondary schooling but to K-12 education.
In a 5-4 decision, the Plyler Court held that the State of Texas could not deny undocumented immigrant children access to free K-12 public education. While the Court did not explicitly extend the same protections to undocumented students at the college level, Plyler v. Doe is relevant to the debate at hand for at least two reasons. First, the Court held that states must show that they have a compelling interest in limiting access to education for a particular group, and that in this case Texas had failed to do so. Indeed, the Court found that there was no significant financial burden imposed by undocumented immigrants on the state and rejected the claim that preventing undocumented immigrants
from accessing education would be an effective deterrent to further illegal immigration.

Second, while holding that education is not a fundamental right, the Court stressed that denying K-12 education to undocumented children amounted to creating a “lifetime of hardship” and a permanent “underclass” of individuals. This is significant, because at the time of the Plyler decision a high school diploma could very well lead to a well-paying job that could help one move up the socio-economic ladder. Indeed, Justice Brennan’s majority opinion is explicit in its declaration of the link between education and social mobility. Today, though, nearly a quarter of a century later, a high school diploma creates fewer opportunities for those entering the labor market. Arguably, the ticket to social and economic mobility has increasingly become a college degree, with college graduates’ average annual earnings almost double those of high school graduates and nearly three times those of high school drop-outs. While in 1982 the Supreme Court sought to prevent the creation of an underclass of undocumented individuals by assuring access to free public K-12 education, the new educational “ticket to the middle class” may well be a college degree.8 By today’s standards, then, not extending similar protections to undocumented students once they reach college age may create the very socio-economic chasms the Court had originally sought to avoid.

Later on in the paper the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) is discussed, as well as how these acts did little to alleviate all the confusion of undocumented immigrants and higher education:

Hence, according to Section 505 of the IIRIRA: An alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State … for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident (8 U.S.C. § 1623).

The Act further states:
A State may provide that an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States is eligible for any State or local public benefit for which such alien would otherwise be ineligible … through the enactment of a State law after August 22, 1996, which affirmatively provides for such eligibility(8 U.S.C. § 1621).

For its part, the PRWORA declared that:
An alien who is not a qualified alien is not eligible for any Federal public benefit [including] any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States (8 U.S.C. §1611).

Rather than settling the issue of undocumented students and higher education, however, the vagueness of these statutes has led to significant differences of opinion concerning Congress’s intent. Generally, though, there is agreement about two aspects of the laws: 1) neither the PRWORA nor the IIRIRA prohibit public postsecondary institutions from admitting undocumented students; and 2) under these statutes, undocumented individuals are not eligible for public benefits that entail actual monetary assistance, such as federal financial aid
programs that provide student loans or work study payments.

What is not clear, however, is whether the federal statutes confer on states the authority to decide whether or not to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students. Hence, Michael Olivas (2004) interprets the IIRIRA as giving states the authority to determine state residency for tuition purposes (a state benefit) and asserts that this state residency (and thus in-state tuition) does not entail a monetary benefit. Similarly, Ruge and Iza (2005) argue that the statutes do not prohibit states from granting in-state tuition as long as qualified out-of-state U.S. citizens can also receive the same benefit. Others, including the governor of Maryland, a former Wisconsin governor, and a former attorney general of Virginia, though, have cited the IIRIRA as the primary legal barrier to enacting state laws providing in-state tuition to undocumented students.

One last part I wanted to point out was the table on page 14 of the paper showing the Benefits of Higher Education. All these public benefits are good reasons for enacting the DREAM Act. Some of the benefits are listed below:

1. Increased tax revenue
2. Greater Productivity
3. Increased spending on consumer goods and services
4. Increased workforce flexibility
5. Decreased reliance on government financial support
6. Reduced crime rates

New Jersey and In-state

2008-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

I recently came upon this article, which mentioned that New Jersey recently had a conference on in-state tuition for undocumented students and those on temporary visas. The article stated that the "immigration panel convened by Governor Corzine likely will recommend that undocumented immigrants pay the lower, in-state tuition rate at public colleges and universities."

This isn't the first time New Jersey has considered in-state for its undocumented students; since 2003 a bill addressing this issue has sat untouched. State schools in New Jersey, as in other states, vary on the way they deal with undocumented applicants. An example of this, is William Paterson University charges them out-of-state, while a few miles away Passaic County Community College charges them in-state based on the fact they live in the county. On the other hand, County College of Morris will not admit any student here illegal.

This bill will particularly help New Jersey students, since New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities in Trenton sites New Jersey having the second highest in-state tuition fees in the US.

Palomar College student leader is deported

2008-01-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Although the DREAM Act isn't mentioned in this article it sounds like Paola Oropeza would have benefited from the DREAM Act. According to the article she failed to leave the country after an immigration judge ordered her to, and this was the reason for her arrest and deportation. It is unfortunate that she did not seek help from friends and the community after being ordered deported the first time. The article states that she and her family are now seeking legal help, but as they are already deported the likelihood of any reprieve is slim. The article can be read below.

Palomar College student leader is deported

By: NOELLE IBRAHIM - Staff Writer

SAN MARCOS -- The president of a Latino student group at Palomar College has been deported to Mexico after she and close relatives were arrested in their Escondido home, immigration officials confirmed Friday.

Paola Oropeza, a 22-year-old advertising and marketing major at Palomar, was arrested Jan. 8 by a fugitive operations team with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the agency in San Diego.

Oropeza was president of Palomar's chapter of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), a national organization that advocates community service and academic success for Latino students, in addition to promoting awareness of Chicano issues and history. Recent club activities include a holiday toy drive for needy children, hosting a "Night of Culture" and celebrating Cesar Chavez Day on campus.

"I was shocked and upset," said John Valdez, MEChA adviser and multicultural studies professor at Palomar. "It's been very distressing to have this happen."

Oropeza could not be reached on her cell phone for comment Friday.

The student had been ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge, but she failed to comply with that order, said Mack. She could not provide details about Oropeza's immigration background, but said she did not have a criminal record.

"She was one of many other people arrested that day after being targeted as part of an ongoing fugitive enforcement program," Mack said.

Oropeza was arrested with three others who are believed to be her relatives, said Mack. Valdez, who said he received a distressed phone call from Oropeza after she was placed in detention, later identified the people as Oropeza's mother, father and older sister. The sister is still in deportation proceedings, while Oropeza and her parents were taken to Tijuana, according to Valdez.

"Paola was very much traumatized," Valdez said, describing the phone call. "She was raised here, she grew up here. The family is looking into legal support to help their situation."

In the nearly two years he has known Oropeza, Valdez said they had never discussed her legal status.

"I had no idea," said Valdez. "The thought never occurred to me."

Valdez described Oropeza as a studious, quiet person who was a productive MEChA president for two semesters.

"As a result of her leadership, MEChA grew in attendance and we were able to put together successful activities because of her work," he said. "I was impressed with the way she carried herself. I never saw her angry or speaking down to anyone."

Oropeza was poised to complete her transfer requirements during the upcoming spring semester at Palomar, which starts Tuesday.

"Her world has been turned upside down," he said.

Contact staff writer Noelle Ibrahim at (760) 740-3517 or nibrahim@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/19/news/inland/2_02_991_18_08.txt

New In-State Bill Leaves DREAMERS in the Dust

2008-01-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Recently a new bill was introduced in Colorado that would take out the parents' residency requirement to receive in-state tuition at Colorado public colleges and universities. The rule currently says a student (22 and under) qualifies for in-state tuition only if the parents, not student, have lived for twelve consecutive months in the state. This currently puts students who are in foster care, homeless, and runaways at a disadvantage.

Though DREAM Act was mentioned, and though State Sen. Sandoval supports DREAM Act, she was careful to mention,

"...this is different because it affects only U.S. citizens."

And that,

"The Dream Act is another topic for another day."

Again and again dreams of undocumented students are pushed to the side - 'a topic for another day'. When will that day come, if ever?

Steve Jordan, president of Metropolitan State College of Denver said,

"He didn't want this to spark an immigration debate within the Capitol."

Jordan said dozens of Metro students who have trouble proving their parents' residency are stuck in the system morass — mostly homeless and foster kids.

"Don't we want to invest in the young people in Colorado?" he said. "This is more than about immigration ... but I'm fully cognizant that this will spark a hornet's nest."

What about DREAMERS? Are their futures not worth investing in? It is great that a larger group of students in Colorado may soon have access to in-state tuition, but once again DREAMERS are left in the dust. President Jordan is quite right, anything pro-immigration, such as (gasp)the cardinal sin of making higher education affordable for everyone regardless of legal status, will create controversy; but to not touch it for that reason is cowardly, and playing right into the hands of the anti-immigrants crowd.

The rest of the article can be read here.

More Teachers Need To Be Aware

2008-01-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Someone I know was recently on a flight and he struck up a conversation with a woman next to him. As they began speaking, it turned out that she was a law professor and dealt a lot with child advocacy. So my friend asked if she was aware of the 'DREAM Act', and she said she was not. She, however, was aware of students in that situation - being brought her as a young child and now undocumented. The Professor had even helped some of her students who were undocumented orphans get legal status (not an easy task), yet she had not heard of DREAM Act.

The point of this post is I believe more and more teachers need to be aware of DREAM Act. I do know that there are a few large teacher associations that have signed on to letters in support of DREAM, but I think they are a largely untapped resource of support. More individual teachers need to be made aware of the importance of DREAM Act. Though I believe that many Americans would support DREAM Act if they knew the truth about it, they have their own problems and their own concerns, so are less likely to actively speak out for it. Teachers, though, since they have watched so many undocumented students grow up and succeed, and then reach a roadblock at high school and/or college graduation, would be more likely be vocal about it.

S.C. Undocumented Students Could Face More Roadblocks

2008-01-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

More negative immigration news. South Carolina House leaders have unveiled an immigration plan that would make lives very difficult for its illegal immigrant population. One of the worst parts of the plan is a provision that would not allow undocumented students to apply to any public college or receive any scholarship. Undocumented students already have to pay out-of-state rates in South Carolina, and most do not qualify for scholarships anyway without proper legal documentation. It's unfortunate that again and again undocumented students are lumped in with other illegal immigrants. Lets face it, the illegals applying to college aren't the ones who just jumped the fence a week ago. Majority, if not all, undocumented students were brought here as children and have graduated from a US high school. There is no reason for a college to use immigration status as a criteria because it shows nothing of the student's ability. Do the citizens of South Carolina really want their undocumented student population to join the underground work force, rather than educate and better themselves? That I even have to ask that question shows how out of hand anything related to immgration has become.

The article about the immigration plan for SC can be read here.

GTCC students at heart of immigration debate

2008-01-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

Last month in North Carolina, a decision was reached that all Community Colleges in that state had to 'open their doors' to undocumented students; however they would still be charged out-of-state rates. Though most colleges and universities in the United States do admit undocumented students, there is never a guarantee.

As with anything related to immigration, there was an outcry in North Carolina. I find it strange that anyone can be against the education of young people, whether they are here legally or not.

In a recent article dealing with this very thing, Martin Lancaster, president of the community college system, defended the decision:

"In every era of American history, the latest wave of immigrants has faced the same opposition that Hispanics now face whether they arrived on our shores with or without documents," Lancaster wrote. "We are a nation of immigrants and if one reviews the names of those who have called or e-mailed the system office in opposition to our open-door policy, one must conclude that fifty or one hundred years ago, their grandparents or great grandparents faced the same opposition that they are now voicing."

In the same article, one undocumented student, Elena is quoted:

"There are some of us who are struggling very much to get an education," she said. "Some people don't get an education by choice, but that's not our situation."

The article also touches on the day to day stress of the lives of illegal immigrants:

In addition to the usual school stress, Elena worries about immigration agents - that they might deport her or her mother. That's a common worry for undocumented students, said Kristina Johnson, coordinator of the Latino Mental Health Awareness Campaign at the Mental Health Association in Greensboro.

"All of our families live with this stress," Johnson said. "The constant anxiety causes levels of cortisol to remain unnaturally high, which can affect your physical health."

Elena lives with her mom, and since she cannot get a NC drivers license, her mom drives her around.

"Because of that I do not feel independent," she said.

The full article can be read here.

Happy New Year and More

2007-12-31T09:06:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Will DREAM Act Pass in 2008? It is unlikely with election year, but that doesn't mean we will not continue fighting for its passage.

Now for something a little more fun and light-hearted. This is an on-going list, so feel free to add to it!

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A DREAMER IF...

Checking DREAM Act Portal for updates on DREAM Act, other immigration-related news, and the latest gossip about your fellow DREAMERS is on your list of top five things to do when you wake up in the morning.

And then you continue to check DREAM Act Portal for more updates throughout the day.

You've skipped class/work/other obligations to watch C-SPAN2.

You've used up all your monthly cell phone minutes on calling Senators.

You've programmed the numbers of Senators in your cell phone so you can call them on-the-go.

You know the meaning of words like *cloture*, *filibuster*, *quorum call* - and you aren't a Political Science major.

You know exactly what I'm referring to by "Mr. Akaka..."

You've subscribed to DREAM Act and Immigration 'Google News Alerts'.

Some Thoughts

2007-12-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

Recently on the blog 'Till We Have Faces, the blogger mentioned a DREAMER named Tam who is in immigration limbo. She and her family were ordered deported, but because the country she was born in, Germany, does not grant birthright citizenship, she could not be sent there or deported to any other country. Like so many other undocumented students just like her, the DREAM Act is the only hope out of this tragic situation.

In Tam's testimony in front of the the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration,Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law (try to say that five times fast), she says,

"Graduation for many of my friends isn’t a rite of passage to becoming a responsible adult. Rather, it is the last phase in which they can feel a sense of belonging as an American."

Her words ring true for me and many older undocumented students- those who despite all the difficulties of going to a University as an undocumented student, have graduated with a college degree. While in college it was easier to 'pretend' you were just like all your American citizen classmates. It was easy to deflect the questions of not having a job (don't have the time with heavy class schedule) or not driving (with expenses of college, don't have the money for car and gas).

I don't think anyone who isn't a DREAMER or doesn't personally know a DREAMER can understand the devastation we felt when DREAM Act failed the cloture vote. I knew before watching the vote on C-SPAN that I'd cry for a week, either in happiness or sadness; unfortunately it was the latter. It is such a helpless feeling knowing a group of Senators have control of your life here in the United States. Then there is the fear (which is always with you, even if just in the back of your mind) of being deported any day back to country you don't speak the language of and don't remember.

Also for the first time, I had an inkling of what it must have felt like for the Jews and all the other groups the Nazis rounded up. Though this isn't as dire a situation, we aren't being sent to our death, I can relate to the helplessness they must have felt and to the hope that they clung onto that someone would step up to rectify the situation.

DREAM Act will pass some day, I am sure of that, but so many undocumented students, can no longer wait, like Marie Gonzalez. Marie's stay of deportation is up this spring.

Another DREAMER Gets Stay of Deportation Through Dec. 2008

2007-12-25T19:09:00.001-08:00

Aggie fighting order

By JANET PHELPS
Eagle Staff Writer

Two months ago, Texas A&M University senior Walter Sosa was working part-time and meticulously planning what life would be like after graduation next year.
He would use his degree in engineering technology and industrial distribution, along with his solid B average and experience in fixing computers, to get a job with a software company.

But on a cool October morning 10 1/2 weeks ago, Sosa -- who moved with his parents to the United States from Guatemala when he was 5 -- was handcuffed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and taken to a deportation center in Houston. He was told he would be sent back to his homeland.

He graduated from a Houston high school with honors, second in a class of 450 students, and was accepted automatically to Texas' second largest public university, but Sosa is not an American citizen and doesn't have a student visa.

His life, he learned in those sobering hours early on Oct. 10, would never be the same.

The 22-year-old who grew up speaking Spanish at home and eating Guatemalan food doesn't remember the days when he couldn't speak English. He has only vague memories of the country where he was born.

"I was thinking, 'Wow, it's the last time I'll ever see this,'" Sosa said, recalling how he stared out the car window as agents drove him away from the A&M campus. He assumed he would never be allowed to return and finish his degree.

Sosa's family has been caught up in a lengthy appeals process since their visitors' visa expired in 1996, after five years. Still, a deportation order wasn't issued for the family until July, when their most recent appeal was denied, Sosa said. His parents worked with lawyers starting in 1992 to secure permanent residency.

The order issued in July by an immigration judge gave them two months to leave the U.S. voluntarily, but Sosa said no one told his family they had to leave, and no document ever arrived in the mail.

"It really caught us by surprise," he said, adding that he's being asked to leave the only country he knows as home.

"I feel like an American; everything I know is here," he said. "To be told you have to leave now, to leave after 17 years of life -- that's pretty hard."

Countless others

Sosa is one of thousands of young people whose parents brought them to the U.S. as children and now are caught in the middle of an immigration nightmare they didn't create, officials said.

Nationwide, around 360,000 high school graduates between 18 and 24 years old were brought to the U.S. before they were 16, and they now live in the same situation as Sosa, according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Many were raised in the U.S. and are culturally American, but they lack legal residency status because they were brought to the U.S. illegally or remained in the U.S. after their legal status had expired, according to Joseph Vail, a Houston attorney. He served four years as a federal immigration judge with the U.S. Department of Justice and later founded the immigration clinic at the University of Houston Law Center.

Public schools are required to educate all children through the 12th grade, regardless of their legal status, as mandated in a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but Congress passed a law in 1996 forbidding states to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who attend college. A loophole in the law allowed Texas, along with nine other states, to permit students without legal status to attend college at in-state tuition rates as long as they graduated from a high school in the same state.

Even with the open secret that acknowledged and encouraged illegal immigrants to enroll in college, it's rare for them to be deported, Vail said. Instead, the agency typically focuses its efforts on those with deportation orders or people with a criminal history, not students, he said.

Immigration spokeswoman Leticia Zamparripa, who is based in Houston, said last week that she could not comment on Sosa's case, citing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy that prevents employees from talking about ongoing legal cases.

"[Sosa] can talk to you all he wants, but as a government agency and a government employee, I don't have that liberty," she said.

Although the agency doesn't keep track of the number of college students who are deported each year, it isn't common for students to be apprehended on campus, Zamarripa said.

What's even more rare about Sosa's case, officials said, is the stay of deportation he received after spending three days in the deportation center in Houston. The unusual reprieve will allow Sosa to finish his degree at A&M next December before returning to Guatemala, officials said.

It was unclear how many students in Sosa's situation are enrolled at Texas A&M and Blinn College.

From class to cell

Sosa said he had an inkling that immigration officers would be coming for him that day in October. Earlier that morning, Immigration and Customs agents had arrived at the house where Sosa grew up and in which his parents still lived with his 15-year-old sister, who was born in the U.S. and is a citizen.

They arrested Sosa's father as he was leaving for work at a factory where he made oil drill pipes, Sosa said.

Frantic, Sosa's mom called him at 6:30 a.m. from Houston to let him know officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had told her they would be coming for him within days, he said.

"She was crying," he said. "She couldn't even talk to me. She barely got that much out."

Sosa didn't know what to do after he hung up, but he had a feeling the agents were on their way, he said.

"I was in shock," he said. "I decided to just go to class to get it off my mind."

In class, Sosa told his friends, who already knew he was not in the country legally, to call his lawyer and his family to let them know if immigration contacted him, he said.

After class ended, Sosa was standing outside Thompson Hall talking with friends about an upcoming group project when immigration officials approached him and asked his name, he said. He confirmed what they already knew. The two immigration officers searched Sosa before putting him in handcuffs and placing him in an unmarked car, he said.

"All my friends were watching me get put in a car," he said.

Outpouring of support

As soon as Sosa's friends saw him being driven away, they alerted A&M administrators, faculty and staff, and all began working to secure his release, A&M officials and Sosa said. It started with Sosa's close friends and teachers, who began spreading the word and writing letters to immigration officials, he said.

"There was such a huge outpouring of student support," A&M engineering technology professor Rainer Fink said. Fink said his department received hundreds of e-mails from students around the world expressing support for Sosa within 24 hours of his arrest.

U.S. Congressman Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said last week that he learned about Sosa's situation in October through a letter from Texas A&M University Interim President Ed Davis.

"[Sosa] is paying a price for the decisions made by his parents years ago," Edwards said. "It seems that when [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is enforcing the law, there should be a better way to do it than to walk on campus and put handcuffs on a student."

It was not an official university effort, A&M Vice Provost Luis Cifuentes pointed out, but many faculty members and administrators independently wrote letters to immigration officials and to Edwards on Sosa's behalf.

Cifuentes said supporting Sosa was the right thing to do in the situation.

"[Sosa] was making something of himself. He was doing well. He was within earshot of finishing his degree," he said. "This is one of those human stories that go beyond politics, and that's why I think so many people reacted so quickly."

Where's home?

Meanwhile, Sosa struggled to adjust to the idea of returning to a country he barely remembered, he said.

Once Sosa arrived at the immigration center, he was fingerprinted and his personal belongings -- including his driver's license, Social Security card, work permit and laptop -- were taken from him, he said. He was placed in a holding cell while his paperwork was processed and later moved to a deportation center just around the corner, Sosa said.

He was placed with a larger group of immigrants, and given a blue jumpsuit and a quick medical exam before being assigned to a dorm room with about 20 other men, he said.

For three days he stayed in the deportation center awaiting a return flight to Guatemala, he said. He never saw his father, who was being held at the same center but in a different location, he said.

On his second day, Sosa's mother visited along with lawyer Elise Wilkinson, who asked Sosa if she could represent him, he said.

"[Wilkinson] told me I didn't really have any chances," Sosa said. "But she told me she would try."

Wilkinson also told Sosa that some of his friends and teachers were protesting outside the immigration office, he said. The next day, Wilkinson returned.

"She was pretty much jumping up and down," he said.

Wilkinson told Sosa that an immigration official whose office had been flooded by letters and faxes asking for Sosa's release wanted to speak with him, he said.

The official asked Sosa why he didn't leave the U.S. when he was told to, Sosa recalled, adding that he told the official that his family didn't know they were supposed to leave.

"I told him we were misinformed. I couldn't tell if he believed me," Sosa said. "I told him, 'If I have to leave, I'll leave. There's nothing you can do being here in this situation.'"

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials then granted Sosa a stay of deportation through December 2008 so he could finish his degree, he said.

"I'm glad that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] showed some common-sense decency in allowing him to stay until graduation," Edwards said last week.

The congressman said he did not play a direct role in Sosa's release but said his office has ongoing discussions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"Once [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] starts the enforcement process, our view has been that it's not appropriate for political pressure to be applied," he said.

Sosa's lawyer, who has been practicing immigration law in Houston since 1995, said she's never seen a stay of deportation issued in a case like Sosa's.

"A stay of deportation is really a rare bird, it only happens in rare cases," Wilkinson said.

Uncertain future

For the scores of students who graduate college each year without legal status and then can't secure a job in the U.S., there only are a few avenues that allow them to apply for legal status or citizenship, said Vail with the law center.

It's an impossible situation, he said.

"The backlog in most of these categories goes back 10 or 15 years," he said. "They have no options. We're stuck in a stalemate here in what everybody admits is a bad position."

A bill -- known as the Dream Act by its supporters -- that would have provided a path to legal residency and ultimately citizenship for students like Sosa who graduated from a U.S. high school and were brought to this country before they were 16 failed in Congress in October.

"There is no way for them to [stay in the U.S.] lawfully. The Dream Act was a law that would make it possible," he said.

Sosa said the Dream Act seemed too good to be true, and he doesn't hold any hopes of being allowed to stay past graduation.

"I'm not really mad. I understand they're just trying to do their job," he said. "There's a part of me that wishes something could happen. I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It doesn't look very good."

The events of the past few months have forced Sosa to grow up -- with his father still awaiting deportation in the Houston center, Sosa has been working odd jobs and sending money to his mom and sister in Houston to help pay bills, he said. He's also been saving money up for his return to Guatemala.

"My dad was the one who always took care of us. Now I'm wondering what we're going to do," he said.

Sosa said he plans to leave when his time is up, although he worries about what he will do when he returns to Guatemala. His Spanish is imperfect, he admits, and he barely knows his extended family in Guatemala.

"I don't want to go back," he said.

• Janet Phelps' e-mail address is janet.phelps@theeagle.com
http://www.theeagle.com/am/Aggie_fighting_order

Be Fair

2007-12-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

I found a letter about DREAM Act under the Voice of the People in South Bend Tribune. There isn't much to say or comment about it; the letter speaks on its own.

Be fair

On some occasions, our society asks parents to pay for illegal actions done by their minor children. Most agree that this can be a fair way to solve disputes. But I want people to ask themselves another question: Should children have to pay for the illegal actions of their parents?

If your answer is "What? Absurd! Who would blame a kid for his parent's choice to break the law?" read on. We would. If we are not begging our senators to pass the Dream Act, we are blaming kids for what their parents chose to do.

The Dream Act would allow high school graduates who were brought into our country without documentation to continue on to college and use their education to contribute to our country. These people are the teachers, health care workers and scientists our country desperately needs.

While grants and scholarships would be nice, these kids would be thrilled to have the chance I had, which was to work my way through college and pay back a loan after graduation.

Give the kids at least that opportunity! In the long run, we'll all reap the benefits. My eyes start to cross when I ponder the cluster of immigration issues in our country. Who knows how long it will take to resolve them all? But we can start by giving those kids the chance to live up to their full potential.

Margaret Kirkwood Quintana
Mishawaka

F.A.I.R. Spouting Hate on Talk Radio Again

2007-12-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

Immigration will be the topic once again of Talk Radio in Iowa on December 28th and 29th. Talk show hosts will be debating 'amnesty', but it will most likely be very one sided debate as it is sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform Congressional Tax Force (F.A.I.R.) Polls in Iowa have shown that immigration is an important issue to voters, but F.A.I.R.'s biased, anti-immigrant, conservative agenda without proper discussion will not help in solving the nation's immigration problem and will only spread hate in Iowa and around the country.

The article can be read below:

The presidential candidates seem like they’ll be treading lightly during the days around Christmas, but one right-leaning organization is making sure no aspect of the touchy immigration issue goes unheard.

From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Dec. 27 and 28, Iowa airwaves will be saturated with debates about “amnesty,” the term used by conservatives to describe offering citizenship to illegal immigrants, and border control, as 22 radio talk show hosts from across the country descend on Des Moines for the Iowa 2007 Talk Radio Row, sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform Congressional Tax Force.

In describing why the event is necessary, Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the group, suggested that a majority of Democrats and Republicans were concerned that illegal immigration negatively affects the economy. Recent polls have indicated that immigration is among the top concerns of Iowans, and candidates do get peppered with questions about the issue on the campaign trail.

The fact that the radio-talk-a-thon occurs right after the holiday is just a matter of the Iowa caucuses slated for Jan. 3, he said.

Not everyone sees it that way. Several groups, including the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Center for New Community and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund, have slammed the F.A.I.R. radio blast.

“I think it’s very ironic that F.A.I.R. would choose the Christmas week for their media blitz, since Christmas week is the time to celebrate someone who represents peace and goodwill because certainly the message of F.A.I.R. mess is not that,” said Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund, in a phone interview with The Caucus.

While Mr. Mehlman said F.A.I.R. was a nonpartisan organization that would not endorse any candidate for office, Ms. Terrell asserted that its radio marathon would push a one-sided conservative agenda. She said:
What we want folks to know is that the message of F.A.I.R. is not welcome. They have the right to speak — that’s not the issue — what I’m saying is that their message meant to incite hatred is not welcome in Iowa, and I would imagine it’s not welcome in other states. People can disagree, we can have dialogue about the issue, but it should not be ramped up like this.

Mr. Mehlman, on the other hand, thinks Iowa voters will find the talk marathon engaging.
“Talk radio has become the voice for the mass of ordinary people in the U.S.,” Mr. Mehlman told us. “These are not generally readers of the New York Times, but they’re a significant force. Their voice can’t be controlled by the elite in this country.”
F.A.I.R. embarked on a similar media blitz last spring when Congress was considering an immigration bill that would have provided ways to gain citizenship for many undocumented immigrants who had lived in the country for years. The measure ultimately failed.

“The ordinary people’s voices didn’t seem to matter to the people in the Senate who cooked up the bill,” said Mr. Mehlman, who added that he thought the bill served the interest of the Mexican president.
Right now F.A.I.R. has no plans to stage a similar event in New Hampshire or before any other state’s primary, he said.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/immigration-radio-talk-to-hit-iowa/

Furniture Store Becomes Immigration Battle Zone

2007-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

A furniture store in Phoenix, Arizona has now become, every weekend, a battleground over illegal immigration. Though Arizona has been dealing with immigration for many years, the problem in this particular city in front of this particular furniture store began after the store's owner hired off-duty sheriff's deputies (some whom are trained as immigration officers) to patrol around the store's parking lot and nearby area. According to the article 65 people illegal immigrants were arrested and deported by these sheriff's deputies. The protesters want the store owner to hire private security guards who do not have the power to deport people (a very reasonable request). With the protesters lining the sidewalk, business at the furniture store has slowed.

After the failure of comprehensive immigration this year, states and cities have begun passing their own immigration legislation, which has only complicated things nation wide. Allowing individual citizens to implement immigration laws on their own is a dangerous next step.

You can read the article here.

DREAM Act-like Court Decision in Israel in '06

2007-12-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

I remember, a year or so ago, my father mentioning that something similar to DREAM Act had been enacted in Israel. I found this article discussing it.

The Israeli court decision gave legal residency to undocumented children, ten and up, born in Israel to illegal workers. According to the article, civil rights groups were trying to get it to also cover those over ten years old who were not born in Israel. Though obviously there are differences between the DREAM Act here in the United States and the one in Israel, the fundamental idea behind it is the same; not to punish children for the sins of the parents. Below I have highlighted parts of the article that directly relate to the DREAM Act.

But the spectacle of helpless children being threatened with deportation has also touched a nerve, and Israeli human rights groups are waging a court battle to let at least some of them stay in the land where they go to school and whose Hebrew language they speak like sabras – native-born Israelis.

But although the children aren't Jewish, they act just like their Jewish classmates and have never set foot in their parents' homeland.

“I am Israeli,” said 9-year-old Danica Hormillada, daughter of Filipino housecleaners. “And also a little bit Filipinit,” she added, using the Hebrew word for a Filipina.

“The aim is to save these children from cultural expulsion. The children are not responsible for the way their parents came here and the country that let them stay so long.”

In all the above quotations, insert American in place of Israeli and Jewish, insert English in place of Hebrew, and you'd think these were sentences from a news article advocating for the DREAM Act in the United States.

9500 Liberty Project

2007-12-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

I recently came across the 9500 Liberty Project, which is an 'interactive documentary' dealing with the polarized issue of immigration. The documentary is being filmed in Prince William County in Northern Virginia, where for those of you who are not aware, a new resolution allows local police to ask the immigration status of anyone they arrest if they suspect they are in the country illegally. Immigration status can even be checked during a routine traffic stop, if there is 'probable cause' to suspect them being undocumented.

As stated in their blog:

The aim of this documentary is to inform the public, and investigate alternatives to the intense polarization that is hindering progress on the immigration issue.

The 9500 Liberty Project has been mentioned on ABC 7, Fox 5, and MSNBC as well as in newspapers such as the Washington Post. All the videos documented so far can be viewed here.I think everyone interested in the immigration debate will learn something from checking out their blog and videos on YouTube.

In one of the videos a man accuses a group of mainly Hispanics of 'not speaking English' even though they all do. This same man is discussed later by Annabel Park, one of the filmmakers, who explains that she does not see this man as a racist, that he just feels displaced in his neighborhood, and that people with the same views as him are having an identity crisis. Though I think she is giving him more credit than he deserves, I do understand her point. The dialogue between American Citizens and Immigrants must be opened; each side has their legitimate concerns and there has to be a way to preserve both the American culture and Immigrant's culture.

Eric Blyer, another one of the filmmakers, in one of the videos says, "We can't just let the most angry, the most motivated citizens decide the direction our government takes." I agree. Perhaps if more Senators in this country had not listened to those anti-immigration groups, who are small, though very vocal, such as FAIR and NumberUSA, and had not allowed them to dictate the way they vote (since they do not represent the majority of Americans views), perhaps the DREAM Act would have passed.

Are Undocumented Students Criminals?

2007-12-13T16:43:00.000-08:00

Recently an article discussed an undocumented student coming out of the *undocumented closet*. He's trying to educate the public about the difficulties facing students like him.

I believe most Americans on both sides of the debate of immigration when asked if children should be punished for the sins of their parents would respond 'no'. It goes against American values; yet each year the DREAM Act is not passed into law, America is essentially doing that very thing.

The rest of the article can be found here:
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/12.12.07/news-0750.html

Undocumented Students are not criminals. How can an infant, toddler, or child be blamed for crossing the border or overstaying their visa?

Many undocumented students despite financial hurdles, since they do not qualify for instate tuition (in many states), federal aid, and scholarships, have gone on to higher education.

I have collected a number of biographies from DREAM Act students. Below is a list of the degrees they are in the process of completing or have completed. Does America really want to kick out such a group of talented individuals who are American in every sense of the word?:

Master of Science Degree in Molecular Biology
Registered Nurse

11 Bachelor of Science Degrees:

Bachelor of Science Degree in Molecular Biology
Bachelor of Science Degree in Bio-Chemistry
Bachelor of Science Degree in Genetics
Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering
Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing
Bachelor of Science Degree in Hospitality Management
Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance
Bachelor of Science Degree in History
Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Management
Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and American Studies

3 Bachelor of Arts Degrees:

Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Classics
Bachelor of Arts Degree in History

A.A.S. in Hospitality Management working toward Bachelor of Science

A.A. Degree working towards Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science

Who Loves America More: American Citizen VS Illegal Alien

2007-12-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

No, thankfully this is not the name of a new reality television show. Recently I read an article in which the author brought the idea up of who really would win a game show like that. The answer in many instances would be the illegal alien. The news article can be found at this link:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1692059,00.html

Quotes from article with my responses:

"We all oppose breaking the law, or we ought to. Saying that you oppose illegal immigration is like saying you oppose illegal drug use or illegal speeding. Of course you do, or should [...] The fact that you believe in obeying the law reveals nothing about what you think the law ought to be, or why"

I think the author hit it right on the mark. It is also important to remember that not all laws are just. All the horrible atrocities the Nazis did to the Jews in Germany were not against any written laws in Germany; in fact they were actually following the law.

"Another question: Why are you so upset about this particular form of lawbreaking? After all, there are lots of laws, not all of them enforced with vigor. The suspicion naturally arises that the illegality is not what bothers you. What bothers you is the immigration."

Again this is another very important point. Calling these people criminals is a joke . What crime did these immigrants commit besides looking for a better life for their family? Crossing the desert in the hot sun, no water, risking your life to find a job to feed your family? This was something Americans usually find heroic; not a criminal action.

"But let's not kid ourselves that all we care about is obeying the law and all we are asking illegals to do is go home and get in line like everybody else. We know perfectly well that the line is too long, and we are basically telling people to go home and not come back."

Part of the reason we have such a problem with illegal immigration is because the legal immigration system is broken. The line is too long; having an American citizen wait 20+ years so that their brother or sister can join them is ridiculous. Not only are the immigration laws flawed, but the United States has allowed these people for years and years to establish themselves. We aren't talking about those who just 'jumped the fence' last month. We are talking about the people who have been here over five years, ten years, twenty years; have established roots, and even have children born here. How can you expect someone like to go back to their home country? The America I grew up in is a better country than that.

"Let's not kid ourselves, either, about who we are telling this to. To characterize illegal immigrants as queue-jumping, lawbreaking scum is seriously unjust. The motives of illegal immigrants--which can be summarized as "a better life"--are identical to those of legal immigrants."

Another great point the author makes. There are so many of the opposition who swear that they are for *legal* immigration, but we all know that's not true. All immigrants of this country should know that a harsh policy against illegal immigration until America deals with all the undocumented people in the country, will hurt all immigrants.

I know this post isn't specifically about DREAM, but I felt it was important to discuss.

Shalom and Welcome!

2007-12-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

My plans for this blog is to focus on spreading the truth about the DREAM Act and debunk all the myths being spread about this legislation.

I want America to see the personal stories, struggles and accomplishments behind undocumented students who would benefit from the DREAM Act.

I will also post about immigration in general, as well as how it will relate to the upcoming 2008 elections.

The title for this blog came from reading a few news articles calling DREAM Act students, or DREAMies, as Generation 1.5 and ever since then the name has stayed with me. This is a generation stuck in the middle; between their parents born and raised outside the United States and their younger siblings who were born and raised inside the United States. These undocumented students, though not born in the United States, have been raised here, in some cases since infancy, and thus identify themselves as American.

I hope this blog will not only educate the public, but open the hearts and minds of United States citizens to the plight of undocumented students.