Calling On All DREAMers!

Watch this Video:

10 Reasons to Pass the DREAM Act

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

(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!

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...

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'...

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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

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.