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.

Update: Juan Gomez

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?

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

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...

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.'