Students Refuse to Give Up on Dream Act
Andres Caballero
New America Media
Oct 03, 2010
High school and college
students in New York, who for years have been lobbying Congress to pass
legislation that would bring undocumented students closer to their dream
of attending college and pursuing a career, said last week they are not
giving up the fight after lawmakers again refused to consider the Dream
Act.
The Development, Relief
and Education for Alien Minors Act would pave a path to citizenship for
undocumented students who arrived in the United States as minors, by
giving them access to higher education and the ability to serve in the
military. The bill has been introduced numerous times without success.
Last week it stalled again, falling four votes short of a motion that
would have allowed Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to introduce it as part of a
defense allocation bill.
Yessica Martinez, 17,
an undocumented student who arrived from Medellin, Colombia when she was
10, underwent an emotional rollercoaster during last week’s legislative
battle. For three years, she has been a Dream Act activist at Francis
Lewis High School in Queens, where she is an honor student. Though she
said she was upset, she was not defeated.
“We’re going to fight
until this happens, and if it doesn’t happen today, it’s going to happen
tomorrow; and even if it doesn’t happen then, we’re going to keep
fighting until it does,” said Martinez, who wants to go to college to
study journalism.
A 2010 report released
by the American Immigration Council estimates that there are 1.5 million
undocumented children in the United States; every year, 65,000
undocumented students who have lived in the United States for over five
years graduate from high school.
Without a legal status,
undocumented adolescents cannot obtain a driver’s license in most states
or apply for federal financial aid to pay for their studies. Also,
because most lack a work permit and social security number, they can’t
be employed. So, at a time when most young people begin dreaming about
the future, for these students there is none.
“You grow up thinking
you can do everything you want to do but it’s not true. You can’t do all
the things all American adults can,” said Angy Rivera, 20, who came to
the United States from Armenia, Colombia with her mother at age 3 and is
in the country illegally. She lives in Queens and is a freshman at John
Jay College of Criminal Justice. She hopes to one day help fight human
and animal abuse.
“I feel like my future
always has to be decided by a congressman or somebody else,” added
Rivera.
The New York
Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for 200 groups
representing the state’s 4 million immigrants, condemned the Senate’s
decision to discard the Dream Act and called for more pressure on
legislators.
Americans for Legal
Immigration, a political action committee based in North Carolina,
celebrated the bill’s defeat. The committee’s president, William Gheen,
said the attempt to bring the Dream Act back to legislation failed
because the vast majority of Americans reject all forms of amnesty for
undocumented immigrants.
“Those students should
blame their parents for invading another nation illegally and should
return to the nations they are citizens of,” said Gheen.
But student activists
from the New York State Youth Leadership Council --a youth-led network
that represents high schools, colleges and community-based organizations
to improve equal opportunity in education for immigrants-- have a
different outcome in mind.
Sonia Guinansaca, 21, a
Hunter College student and active member of the organization, boarded a
5 a.m. bus to Washington D.C. on September 23, along with 15 fellow
activists to begin a new round of lobbying, two days after the bill was
defeated.
“People are saying that
the Dream Act has fallen, or (wait until) next year for (the) Dream Act.
No! We want the Dream Act now,” said Guinansaca, who came from Ecuador
when she was 5 and is also undocumented.
Her group made more
than 25,000 calls last week and it is now pushing for a stand-alone bill
to be introduced and voted on before the elections.
“It was amazing to see
the undocumented and supporters of undocumented youth mobilizing,” said
Guinansaca. “We are very energized and ready. This was not a step back,
but a step up.”
S.J. Jung, president of
MinKwon Center for Community Action --a New York-based Korean American
organization that works to educate community members about issues
affecting immigrant communities—said his group will push for the Dream
Act one more time before the “lame duck session,” the period between the
November elections and the arrival of newly elected officials in
December.
“If Republicans gain
more seats during the November elections, that would obviously create
more problems for our nation and it will be tougher for us to push
forward the Dream Act,” said Jung.
The pro-immigrant
organization, Reform Immigration for America, indicated through a press
release that last week, pro-Dream Act advocates carried out 70 events in
26 different states, made over 50,000 calls and sent 90,000 faxes to
senators.
“It is up to us, and
how strong of a public momentum we can generate,” said Jung.
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