Top Immigration Priority: Deporting College Graduates
Published February 24, 2009 @ 06:27PM PT
Benita Veliz has lived in this country for 16 years, contributed heavily to her community, graduated as a Valedictorian from high school and earned double degrees before the age of 20 and instead of a bright future, she awaits deportation from the only country she calls her home.
When most Americans hear the term “illegal immigrant”, they picture migrant workers, men at construction sites, maids or kitchen workers. Images of groups running across the border or walking through the desert may fill their minds.
There is however, a different type of "illegal immigrant"---one most people never think about. In every sense of the word, these people are American. They think like Americans, speak English perfectly and have gone to American schools all of their lives. The only home they have ever known is America. There is an entire generation of young adults living in America illegally who had no say in their illegal status. They were brought into the country at a very young age, unknowing of the fact that their stay in America would be considered illegal. One such young adult is Benita Veliz, of San Antonio, Texas. One week after her eighth birthday, Benita’s parents brought her to the United States for what was supposed to have been a one week vacation. Sixteen years later, she remains in the country illegally.
DREAM ACT on Facebook Edition
Published February 23, 2009 @ 10:23PM PT
Special thanks to the Immigration Clearinghouse for the hat-tip on Gheen's tour of Southern California and to AfterEllen for the inspiration.
The Season of Instate-Tuition Battles is Here
Published February 19, 2009 @ 07:02AM PT
"They're asking for documents that prove I'm going through a hardship. How do I explain to them that my hardship is the fact that I don't have documents?"
-Luis Ortega, undocumented University of Washington student, who bravely testified for a bill to aid undocumented students that is in the Washington legislature
Eleven states currently allow in-state tuition for undocumented students--California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, New Mexico, Utah, Minnesota, Washington, Oklahoma and Texas. Contrary to some misguided opinions, in-state tuition increases college enrollment, while not increasing the cost of college to taxpayers and in fact, pours more money into state coffers since students that could not otherwise afford to attend college are paying tuition and spending on higher education.
Alas, South Carolina is going backwards in time and banning qualified students from attending colleges while North Carolina and Alabama ban undocumented students from community colleges. The 'logic' behind the ban is that undocumented students take college spots away from citizen students and are a burden on taxpayers and yet, some schools are estimating a loss in revenue due to the ban:
George Swindoll, assistant vice president for enrollment at Horry-Georgetown in South Carolina, estimated the technical college has lost $50,000 in tuition revenue this semester because of the new law. Undocumented immigrants paid out of state tuition prior to the new law and cannot qualify for federal assistance.
And Alabama community colleges are slated to lose 150-300 out-of-state paying students this coming year due to their new ID requirement. Instead of getting close to $2000 per full-time undocumented student per semester, they would get nothing. So much for trying to save taxpayer dollars.
Pass the DREAM Act
Published February 03, 2009 @ 10:33AM PT
The DREAM Act was defeated on the Senate floor in 2007 after it failed to reach cloture by eight votes. Fast-forward 15 months and we have a President that has called the DREAM Act a top priority and thinks it is something that can be done immediately, a Congress that is more willing to take action on immigration reform, and undocumented youth and allies bustling with energy and enthusiasm.
What is the DREAM Act? The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, is a bipartisan legislation introduced as early as 2001 to grant certain undocumented youth a pathway to citizenship granted that they were brought here before the age of 16, have lived in the United States continuously for 5 years, have no criminal record, graduate from high school and attend college or join the military for two years. No one would gain immediate citizenship from the DREAM Act – it would take six years before anyone could petition to change their conditional residency to American citizenship. It is a modest and straight-forward bill that recognizes the injustice of punishing children for the alleged transgressions of their parents and yet, due to the bankrupt self-defeating agendas of anti-immigrant groups, the dreams of an estimated 1.6 to 2.5 million students who want to better this country remain on hold.
About Pass the DREAM Act
The federal DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), is a bipartisan legislation that would permit students brought to the country illegally as children conditional legal status and eventual citizenship.
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