More than 60 student protestors occupied the plaza outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office in downtown San Francisco on May 20 to show their support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which is in danger of lying dormant for yet another year as comprehensive immigration reform takes a backseat to mid-term election politics.
“Students have been marching (…) to tell our legislators that we want the DREAM act,” said Michelle Romero, a student from UC Santa Cruz wearing a neon yellow shirt spray painted with the words “DREAM Act Now” across the chest. “They tell us that we have to wait, but what are we waiting for? Every day students are getting deported, students that have done nothing wrong. We need her [Feinstein] to stand up for the DREAM act as a stand alone bill, as this is the first step to reforming our broken immigration system.”
The protest was prompted in part as a response to the arrest of four students, three of which were undocumented immigrants, in the offices of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., after they staged a sit-in in support of the DREAM Act on May 17. Thwe three were taken into immigration custody, prompting protests and shows of solidarity across the country, including a hunger strike in Michigan.
Romero handed the megaphone off to another student. Student after student took to the megaphone to tell their stories of being brought to the U.S. as a child, in some cases as a baby, and then of struggling to afford higher education after graduating from public high school. One student spoke of being told by his high school guidance counselor that he shouldn’t even bother applying to college.
Three police officers loitered off to the side exchanging pleasantries with expressions of boredom on their faces. Little did they know that an hour later they would be forced to call in for back up when seven of those students would enter the building’s first floor lobby and stage a sit-in, linking arms and refusing to leave the building until Feinstein responded to the crowd gathered outside her office and addressed the procession. Those seven students were arrested and removed from the building, chanting in unison with a crowd of their peers: “The students united shall never be divided!”
Sen. Feinstein did not address the crowd.
The DREAM Act was reintroduced in both the House and the Senate on March 26, 2009, with Feinstein as one of its principal co-sponsors, and continues to gain bipartisan support, including the support of President Obama who believes the DREAM Act to be an important and immediate step that U.S. can take towards reforming our immigration policy.
Critics of the pending legislation have argued that the DREAM Act would “reward” illegal immigration. But it is important to note that this law would only apply to students who have been in the United States since childhood, have graduated from a U.S. high school, and most importantly, have stayed out of trouble with the law.
Under the DREAM Act, an eligible student could apply for six-year conditional immigration status. This in turn would make him or her eligible to receive federal financial aid. Additionally, the legislation would prevent states from denying undocumented students in-state tuition.
During those six years, students must have completed two years of higher education or military service, in addition staying out of trouble with the law.
Reports by Cristina Jiménez, an immigration policy consultant at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, argue that by enabling the approximate 65,000 unauthorized immigrant students that graduate from high schools in the U.S. every year to enroll in college or serve in the U.S. military, the DREAM Act would keep undocumented immigrants out of the underground economy, lessen their reliance on public services, and help facilitate the economic integration of immigrant families.
All of this, Jiménez contends, would allow unauthorized immigrant students to contribute more to the U.S. economy, as statistics show that immigrants with college degrees pay more in taxes than those without any higher education.
Associate Professor of Law at West Point Military Academy, Margaret Stock, agrees with the assessment and has urged the Department of Defense to support the DREAM Act as it would allow the military to “tap in to an overlooked pool of homegrown talent.”
After the arrest of the seven students, Carolina Hernandez, a sociology student at UC Santa Cruz, spoke about how many undocumented students who are accepted to college go hungry and sacrifice basic necessities in the effort to put all their resources towards tuition.
Many times even that is not enough, according to Hernandez, and they are forced to drop out of college all together. She said that even those undocumented students that manage to afford a higher education are pigeonholed into certain career paths because they cannot pursue medical or law degrees without a social security number—never mind the inability of graduates of any kind to obtain jobs without documentation.
“I make it a point to live my life as legally as possible. I didn’t have a choice to come here. But I’m here now,” said a student protestor who called himself Xochiltquetzal.
When the rally ended Xochiltquetzal walked up to an idle police officer and shook his hand. “Thank you for your services,” he told the officer. The officer apologized for having to arrest the seven students, saying that the building’s security personal were getting flustered and that he just didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
The officer told Xochiltquetzal that he appreciated that the students had been peaceful and respectful. Despite fears that the students participating in the sit-in could have been subject to legal consequences including deportation, Feinstein elected not to press charges and the students were released 45 minutes later. In the words of the student protestors themselves: “Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”
The DREAM Act was first introduced in 2007 by Senator Richard Durbin (R-Ill). The Senator debated a bill of the measure in October 2007. The bill, which required 60 votes to bring the debate to an end, failed on a 52-44 vote, 8 votes short of overcoming a filibuster by opponents. (A similar bill was introduced in 2001; however, it was not known as the DREAM Act.)
I am astounded to see thousands of youth leaders taking up the challenge to better America, while the so called leaders ignore them. The DREAM Act is the first step to fixing our immigration system. Its is irrational to deny the talented youth of America their right to dream. They are smartest, dedicated and determined individuals in the nation.
They face persecution, not of religion, but of their parents decision to give their child an oppurtunity at a better life that there birth country couldn’t. Who are we to deny them.