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News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education

July 28, 2006

Dream Deferred

For Kathy, graduation was “the most depressing day of my life.”

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When comprehensive immigration reform stalled in Congress, so did the hopes of some high flying recent high school and college grads who want to get to work.

A group of proud graduates, who grew up in the United States but are undocumented immigrants, met with members of Congress and reporters Thursday in Washington to express their support for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

The bipartisan DREAM Act would give permanent resident status to anyone who has completed an associate degree, or at least two years of a bachelor’s degree at a college in the united states. Opponents say the legislation would send a dangerous message to people in other countries who might come to America illegally. Advocates for undocumented immigrants hope that Congress will exercise its ability to pass the DREAM Act even if debate on other immigration reform is protracted. For some students, it’s an urgent affair.

Adeola, 25, who only gave her first name, graduated in December with an industrial engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Adeola’s parents came from Nigeria to the United States on student visas when she was a year old. Like many of the students who spoke to reporters, Adeola didn’t fully understand the implications of her parents’ decision to overstay their visas until it came to applying to college. Adeola was a finalist for a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation scholarship, but she could not show financial need, because her lack of a Social Security number kept her from applying for financial aid.

After a hurdle-filled Michigan experience, Adeola graduated and was turned away from jobs suiting her qualifications because of her undocumented status. Adeola finally took a job as a computer programmer with Wal-Mart and moved to Arkansas, only to be dismissed days later when her status came to light. After that, she aced the military entrance exam, but was ultimately barred from entering. “What else can I do?” she asked.

Jack Martin, special projects director at Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit that seeks to stop illegal immigration, said that students like Adeola can probably earn good salaries and make great contributions in their home countries.

Adeola, however, said she has no family in Nigeria, and wouldn’t even know what to do when she got there, if she were to return to work. “I don’t even remember what Nigeria looks like,” she said. Three of Adeola’s four siblings were born in the United States, and thus are citizens. One of her sisters graduated from Duke University, and will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school, and two others are at Boston College and Stanford University, respectively.

Martin said that undocumented immigrants who do not have any family in their home country are probably few and far between. He added that granting permanent resident status in exchange for having received higher education “sends the message abroad that the United States doesn’t really care whether people enter the U.S. illegally, and therefore encourages illegal immigration.”

Josh Bernstein, senior policy analyst with the National Immigration Law Center, said that students like Adeola, who have valuable skills they are being prevented from using in America, abound. “If America could see this,” Bernstein said, referring to the students gathered with reporters, “and understand this is what we’re talking about with the DREAM Act, America would be more supportive.” Bernstein said that 65,000 students who would qualify for the DREAM Act will graduate high school this year.

Mario Rodas, 19, a high school honors student now taking courses at Harvard University’s Extension School, was picked up by law enforcement officials in a raid when they were looking for “someone with a criminal record,” Rodas said. Rodas, an aspiring computer science student, has a court date in December where he is facing deportation to Guatemala. “I don’t know anyone in Guatemala,” Rodas said.

Kathy, a recent social work graduate of Nyack College, in New York, said that she will soon be relegated to working as a nanny. “Graduation was the most depressing day of my life,” she said.

The story of Dan-El Padilla Peralta, one of the students present Thursday, has caught media attention before. Peralta recently graduated as the salutatorian of his Princeton University class, and received a scholarship to study classics at Oxford University, in Britain. Peralta’s parents came from the Dominican Republic when he was four, and, if he accepts the Oxford offer, which he plans to, he’ll face an uncertain future, and could be barred from returning to the U.S. for 10 years. Like the other students, Peralta has consulted with lawyers, and said he has reason to believe he’ll at least get waivers so that he can come back and visit his family periodically.

Adeola said that, for the most part, people have been really encouraging, but that one lawyer told her simply that “your mother broke the law,” she recalled. “I didn’t break the law,” Adeola said, expressing her frustration. “It was a decision made by somebody else.”

— David Epstein

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Comments

wake up and have some sympathy

I am 24 years old, I have been living here for 19 years. I came to California when I was 5 years old. I am petitioned, but the thing is I have to wait for 10 plus years to be granted of priority status of my green card.

People in general do not really know the facts, they speak their mind, but do not know any facts. Thinking that this problem will make it worst and that we undocumented citizens need to go back to our country, when in fact why should we? For what reason, we work hard in school and we get this from American people.

I am on the verge of graduating college and receiving my degree in Visual Arts and certificates in web design, imaging, photography, videography, and mulimedia.

See when I finish school this all means nothing, my hard work goes straight down the drain. My dream of transferring to continuing school, is just a dream.

Imagine being 16 finding a job and being turned down from every store. As I kid growing up here I learned to be independent but with barriers holding me back I had to rely on family members (i.e parents who are green card holders etc.)

People say why live here, when you could go back to your country where you belong? I take offense of that because for one they do not know of FACTS. Please have some kind of sympathy and understand where we are coming from

Like I said I came here when I was 5 years old. Everyday I dream about working a 9-5 job and some people do not know how lucky they are. Getting their own paycheck, paying their own bills, driving where ever they want, having their own house, and having a family.

Everyday this is what I want, people get sick of it, but to me you guys are lucky. You know what you guys have and what we do not have.....a life.

marden, at 4:55 pm EDT on August 2, 2007

Minors?

This “DREAM Act” states that it is designed to protect minors, yet the article states that the complainant is 25. People graduating college are not minors. Honesty is a better policy if they really want to push legislation like this through. The public really is not confused about whether a college graduate who is a quarter-century old is a minor.

JBM, at 7:30 am EDT on July 28, 2006

Yes, Minors

Actually the DREAM Act applies to students who came to this country as minors, and are therefore not responsible for their immigrant status (according to the Supreme Court in 1982). The point is that current immigration law provides no legal path to citizenship for these students — they are in limbo — and so once they graduate they cannot become productive members of society. The DREAM Act provides a simple legislative remedy.

Every year Congress delays action on this legislation (it has been around since 2001), more students age out of the process, which is why you have college graduates unable to get a job.

RHL, at 8:30 am EDT on July 28, 2006

Here’s the language

This is the language to which I was referring:

“The bipartisan DREAM Act would give permanent resident status to anyone who has completed an associate degree, or at least two years of a bachelor’s degree at a college in the united states.

These are not minors in question here.

JBM, at 9:00 am EDT on July 28, 2006

JBM...you are quoting an article instead of the primary source. The immigrant student would have had to have entered the United States prior to age 16 as one of the requirements to qualify for legal permanent resident status under the DREAM Act. See S. 2075 (DREAM Act) Section 4(a)(1)(A).

JSM, at 9:45 am EDT on July 28, 2006

Yes, ONE of the elements

The others are perfectly clear and have nothing to do with minority status. It’s a retroactive way of legalizing people who simply are no longer minors.

JBM, at 10:35 am EDT on July 28, 2006

Hypocritical Oath

It never ceases to amaze me how virulently American academics attack American corporations that break the law but who openly advocate violating our laws to line their pockets with illegal immigrant dollars. It is time to introduce a Sarbanes-Oxley for universities.

GoFigure, at 12:30 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Nightmare for Natives

Because many of the illegals come from 3rd World countries, they can recieve affirmative-action preferences over native Americans. Does the Gates Foundation even give awards to whites? If illegals are granted citizen or near-citizen status, they will be awarded preferences over many born citizens. It would be a great injustice, and another nightmare for America.—————Hugh Murray

Hugh Murray, Independent Scholar, at 12:30 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

JBM, As an academic I am sure that you can appreciate the importance of reading sources before commenting on them. Although I approve of providing distorted summaries of legal opinions or statutes to lay people, academics are better than this, and should prove to lawyers that they deserve better. Also, speaking of legislation without reading it hurts national security. Anyway, IHE provided a direct link to the proposed statute. In particular, the non-removal portions apply to people who were under sixteen when they entered the country. See Sec. 4(a)(1)(A). Someone falling within such a category is eligible for the other sections benefits.

See, one of the problems we have always had in this country with people minors is that prosecuting a person who came to the country as a minor (or as a baby) but who has done nothing else, essentially means that he is prosecuted for a crime with absolutely no mental state, since he could not help being brought into the country.

Larry, at 12:45 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Where did GF get this from ?

GoFigure, I see no indication that anyone is advocating violating the law for the financial gain of the university. Perhaps you could provide specifics as to who took such a position, and what statutes they were violating. If you can’t, I suggest that you retract your previous statement, because it would be untrue.

Larry, at 2:05 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Everyone wants free ice cream?

Good ol’ Lar has stated the self-evident: the children involved had no say in what happened.

In a perfect world, we would help them. Unfortunately, last time I checked, we don’t live in a perfect world.

Absent the present case, consider the higher education demands of this native-borm U.S. resident —

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-...icle/2006/07/24/AR2006072400806.html

This is the challenge: maximizing limited resources, in the face of unlimited demands.

For instance, Harvard Law gets 20 applicants per opening. There is little, if any, difference between the top five applicants (e.g., grades, LSAT, recommendations, etc.) The accepted one is going to happy, four others are going to be unhappy.

Newsflash: life has to go on. Anyway, Grover Furr, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, et al., say the U.S. is no-good country. Try Canada or the U.K.

A.D., at 2:25 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Larry

Read the provision and read my posts. The section you cite clearly covers people who are no longer minors. This is what I stated above. Again, it is a retroactive way of legalizing people are are simply no longer minors.

JBM, at 2:25 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

The more smart, motivated, hard-working students who have lived here for much, if not all of their lives participate in our society, the more they enrich us all. In school, in the workplace, in the community, they have much to offer, and if we chose to disregard what they bring us, we do not only them, but also ourselves a grave injustice. A law that acknowledges their contributions and eases their predicament, a predicament not of their own choosing, should be supported by everyone in higher education.

Betsy Smith, Adjunct Professor of ESL, at 3:30 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Is JBM against the DREAM Act? Or for it? By saying the proposed legislation would be a retroactive way of legalizing people who are simply no longer minors — I guess that would be correct. But I think that JSM’s and Larry’s comments indicate that, in certain instances, legalizing present-day adults would not be such a bad thing.

95Crash, at 4:10 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

Native American?

The last I noticed, there was only one “Native American", the ones whom put out thier arms and their well being to assist the immigrants that later stole their entire country from them.

Everyone else is of Western European descent, myself included.

But no provisions are made for them that are easily obtained, outlined, or mandated.

But then again, maybe we’re afraid someone else my steal our stolen property from us?

Common Sense, at 6:40 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

native American and Native American are not the same thing

Common Sense.

Since this is a law that sadly will be bouncing around the halls of congress forever allow me to go off on a tangent.

Native American is of course what our parents would call an Indian. An “NA” could be born in Germany and have never seen America.

native American is someone who was born in America. As is someone who is ‘native born’. They could be “Native American” or any other race.

I believe that the rights of someone who is ‘native born’ over someone who moves into their homeland is a subjet worthy of debate and should not be brushed off. An example I am personally active in is that of native born Tibetians versus those of immigrant Han. Others could be the right of the natives of a small town that becomes a ‘hot’ vacation spot all of a sudden and who are suddenly priced out of their homes by New Yorkers or Parisiens or whomever.

Does being ‘born to the land’ entitle someone to special treatment? Should children of farmers get tax breaks to maintain their farms or should vacationing city folk be able to outbid the local islands in buying outer bank homes?

I don’t know the right solution in choosing sides for individual issues in these many debates but I do believe there is some type of let’s say ’special consideration’ that comes as a birth right to all people and that to smuggly dismiss any such argument as racist trivializes what should be a real debate.

stm60, UConn, at 9:50 pm EDT on July 28, 2006

One of my best students is in this situation. She was brought here legally by her pregnant mother, who then overstayed her visa, permanently, to avoid returning to an alcoholic, abusive husband. Her brother is a citizen, her mother now a permanent resident, and she is undocumented—"undocumented” is better than “illegal” since as minors they are too young to be considered responsible for being here and thus did not do anything illegal. She’s interested in getting a PhD—and is surely good enough—but it’s been difficult finding a university that doesn’t rely heavily on federal financial aid to support their graduate students. As the article mentions, finding a job suitable to her skills is extremely difficult. Like the cases mentioned in the article, these are people we should be seeking to make permanent residents and changing the law need not imply that the US doesn’t care about illegal immigration.

DV, Northeastern Illinois University, at 6:20 am EDT on July 29, 2006

Wake up and smell the coffee, Larry

Larry, every K-12 outfit that draws state funds for attendance of illegal immigrants is cashing in at the taxpaying citizen’s expense. Every higher ed outfit that “internationalizes” student grants and loans is doing the same thing. This is your business — and it is no cleaner than the local sweatshop that hires illegals for its labor force. Stop pretending you are not in a government-subsidized business, not better or worse than any corporations that gets its swill at the same trough.

GoFigure, at 6:20 am EDT on July 29, 2006

Larry,I think in the sentence referenced, illegal modified immigrant, not dollars.

Kelvin, at 11:05 am EDT on July 30, 2006

GoFigure, I am really trying to understand you here. What “government-subsidized” business do you think I work for? What businesses are not “government-subsidized.” (I can’t think of a single industry that doesn’t derived at least some of its revenue from government actors.)

Kevin, As I said, I don’t quite know where he is going, but he seems to now take the position that any benefit from illegal immigration, no matter how attenuated by innocent activities, is a benefit. I guess by this token, we need to stop hiring people who ate breakfast at restaurants that employed illegal.

Larry, at 11:46 am EDT on August 1, 2006

Let’s see, if not a U.S. citizen and wants to attend an institution of higher learning then this no different than someone living in a foreign country and wanting to attend an institution of higher learning in U.S. and they are going to legally do that through what? A STUDENT VISA. This allows them to go through the higher education they wnat legally. Then they could apply for permanent resident status especially if they have a job waiting for them upon graduation. That is what these students are they are just on U.S. soil but still foreign students.

CP, student, at 6:30 am EDT on September 2, 2006

You know if the borders were secured and immigration policies/laws were enforced, the American people would likely have absolutely no problems saying yes to this DREAM Act or Amnesty for that matter but you can’t seem to get that through to the bone heads in Washington.

Politicians are not hearing the voice of the nation which is loud and crystal clear. They will not sign on to the abdication and or nullifying of what little credibility the United States’ immigration policy has left. Getting behind this or amnesty with the borders still uncontrolled and immigration laws/policies not being enforced would only encourage more illegal immigration and situations such as these.

If Washington wants the American peoples’ support on this then they need to tell their corporate masters to go jump in a lake and they need to do their jobs and get control of the borders and ports and restore credibility back to a preferably more level immigration policy that does not have elitist provisions in it.

The other option is to grant this to these 65,000 but if anyone else even thinks that they are going to exploit this or abuse this to get a quick citizenship pass for themselves through their children with this “oh but my children went to school here K-12″ trick over others waiting in line; they need to be made aware that they are sadly mistaken. The likely hood that this would be seen to by the folks in Washington however, is laughable but the American people would give the thumbs up for the DREAM Act under this condition and the guarantee that it would be enforced.

CP, student, at 6:30 am EDT on September 2, 2006

WOW people sometimes can be so heartless

I’m trying to understand some people’s reasoning? I mean people speak so harshly without thinking how that affects people!

Whats sad is the US gives out 50,000 Diversity Visa Lottery every year to people all over the world ( a lot of them)lie about thier age, thier education just so they can come here, and end up getting all the benefits of a US citizen and actually become one after 3 -5 years!! Most of these people don’t know anything about the US they have no vested interest except making money and bringing more of thier family over here. (thats pefectly fine with people cause they consider that the “right” way!)

BUt those who were brought here by thier parents who weren’t smart enough to find a “right” way to get thier kids green cards, and those poor kids have friends and relatives in the US and love this country... THey should be sent home because they might take a grant away from a US citizen? Who are the US citizens? a lot of immigrants get to come because they were smart enough to work the system, wethere through marriage, or relatives who knew how to bring them in the “right” way, And they desereve everything but the kids who grow up here should be sent away?? W

The “dream act” to me is A NO brainer!! It says those who came here before they were 16 and have lived here for 5 years or more, and are educated, or serve in the army, and have good moral standing... They get to be permanent residents and even then they still have to prove themselves for another 6 years, and then they can start the citizen ship process which right now takes 3 years!!!

We all want to help the world, but give no thought to those who grew up with us, and are good kids (the bad ones are not even included on this bill) and they are suffering everyday just to have a normal life, in a country they consider their home, and in a lot of cases the only home they have ever known!!

Its a sad day in America!

J, at 11:00 pm EST on January 22, 2007

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