DREAM Act in the New York Times

To accompany the final article in a Times series on immigration, Room for Debate examines the situation of young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children with their parents and were raised and educated here. The article on the topic will appear over the weekend.

A series that examines the impact of immigration on American institutions.

Legislation (called the Dream Act) sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, would give some of these young immigrants a chance to become permanent residents. It would extend to those who have stayed out of trouble, graduated from high school and either finished two years of college or two years of military service, and there would be a six-year conditional status period.

We’ve asked three immigration specialists what to do about this particular immigrant population, which is estimated at one million people. The discussion also includes the perspective of two young immigrants, Prerna and Nick, who were brought to the United States by their parents and who have been here a decade or more. They asked that their last names not be used because they do not have legal papers.

Please join the discussion in the comments section here.

• Tamar Jacoby, ImmigrationWorks USA
• Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies
• Nick, Dream Act Portal
• Prerna, promigrant.org
• Hiroshi Motomura, U.C.L.A. law professor

Let's pass the DREAM Act in 2009. Take action now!

Senate Poised to Act Quickly on Key Issues

According to Paul Kane from the Washington Post, the DREAM Act seems to have a very good chance of passing next year.

Civil rights: After the failure of sweeping immigration overhaul, Democrats scaled back their effort to focus on the DREAM Act. The legislation would have halted deportation efforts of children who are here illegally, giving them citizenship opportunities if they entered the country before age 16 and have lived here for five years.

That bill was blocked after receiving 52 votes, but four supporters were not present. For the 111th Congress, seven Democrats will replace Republicans who voted against the bill. Barring a push for broader immigration restructuring by Obama, Senate aides said this smaller measure should have enough support to pass.
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Let this provide us with enough motivation to keep fighting to make our DREAMs a reality. Yes, we can. Yes, we will!

Peter Thiel: Billionaire Facebook's Investor's Anti-Immigrant Heresy

Insiders at Clarium Capital, the $5.3 billion hedge fund run by Facebook investor Peter Thiel, are buzzing about their boss's $1 million donation to NumbersUSA, an anti-immigrant group. The donation is an open secret within Clarium, and it has enraged several staff members who joined Clarium because they believed Thiel shared their libertarian ideals. When I asked Thiel if he'd made the donation, an underling passed on a nondenial saying the company didn't comment on "gossip and heresy." A typo — he meant to say "hearsay" — but a suggestive one. Thiel has fallen under the sway of Robertson "Rob" Morrow III, a Christian right-wing thinker who has personally donated to NumbersUSA, and persuaded Thiel to make his own, much larger donation. Source

A Facebook group has been created calling for Thiel's removal from Facebook's Board of Directors. Join the group and invite as many people as possible. Everyone should be aware of the type of people that are in charge of running this social network and hold them accountable for their actions.

Migrant Students Still Pursue American Dream

TEMPE — Diego Medina found himself studying for one of the toughest semesters in nursing school yet.

“I knew it would be hard, but never thought the stress would be like a shot of adrenaline,” Medina says.

Medina, a nursing junior at ASU, was raised in Phoenix since the age of 8, when his parents brought him with them from Mexico. He went through the Arizona K-12 educational system and graduated high school with a 3.5 grade point average.

Medina was admitted into Arizona State University before he graduated from high school and was awarded a full ride scholarship to ASU along with a $500 scholarship from the Phoenix Union High School District.

But after November 2006, undocumented students like Medina were denied financial aid. That’s when voters passed Proposition 300, which restricts access to all public monies for undocumented aliens to continue their college education.

At Arizona State University alone, more than 200 students who were unable to show documentation proving legal residency in Arizona dropped out without the assistance of financial aid.

Prior to the passage of Prop. 300, undocumented students in the state of Arizona did not have access to federal financial aid. Prop. 300 further restricted accesses to state monies, such as merit-based scholarships and discounted in-state tuition.

Medina’s immigration status had never been thought of as more than an inconvenience on his daily life.

“Your immigration status wasn’t something that just came up during lunch hour,” he jokes.

Students like Medina were left without funds substantial enough to cover the $12,000 tuition difference between in-state to out-of-state status.

“I thought to myself, ‘my salary is nowhere close to enough to pay for tuition as a full-time student,’ so I just decided I would have no choice but to take once class per semester,” Medina says.

His dreams of becoming a dentist and making his parents proud soon became blurred in the light of the controversial referendum.

“I didn’t think the law would actually pass,” Medina says. “I thought this was only going to be a scare to the state for more rigid regulations in the system, but I never really thought it would go through until it did.”

In 2007, after the law was enacted activists who opposed the law created a program to help those students now illegible for scholarships they previously held. The new scholarship for undocumented students was called the Sunburst Scholarship.

Continue reading this article


Diego Medina is a perfect example of the kind of people we want and need in this country; hardworking, studious, perseverant. Just like Diego, there are thousands of students in the same situation. And even though we're going through this, we are truly some of the smartest and most dedicated students out there. We just want a chance to study and contribute to the only country they call home, The United States.

Chancellor's Message to the President-Elect

Dear Mr. President:

As America awakens this morning, you will already be taking on the heavy mantle of leadership. You will be looked upon to solve, among other things, the problems of our faltering economy, failing health care, increased global warming and an uncertain energy future, and the war in Iraq. In the midst of all this, I want to remind you of a precious resource that is ready to help and one that is outstandingly good America's higher education system.

Higher education in the United States, both private and public, is the envy of the world. We lead the world in education, research and innovation. We have a National Academy of Sciences formally charged with advising government. The National Academy of Sciences pointed out in a report that we must bolster science and engineering if we are to retain America's global leadership in innovation. The Department of Energy supports almost 50 percent of all federally funded research in the physical sciences and the National Institutes of Health is paramount for support of research in our health and life sciences. These investments are critically important for the nation not only to provide support to faculty to carry out basic and applied research but to attract and train graduate students who will be the next generation of discoverers and innovators. We must also broaden support for humanities and social sciences as part of a strong research ecosystem. Today's great global challenges cross many disciplines and require solutions that bring perspectives that are social and humanistic as well as scientific.

There is much incontrovertible evidence of the benefits of higher education both to individuals and to society. According to the US Census Bureau, the national median annual income of college graduates without advanced degrees is $51,700, while those with only a high school education earn just over $30,000 and those without a high school diploma earn less than $20,000 a year. Those with only a high school education are twice as likely to be unemployed and three times as likely to require public assistance as college graduates. Better-educated people are more likely to vote and to participate in the civic life of their communities. Education helps with the development of the critical thinking skills that are necessary to succeed in a global society. To give every qualified student the opportunity for a college education, we must look at significantly increasing financial aid for those with need. This must be done through increasing grants, not loans. Students who are already financially disadvantaged as they enter college should not also graduate disadvantaged with high debts. Programs that offer loan forgiveness to encourage college graduates to go into public service positions, which are often low-paying, should be aggressively implemented.

There is one group of students in particular who need your immediate attention-undocumented students. Our failure to give these students a path to success and to citizenship is a terrible waste of young talent-talent that this country desperately needs. Each year across the nation, 50,000 to 60,000 undocumented students graduate from high school after having spent at least five years in this country. The Dream Act, which provided access to financial aid and a thoughtfully mapped-out path to citizenship, became entangled in the failed immigration bill. It is time to revive and pass the act on its own merits.

Finally, you should know that universities genuinely want to provide the best education possible to our students. We value our autonomy and understand that with that privilege comes responsibility to those who support us. We have always been and will continue to be fully accountable. Proposals to tax our endowments and to impose upon us highly bureaucratic measures of accountability will take us in the wrong direction. We should preserve the policies that have made it possible for our higher education system to be the envy of the world. In that way, we can pledge our help to you, Mr. President, to bring the power of our unparalleled system of research and education to work in support of a better America and a better world.

Robert Birgeneau is the chancellor of UC Berkeley

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Local students help others reach education dreams

Cesar Juarez rides the bus to school like so many college students — head against the glass, earphones streaming down his olive jacket, eyes straight ahead.

The 22-year-old was a full-time student until this semester, when he and his family discovered they were facing possible foreclosure on their San Jose home. That reality has left him a part-time student this semester, but the situation doesn't dampen his spirits.

Juarez keeps a positive outlook because he focuses every day on being a student and helping others realize their educational dreams.

"Education and studying is essential," he says, "but you have to practice what you preach."

Juarez is working toward a degree in social science, hoping he might work as a teacher when he's finished.

During the day, Juarez attends his 100W writing class and takes in his history courses. Outside of class, Juarez keeps his iPhone glued to his side, organizing rallies, helping raise scholarship money for others and coordinating outreach to high school students as the community liaison for the Student Advocates for Higher Education at San Jose State University. He is also one of two representatives for the Northern California region of the California DREAM Network, a statewide network of 12 college campus organizations that address the issues of students like himself, who are in the United States illegally.

To read the whole article, click here