Thread: Illegal immigrants seek access to aid

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_4422815

Article Last Updated: 09/30/2006 02:36:30 AM PDT

Illegal immigrants seek access to aid
Bill would allow some noncitizens to apply for financial help for college
By Angela Woodall, STAFF WRITER


FREMONT — Sandra Ponca was the captain of her Kennedy High School soccer team. She earned near-perfect grades. She planned to study interior design. Then she graduated.
That was when the reality of being an illegal immigrant collided with her dreams.

Like the rest of the estimated 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools annually, Ponca is ineligible for college financial aid.

Coupled with the fear of being exposed, the 18-year-old Ponca decided to attend Ohlone College instead of a four-year university where she could earn a bachelor's degree.

"It was too risky," she said.

Without help, many students such as Ponca are barely making it to college, say backers of a bill that would allow illegal immigrants who graduate from high school to apply for state financial aid at public colleges and universities. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until midnight today to sign the bill, dubbed The Dream Act.

"This is big. This is our education," said Ponca, whose parents immigrated to California from Mexico when she was 4 years old.

"We won't be able to do anything else with our lives — except work at McDonald's," Ponca said. "We want a better future."

Many parents who are illegal immigrants can't or won't help pay for college, said Tracy Virgil, a teacher with Ohlone's Puente Project, a program that targets minority students.

Several of her students, largely Latino and illegal immigrants, dropped out last semester because they couldn't afford college without working — but their low-wage jobs took too much time from school.

Although Ohlone charges $26 per unit, the cost adds up quickly — about $1,000 for each full-time semester for fees and books.

"They wanted to stay but they couldn't," Virgil said. A couple of students are barely hanging on this semester, she added.

It creates a cycle of failure, Ponca said. "It doesn't matter how hard you work in high school — you still can't go to college."

Half of all Latino students — most of that pool foreign-born — don't make it through high schools in the United States, said Melissa Lazarin, a senior policy analyst with the National Council of La Raza, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

"College is an impossible reality for them," Lazarin added.

The bill has its critics, such as the Fremont-based East Bay Coalition for Border Security. The Dream Act would be an incentive to immigrants to enter the country illegally and remain here, spokesman Charles Birkman said. Providing new privileges and benefits "just adds to the problem we have," he said.

Not all the students who would be affected are illegal immigrants. More than half are U.S. citizens who have temporarily left the state and would be required to pay out-of-state tuition.

In addition to allowing them to compete for financial aid, students of state community colleges would be eligible for a fee waiver.

Legislative analysts say the bill could cost California's public college and university systems an estimated $7.3 million.

The Dream Act makes no provisions for federal aid and doesn't provide a path to citizenship.

It does require students to sign a sworn statement that they will apply for citizenship. The process typically takes at least five years.

The question is, "Do we allow them to remain in an underground work force or educate them?" said Eric Guerra, an aide to state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, the bill's co-author along with Alberto Torrico,

D-Newark.

Ponca said she understands the argument against the bill. "But I didn't make the decision to come here. It's not my fault, and I'm trying to do the best that I can," she said.

Ponca said she is pessimistic about the prospects of the bill's passage. "It's going to be the same thing, and there is nothing we can do about it," she said. "I feel helpless sometimes."


Staff writer Angela Woodall covers Newark and Ohlone College. She can be reached at (510) 353-7004 or at awoodall@angnewspapers.com.

Ponca said she understands the argument against the bill. "But I didn't make the decision to come here. It's not my fault, and I'm trying to do the best that I can," she said.

Well, she is old enough to make the decision to leave. She like millions are victims of their parents actions. But we as taxpayers should not have to shoulder what is the responsibilty of decisions made by her illegal parents.

because they couldn't afford college without working

Oh my God...I freakin worked all they way through ...with minimal or no help!!!
I think American Children Deserve this kind of help... Not whining Immigrants...Go Home and
fix it your Country....then go to school ...

Geezz... La RaZA...needs to go to Mexico and beat their whining drums...I bet they won't be there very long...before they come running for there LIVES...Mexico won't put up with their crap for a minute!

We won't be able to do anything else with our lives — except work at McDonald's," Ponca said. "We want a better future."

Many parents who are illegal immigrants can't or won't help pay for college, said Tracy Virgil, a teacher with Ohlone's Puente Project, a program that targets minority students.

Several of her students, largely Latino and illegal immigrants, dropped out last semester because they couldn't afford college without working — but their low-wage jobs took too much time from school.

Although Ohlone charges $26 per unit, the cost adds up quickly — about $1,000 for each full-time semester for fees and books.

"They wanted to stay but they couldn't," Virgil said. A couple of students are barely hanging on this semester, she added.

It creates a cycle of failure, Ponca said. "It doesn't matter how hard you work in high school — you still can't go to college."

No one said anyone was ENTITLED to go to college without working. Or even ENTITLED to, period. Even American citizens have to work their way through or take out loans that they have to pay back or just have to make do in life without a college degree.
The FREEBIE ride is over......put your big girl panties on and deal with it.

No...it doesn't matter how good you do in highschool. Never did ,for the exception of a few. And then....there's no guarentee when you have a college degree that you won't be working at McDonalds either.

She'll peobably just get pregnant, drop her anchor, and draw welfare in order to keep staying here.

It's this entitlement attitude that you just HAVE to give it to all of us for free. I'm old enough to remember and know that there were many of my own relatives that never made it past grade school. Some couldn't read. This is after a few generations of being here! And some of these people are still alive now. Many men never got an education because they were needed on the farm or had to help support the family. Women were barely getting a break in college. It hasn't been that long ago. We have gone so far, so fast, that it's hard to beleive my fathers first car was a model T ford. It amazes me that so much of my life is History now and these kids today don't fully understand that it hasn't been like this for that long. I'm 51 and I remember girls not being allowed to take shop. Not being allowed to play sports, except in PE. It hasn't been that long since Blacks weren't allowed in college or had special drinking fountains. NOT ALLOWED to is my point. Forbidden to. We had to fight long and hard for just the chance to. Once you got the chance to it was just the oppertunity to do it. Not the guarentee of achieving it. And you still had to WORK for it. These guys want it all handed to them and they aren't even citizens. These kids CAN go to college. No one is saying you aren't allowed to go. Instead of being thankful for the oppertunity to go.....they want a free ride to the best schools coz they got good grades and their parents just crossed the border a few years ago. Until fairly recently only the rich ever got to go to college. Until this generation it seems, college wasn't a guarenteed free ride either. My parents never felt obligated to make sure I went to college. If I wanted to go I had to do it. If I didn't qualify for any aid or loans .....oh well then.....you have to work and pay for it. Kind of the first step as to how bad do you really want it. Scholarships were earned for some, but not every person that deserved it got it.

CALIFORNIA ICE ALERT!

Ohlone College just might be a haven for illegal aliens. Check it out!

Ms. Ponce should take her soccer talents and near-perfect grades back to Mexico. She sounds like a perfect candidate for an athletic scholarship on the other side of the border.

I'll be looking to see how the Terminator handles the Nightmare Act. What a scam.

Everyone I know worked their way through college and took out loans to cover what they couldn't pay for.