http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/8498/1/307

DREAM Act renews hope for immigrant students
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Author: Pepe Lozano
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 02/02/06 16:03



By the end of this school year, an estimated 65,000 undocumented youth will graduate from our nation’s high schools. Children are brought to the U.S. by impoverished hard-working parents seeking a better life for their families in the world’s richest economy.

Immigrant children attend K-12 schools and grow up in the U.S. sharing in American cultural and traditional values. Like their U.S.-born peers, immigrant youth have the same aspirations in pursuing a higher education. But undocumented youth are typically barred from the opportunities that make a college education affordable and accessible: in-state tuition rates, state and federal grants and loans, private scholarships, and the ability to work legally to earn their way through college.

Last November, a bipartisan group of senators led by Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reintroduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, S 2075. If passed, the DREAM Act would facilitate access to postsecondary educational opportunities for immigrant students who currently face barriers in receiving a college education. It would enable hard-working immigrant youth who have grown up in the U.S. the chance to advance their legal status and fully contribute to the progress of their communities.

Cristina Lopez, deputy executive director of the Center for Community Change, calls passage of this bill “imperativeâ€