Thread: (ILLEGAL) MIGRANT STUDENTS TO LOBBY FOR RIGHTS

The Miami Herald, Posted on Sun, Aug. 07, 2005

MIGRANT STUDENTS TO LOBBY FOR RIGHTS: Students in Miami-Dade are starting a group to help push for legislation that would make college more financially feasible.

BY DAVID OVALLE - dovalle@herald.com

A tall and elegant Brazilian who has lived in Miami so long her Portuguese is admittedly rusty, she fiercely wants one day to study child psychology.

Except she is undocumented.

So under federal law, she must pay the higher tuition at Miami Dade College designated for out-of-state students. A full semester can cost more than $3,000.

Her parents both work at a supermarket to support her, her brother and her sister. Sometimes, they tell her to quit school and get a job.

"It's discouraging," she said.

But she and scores of other college and high school students, some undocumented, have decided to take proactive steps: They are forming an activist group to advocate immigration issues.

Details are raw -- it is tentatively called the Immigrant Student Union -- but they plan to lobby in Tallahassee for legislation that would provide them in-state tuition.

They want to advocate for national immigration rights and serve as a support network for undocumented students who may not be considering higher education.

It will include students from high schools as well as MDC and Florida International University. It is believed to be the only such group in South Florida.

"These kids are as American as apple pie," said Maria Rodriguez, director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, which is helping spearhead the group. ``These are bright kids. They have dreams. They want to contribute and they should get a chance to fulfill those dreams.''

The students' efforts to organize are unusual for a population whose lives exist in the shadows. But their daily struggles weave a common thread among the estimated 3,000 undocumented students who graduate from Florida high schools every year.

By federal law, public secondary schools must admit every student and cannot ask for proof of U.S. residency.

Simple teen milestones -- a driver's license, a summer job -- remain elusive. They avoid police officers, or for that matter, anyone uniformed. They are guarded about who they tell about their immigration status.

And those who seek higher education face higher tuition bills.

"I'd trade places with any of my friends," said one 19-year-old girl from Haiti. ``These people just don't know the opportunities they have.''

For immigration advocates, the plight of undocumented students has surfaced recently in a very unsettling way.

Late last month, immigration circles fixated on Arizona, where four undocumented former honors students in Phoenix faced a final deportation hearing three years after being detained on a high school trip to Niagara Falls.

A federal judge unexpectedly ruled that the four Mexican-born students could stay in the United States, saying immigration agents had violated the teens' rights.

The MDC students hold no such illusions of being allowed to stay if caught.

"I just want to find that I can actually make a difference," said the Brazilian student, who like the others, asked that her name not be used for fear of immigration authorities.

The students first met in March on a fourth-floor terrace at MDC's downtown campus in view of the Freedom Tower, a building used as an assistance center for tens of thousands of newly arrived Cuban exiles.

For many interested students there are difficulties to overcome. Many, for instance, do not drive, so they have to arrange transportation.

Four of them -- the students from Haiti and Brazil plus one from Nicaragua and one from Honduras -- met again recently in a cramped South Beach studio to begin planning the Immigrant Student Union.

With a red-and-white bandanna wrapped around her head, Rodriguez sat cross-legged on the floor and unfolded a simple, typed agenda. ''We need to begin visualizing what we're all about,'' Rodriguez said to the four. ``Some of us may have different ideas of what this group is about.''

"We should make it interesting, to make people want to get involved. I don't want to make it some boring little group,'' the Haitian student said. ``People just aren't going to be into it.''

Gregarious and blunt, the Haitian student misses sleeping under the open sky and bathing in the river of her native country. But she has been here since she was 7.

She says a career as a probation officer would be ideal, so she can guide people through a second chance.

Her passion for creating the student group is very real -- for years, a deportation order has been pending against her.

In forming the group, the students grapple with thorny questions.

Are we open to only students? Is there an age limit? Do we attend rallies and protests? Who will be the faculty advisor?

What about open borders? Too many people in Miami? Then, who should be legalized?

And how should we refer to ourselves? Foreigners? Undocumented?

"What about alien, what does that mean to you?" Rodriguez asked.

"They better not call us that," the Haitian student growled, to the giggles of the others.

"What are words that are acceptable to you?" Rodriguez pressed.

A pause, eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know, but I don't like aliens," the Haitian student said.

The ideology differs among the students, but they agree their main focus should be on pushing for laws that benefit undocumented students.

In Washington, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers has proposed a bill known as the Dream Act. It would legalize certain children younger than 16, but the legislation has languished for years without a vote.

In Tallahassee, state Rep. Juan C. Zapata, R-Miami, plans to again push legislation that would allow students who have attended a Florida high school for at least three years -- but are still waiting to become U.S. residents -- to be exempted from out-of-state fees at state colleges and universities.

But the bill has failed three years in a row. So far, nine states have passed similar laws.

Zapata said the bill is important because it is unfair to punish students who often have finished high school despite their parents bringing them here illegally.

"We've already made an investment in their education. To throw away that investment is just cutting off our nose to spite to our face," he said.

Critics say such legislation amounts to rewarding illegal immigrants. But the issue is not about immigration, which should be taken up at the federal level, Zapata said.

"It's about fairness," he said.

That political wrangling means little amid the daily toils of students organizing the Immigrant Student Union, like the 20-year-old Brazilian, who volunteers as a counselor for her church and would like to continue her education at the University of Miami.

Her family came more than a decade ago from Rio de Janeiro on a tourist visa. They never left.

She entered MDC as part of the honors student program, which provided her financial assistance and helped defray the cost. Because of the help, she tried overloading on classes but the stress wore her down, physically and mentally.

She could not maintain the required grade point average and had to leave the honors program.

Now starting her second year, she will be taking only two classes at MDC because it will stretch her financially.

Two classes means six credits, which means she will pay about $1,314 for one semester. If she were a legal U.S. resident, the cost would be about $384.

"I feel like I should be done," she said. "I basically should have graduated by now."

Staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.

She could not maintain the required grade point average and had to leave the honors program.

Now starting her second year, she will be taking only two classes at MDC because it will stretch her financially.

"I feel like I should be done," she said. "I basically should have graduated by now."

That mean old United States is expecting you to pay something for having broken the law, but it's all so unfair.

Maybe the requirements for staying in an honors program should be reduced if you're"undocumented" just to level the playing field.

She says a career as a probation officer would be ideal, so she can guide people through a second chance.

This moron/idiot wants to be a probation officer?

She wants to "guide people through a second chance."

What a role model! A criminal wanting to help other criminals.

What's wrong with this picture?

It's nauseating!!