Students in Dallas press Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to back DREAM Act

12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, December 8, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

College students seeking to persuade U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to support the DREAM Act staged a demonstration Tuesday outside the building in which her Dallas office is located.

The Texas Republican has said she will not support the proposed legislation, which would establish a path to legal status for illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States before age 16, have been in the country at least five years, and pursue a college education or enter the military.

A group calling itself the North Texas DREAM team said it would remain outside the senator's office until the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act goes to a vote in Congress, which could happen as soon as today.

The doors at Hutchison's Dallas office were locked Tuesday, and a sign said the staff would meet only with constituents who had appointments.

"We are doing this to ensure the safety and security of our constituents, staff and those demonstrating," the sign read.

Two staffers addressed a student representative in the lobby Tuesday afternoon and released a statement explaining the senator's stance.

Lisette Mondello, a senior adviser to Hutchison, said the senator has met with many students about the issue.

"The senator is extremely sympathetic and understands the passion these students have for this issue," she said. "But she cannot support a bill as expansive as this one."

Security officers for the office building in North Dallas had asked the students to leave when they first requested a meeting Monday. Students then began their sit-in and stayed overnight.

Similar events were held across the state this week.

During the day, about 10 students sat in front of the office building in a pile of blankets beside the access road of North Central Expressway near Meadow Road.

Ramiro Luna, 27, a Texas Tech University student studying bilingual education who graduated from Dallas' Skyline High School, said he was passionate about the issue because he would be helped by passage of the act. He was 7 when he was brought to the United States from Mexico.

"We'll be contributing more taxes to our country working," he said. "The brain power lost if this doesn't pass is something you can't put a price tag on."

Viridiana, 23, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May and is unemployed because of her immigration status. She attended the university on scholarship after graduating from Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

"I feel like I'm just wasting my potential just sitting around the house," said the student, who asked that her last name not be used. "I feel like I'm hopeless and I'm stuck. I could be paying taxes right now if I had a job. The state has invested in me to give me an education, and I feel like I can't pay them back."

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