Thread: Undocumented students look to imperiled measure

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Undocumented students look to imperiled measure

Web Posted: 07/12/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Melissa Ludwig
Express-News Staff Writer

As a child in Mexico, Martha liked school. As a high school student in Castroville, she needed school.

Because she is an undocumented immigrant, she has controlled little else in life except her studies.

"School was one of the things I believed was completely mine," said Martha, now a 23-year-old student at Palo Alto College. "It was the one thing I could do for myself, by myself."

Martha plans to transfer to the University of Texas at San Antonio this fall. She and Rey, another undocumented student interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition that they not be fully identified.

Like the 65,000 other undocumented students who graduate from American high schools each year, she is pursuing her college dream knowing she has little hope for legal residency and a legitimate job when she graduates.

Martha's best shot is called the DREAM Act — and it is imperiled.

The legislation pending in Congress carves a path to residency for young immigrants who go to college or join the military. Introduced in 2001, the DREAM Act, or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, slowly attracted supporters on both sides of the aisle. That support has been muted in the past few months, however, as the rancorous debate over immigration reform drags on.

In March, the Senate Judiciary Committee tacked the DREAM Act onto a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which must be reconciled with a more stringent House version before it can go to a vote. The act is also pending as a stand-alone bill in both the House and Senate.

Advocates now fear the DREAM Act will suffer as those in Congress who favor less strict border security measures try to piece together a compromise.

"Unfortunately, the less you put in this immigration mix the better," said U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, who supports the DREAM Act. It is all "fodder for many who are, in essence, just anti-immigrant."

Josh Bernstein, director of federal policy for the National Immigration Law Council, said undocumented students can't wait.

"The kids this would affect are having their lives shaped now," said Bernstein, whose group provides assistance to low-income immigrants.

Critics of the act are banking on a protracted struggle.

"If you send the message that if you come here illegally and send (your kids) to school for a few years, they are home free, you may as well send out an engraved invitation," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group that favors tougher immigration laws.

The act applies to children brought to the United States before age 16 who have been in the country for at least five years. Within six years of high school graduation, the student must stay out of trouble and complete two years of college or military service to be granted permanent residency.

"These are kids who didn't choose to break the law," Mehlman said. "But lots of kids suffer from their parents' decision to break the law."

Those who support tougher immigration laws say undocumented students already have unfair advantages.

For example, though federal law bars states from offering in-state tuition to undocumented students without also offering it to out-of-state students, many states, including Texas, get around the requirement by basing in-state tuition eligibility on high school attendance.

As a result, roughly 5,300 college students in Texas are undocumented immigrants who pay in-state tuition, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Though the DREAM Act would kill the federal law and, arguably, close this loophole, immigration opponents aren't heartened.

"In-state tuition is a huge subsidy," Mehlman said. "It makes chumps out of people who have applied to come here on student visas who are paying full freight."

For the 330 undocumented students now attending the Alamo Community College District on in-state rates and the 200 at the University of Texas at San Antonio like them, America is where they grew up. Some don't even speak Spanish.

"They are caught between two countries," said Gerardo Menchaca, a local lawyer. "Not really from here, not really from there."

Menchaca has taken Rey, a 17-year-old undocumented immigrant who has plans to be an architect, under his wing.

Rey said his parents brought him to San Antonio when he was 8. His father, a TV repairman, has filed an application for legal residency. Rey's mother, Juani, is adamant that her son will get an education.

"I just want him to go to school," she said in Spanish from her tidy South Side home. "If I have to pay, I have to pay. (Rey) struggles with it, saying, 'Why go to school if I am not going to get a job?' I tell him, 'Everything now is an investment in your future.'"

On a spring day, Menchaca bought Rey a hamburger at a local Wendy's. Until there is legal shelter for Rey, he must be careful, Menchaca said.

"You cannot be in speeding car; you cannot be drinking and driving," Menchaca told Rey. "You are going to have to walk the line a little straighter than everybody else, than all your friends. And you are going to have to get better grades if you want scholarships. That's just how it's going to have to be."

Rey nodded, munching on a stack of fries.

Martha is well-acquainted with the fear of being caught. She has a car, but no driver's license. Every time she gets behind the wheel, she crosses herself and prays that she gets where she needs to go.

"Going back (to Mexico) is not really a possibility," she said. "You have to do what you have to do to survive."

At 13, Martha and her 11-year-old sister made a harrowing journey across the Rio Grande with a smuggler hired by her mother. Martha's beloved grandmother, who raised the girls in a small town near Monterrey, had died suddenly of an aneurism.

"We didn't want to leave home, but our opinion didn't really matter," Martha said.

After settling in Castroville with her mother, Martha quickly learned English in order to fit in at a predominantly Anglo school.

She graduated in three years and left home at 17. Though she was accepted to two four-year universities, she couldn't afford the tuition.

Instead, she went to Palo Alto College and supported herself by waiting tables and providing in-home elderly care, jobs that paid cash under the table. Last year, she went to Washington, D.C., with a student leadership group and met with politicians to lobby for the DREAM Act.

Her message?

"Just give us a chance," Martha said. "We are going to lead this country as much as your son and daughter will. This is our home, too. This is our country."



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mludwig@express-news.net

If she already has a free high school education from us then why can't she go back to mexico and go to college there? Her parents are bound to be making more than enough illegally to send her to college down there.

The education she was receiving in American schools was NOT hers. It belongs to the US Citizens and Legal Immigrant Taxpayers, and because she is illegally in the country she shouldn't have had access to it.

You are confused as to who's country you are in and your status here.

This is not your country and you will not be doing any "leading" here. However you are more than welcome to "lead" back home in mexico. And hopefully you will get caught driving without a license and a son/daughter of an American will be leading you into an immigration jail.

Martha's best shot is called the DREAM Act — and it is imperiled.

DREAM Act = amnesty

Martha is well-acquainted with the fear of being caught. She has a car, but no driver's license. Every time she gets behind the wheel, she crosses herself and prays that she gets where she needs to go.

"Going back (to Mexico) is not really a possibility," she said. "You have to do what you have to do to survive."

At 13, Martha and her 11-year-old sister made a harrowing journey across the Rio Grande with a smuggler hired by her mother. Martha's beloved grandmother, who raised the girls in a small town near Monterrey, had died suddenly of an aneurism.

Martha knows she is an illegal alien, has no intention of returing to her home country, and forget about needing a drivers license, she's driving anyway. Yep, a real role model here.

"These are kids who didn't choose to break the law," Mehlman said. "But lots of kids suffer from their parents' decision to break the law."

The kids should blame their parents and ask them to to pay for their education since they were responsible for their decision to break the law and come into this country illegally. Thereby, the kids are in the situation they are now. Why should the American taxpayer pay for the kids education because of the unlawful parents!!!

"Just give us a chance" Martha said. "We are going to lead this country as much as your sons and daughters. This is our home too, this is our country."

The state Martha is living in is a state of delusion.