For young undocumented immigrants, 'Dream Act' offers avenue to success




By Vanessa Bauzá
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

April 23, 2007



With only a month to her high school graduation, May sees a daunting number of obstacles ahead.

More than anything, she wants to go to college. But as an illegal immigrant with a longstanding deportation order, May has little access to financial aid. If she scrapes the tuition together, there are no guarantees she will be allowed to stay in the country.

Even with a college degree, she wonders, what kind of job can an undocumented worker get?

"I'm not a slacker," said May, 17, who, like other students in this story, declined to use her full name for fear of being deported. "I try to go out there and make things happen, but doors close in my face."

As Congress prepares to take up a controversial bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration laws, students like May who are in the country illegally hope a related measure could eliminate some of the obstacles that lie before them.

The Dream Act, which has bipartisan support, would give temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants headed for college or the military, qualifying them for federal student loans and in-state tuition rates. Upon graduating or serving two years, students could apply for permanent residency.

For May, those changes would make a big difference. She came to South Florida at age 6 on a speedboat from the Bahamas with her mother and little brother. They scrambled across a stretch of Palm Beach in an attempt to elude police but were detained and later released. Immigration officials denied her mother's asylum request and issued a deportation order. Since then, May has lived outside the law.

Even so, she sees herself as a typical American teenager. She has a 3.3 grade point average, volunteers at a Broward County hospital and was elected to her school's student government. But with so many roadblocks to a higher education, she says graduating from high school seems like "a diploma to nothing."

Daniela, 17, of Wellington, is in a similar predicament. She and her parents overstayed their tourist visas on a visit from Colombia nine years ago. Her father works as a mechanic, and her mother is a housekeeper. Daniela earns $200 a week as a waitress. Together they will stretch to pay for Palm Beach Community College.

"All they've ever told me is, `Just graduate. We brought you here, and we'll do whatever it takes to make your education,'" she said.

For years lawmakers have debated providing education for children who are illegal immigrants.

A landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling requires states to provide free elementary and secondary education to undocumented children. A 1996 federal law, however, discourages states from providing those who graduate with in-state tuition at public colleges. Since then, 10 states have passed laws to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition if they meet certain requirements. South Florida legislators have tried and failed to pass a similar law several times.

Advocates of the Dream Act are optimistic that a Democratic majority in Congress will push the bill through this year. They argue that students who came to the United States as minors and want to go to college should not be penalized for their parents' decisions. In many cases, the children grew up unaware of their immigration status and have little connection to their homeland.

"They've worked hard, and they've studied. Many of these kids have lived nowhere else. They don't even remember where they came from," said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, one of the bill's sponsors.

The bill could affect about 5,000 undocumented immigrants who graduate from Florida high schools each year. Another estimated 60,000 undocumented immigrants graduate each year from high schools in other states. It is unclear how many would take advantage of the Dream Act.

Barbara Cohen Pippin, an administrator at Broward Community College, said the Dream Act makes economic sense because it would allow the state to capitalize on the investment it has made by educating undocumented immigrant students. BCC does not distinguish between students with no legal status and out-of-state students, Cohen Pippin said. Both must pay about $2,900 per semester, compared with $840 for in-state students.

Opponents of the bill call it an "amnesty-type" provision that encourages illegal immigration and siphons tax dollars to students without legal status.

"The priority should be for us to invest in the educational development of American citizens and legal residents, which is enough of a challenge without taking on the responsibility for educating people who don't belong in the country," said Jack Martin, a director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington group favoring tighter restrictions on immigration.

Manuel, a 21-year-old engineering student at Miami Dade College, is not waiting for the Dream Act to pass. The undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua keeps a hectic schedule, juggling two part-time jobs to pay his $3,000 out-of-state tuition.

"I have seen people who have the opportunity to study and don't take it," he said. "It makes me angry to see that wasted opportunity. I want to study. I want to be a good citizen."

Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at vbauza@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4514.


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