Dispatches, United States
Undocumented Immigrant Youth Support DREAM Act By Coming Out Of The Shadows
May 5, 2011 By Eline Gordts
Dreamers also challenged the earlier portrayal of undocumented students as American youth who have lost all connection with their home country. “The U.S. is my home, but I can’t deny that I have an attachment to Colombia. I can’t deny that feeling,” Garcia says. Her father still lives there, as well as her brother and grandparents. “I often wonder what I’ll do when something happens to one of them. I wish I could just go to visit them and come back. But once I leave the States, I know I can’t return,” Garcia says.
Notwithstanding the attention, the Dream Act failed in 2010. Conservatives and anti-immigration groups have long opposed the act, arguing that it would be a magnet for future immigrants. “We feel very sorry for these children,” says Ira Melhman, Media Director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). “But we oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, and that is what the DREAM Act is. The Act would legalize millions and create an incentive for more people to violate the law.”
Undocumented students now concentrate their efforts on preventing the deportation of Dreamers, on further promoting the reintroduction of the bill, and opposing new anti-immigrant legislation. In New York, immigrant youth movements worked together with two state senators to introduce a state-version of the Dream-Act. The state bill would provide certain undocumented students with financial aid for higher education, health care, work authorization and access to drivers’ licenses.
Melissa Garcia Velez was in the Senate building when the Dream Act was defeated in 2010. What struck her most was the rhetoric of the media and the politicians that day “The senators were calling the Dream Act a nightmare, labeling us undocumented students as criminals,” she recalled. “They knew we were sitting there, yet kept saying the same things. We are trying to show that we’re none of that. We are trying to change that by coming out. And the more students come out, the more people will realize that we’re not playing, we’re serious about this. The Dream Act is not the bill that will solve all our problem, but it’s a start.”
