Jose Antonio Vargas: A DREAM Act Deferred?

This piece comes to us courtesy of Education Nation’s The Learning Curve blog. Jose Antonio Vargas, Define American founder and former journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post and the Washington Post, writes.

[Ed. Note: On Wednesday, the California Senate passed AB131, one half of the California DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students to apply for public aid. The bill will now go to the Assembly, which has previously approved it.]

In a seminal poem tied to the very early years of the civil rights movement, Langston Hughes wrote: “What happens to a dream deferred?”

Just ask the estimated 24,000 undocumented students who graduate each year from California's public high schools. Most of them -- English-speaking students who grew up in this country and call America their home -- have difficulty pursuing higher education. It is not because they don’t want to; it is not because they lack will or talent. On the contrary. These students aspire to be doctors and lawyers, engineers and teachers. But their dreams are dashed, their future limited, because they lack the legal status to qualify for financial aid. They came to America without documents as minors and, through no fault of their own, are being punished for it.

Congressional leaders in Washington tried to right this wrong. A bipartisan bill called the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act was introduced in the summer of 2001, just a month before the September 11th attacks. Ten years later, the bill is still stalled in Congress, and bipartisanship is tougher to come by. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), in particular, no longer supports the bill he originally co-introduced. Meanwhile, individual states have wrestled with the issue.

Unlike most states, California allows undocumented students who graduate from public high schools to pay in-state tuition at the Golden State’s public colleges and universities. However, they are still not eligible for financial aid.

Over the latter half of the past decade, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed five different bills designed to offer some form of financial aid to undocumented students. Progress finally came this year, when state assembly member Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) introduced the California DREAM Act in two bills.

This piece has been truncated. Read the full piece at Education Nation's The Learning Curve.

Comments

[Mgonzales]

02:26 PM on 09/13/2011

The same legislature that cut education and afterschool programs are the ones who voted to give illegal immigrants free money to attend California schools. As a struggling single mother in a low-income community I applied for scholarship at local private schools because my California Born American Children were not receiving quality education. I understand it is not the fault to the students who have lived here all their life, but that is the parents fault not for doing this to them. So now when will this stop, more undocumented illegals will come into the California for education because it is FOR FREE...Yet I am struggling cause I want a better education for my children and send them to schools where teachers, books and afterschool programs are available. Write to your legislature. Does it matter? Do they listen? Make a change instead of writing here write to them and vote them out of office!

[Nightangle]

12:12 PM on 09/07/2011

'am on lunch right now. I don't want to cry !

[lamoore0888]

08:15 PM on 09/06/2011

The DREAM ACT doesn't go far enough. Do you realize there are thousands of so called illegal immigrants that 'through no fault of their own', have no cars? That's right. We have 16 and 17 year old Mexican children having to walk through cities to commit crimes, instead of driving. That is a travesty. And what about the so called illegal immigrants that have to walk to the grocery store to spend their food stamps? That is not fair. On so many levels. The DREAM ACT should include subsidized 'transportation units' (cars) for free for all so called illegal immigrants.

[Disdain]

11:58 AM on 09/05/2011

We lack the funding to educate American students but will miraculously find it for illegals?

[Viper1st]

06:26 PM on 09/06/2011

850,000+ & rising illegal K-12 students being educated for FREE annually by the U.S. Taxpayer at cost of $7.5 billion annually

[mischv]

04:34 PM on 09/04/2011

The quotes on immigration that I just posted were by Teddy Roosevelt.


And just curious but, what about the term ILLEGAL ALIENS, doesn't the California Senate understand? I hope the Assembly understands the term and doe not pass this bill. You will be giving away monies our LEGAL Citizens should be receiving. Illegals should be deported.

[lensman3]

03:15 PM on 09/06/2011

Oh you mean the Illegal Aliens who pay sales taxes, pay property taxes through their landlord, pay social security taxes that MUST be taken out of all earnings, pay income taxes which they can't get a refund for because they don't have a SSN number. Who will not get to collect social security when they have paid into it for a long time and required by law to pay into it through deductions.

How about the corporations who pay less taxes than those Illegal Aliens? Or those corporations who hire Illegals and don't pay into Social Security?

Or the ones who have been in to US for so long that their culture and language is American and no longer fit in at home?

The compassion right is an OXYMORON!

[mischv]

04:29 PM on 09/04/2011

"In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919.

"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country," he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. "English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools."

“We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.”

[luerai]

06:16 PM on 09/03/2011

I always seem to be making comments on these issues. First I am glad I live in a State that promotes education to all young people regardless of their immigration status. I really feel sorry for Mr. Vargas and his situation but in no way do I promote using a fake social security card or driver's license to further deceive employers. With all that said, people in Congress should really work on these sensitive immigration issues so innocent children of illegal parents can have a bright future.

[Reikoku Jaken]

02:18 PM on 09/03/2011

So...because a dozen or so illegal aliens have managed to earn their stay through hard work, dedication, and commitment we should fork over millions of dollars for all illegal aliens?

Sound logic.

[Dan Langdon]

12:24 PM on 09/03/2011

Why hasn't Mr. Vargas been deported?

[timbeaux]

02:20 AM on 09/03/2011

I just think it's miraculous that a state that's 25 billion in the hole just THIS year can find $40 million to give to kids who aren't even legally Californians, to help them attend a system that was designed for Californians and paid for by Californians. Every penny of this $40 million is being taken from the kids of lower-middle-class Californians, including a high number of legal Latinos. This is an idiotic law, passed by a group of legislators who can't tell one end of their digestive systems from the other.

[RatPack78]

10:29 PM on 09/02/2011

Seems like a prosecution deferred. If I was to present fraudulent documents to the Secret Service, how long before I'd find myself behind bars?

[RobietheCat]

04:04 PM on 09/03/2011

re: If I was to present fraudulent documents to the Secret Service,

- The Secret Service should have caught this and didn't. Clearly the presence and methods of illegal aliens in the country constitutes a clear and present danger to the United States, and in this case to the President as well.

[skipskps]

09:07 PM on 09/02/2011

Maybe concerned citizens should be present at the polling stations and guarantee each person voting is legal. Wouldn't work! Too many are already here and they are being abetted by their legal family and friends. Maybe the police should be held accountable . What is the solution? We all know this is an multiple layer question, and would need to be addressed on many levels. None of which have anything to do with lawmakers. We don't need more laws. The laws that already exsist are not being applied.

[Viper1st]

10:09 PM on 09/02/2011

That would be voter intimidation

Only BHO's, New Black Pathers, are allowed to do that

[RobietheCat]

04:05 PM on 09/03/2011

Photo ID for voting is an absolute must, or we will lose this country.

Every illegal, fraudulent vote, negates legal ones. What country willingly allows that?

[Muskered]

01:26 PM on 09/04/2011

would you please back your claim up with facts?

[skipskps]

08:59 PM on 09/02/2011

Instead of pushing for their so-called rights,the schools should be policing their campuses and tossing these kids to the police and shipped back to where they came from. If they are not citizens they have no rights. They have the right to be shipped to the nearest border.

[Viper1st]

10:11 PM on 09/02/2011

The BHO Adm's policy is not to enforce U.S. Federal Immigration Laws where K-12 illegal students attend schools

[timbeaux]

02:16 AM on 09/03/2011

Or at all, anywhere.

[RobietheCat]

04:30 PM on 09/03/2011

A vote for Obama in 2012 is a vote for illegal alien Amnesty in 2013.

[Viable Way]

10:27 PM on 09/02/2011

In AZ, our school districts were not even permitted to ASK if parents or students were in the country illegally. I know this sounds 180 degrees opposite to the recent legal issues about illegal immigration, but it is the truth!

[basshawgnc]

08:18 PM on 09/02/2011

The aiding and abetting of illegal immigrants is against federal law. Besides that, how can an illegal immigrant be considered a legal resident of a state if they aren't even a legal resident of the country? Paying the in-state tuition rate means the state considers them legal residents.

[RobietheCat]

07:44 PM on 09/02/2011

On its face, the California Dream Act is unconstitutional under the:

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

SEC. 31. (a) The State shall not discriminate against, or grant
preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of
race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of
public employment, public education, or public contracting.

- The State cannot grant preferential treatment to any group on the basis of nation origin in the operation of public education.

- The first US Citizen of the State of California or member of a US military family who is denied Cal Grant funds will have the basis for legal action against the State. Just watch.

[Viper1st]

08:05 PM on 09/02/2011

And ~ U.S. Federal Immigration Law

U.S.C. 8 § 1623 : US Code - Section 1623: Limitation on eligibility for preferential treatment of aliens not lawfully present on basis of residence for higher education benefits

(a) In general
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not
lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the
basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for
any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of
the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an
amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen
or national is such a resident.
(b) Effective date
This section shall apply to benefits provided on or after July 1,
1998.

[RobietheCat]

08:29 PM on 09/02/2011

Thank you.

This law is brought to us by people who don't understand and are ignorant of the law.

Gil Cedillo, who drafted the bill:

- Cedillo graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology in 1977 and receiving a Juris Doctor degree from the People's College of Law, an unaccredited law school in Los Angeles, in 1983. However, Cedillo failed the bar exam.[1]