ASU Students Rally To Push Passage of Elusive DREAM Act

Tempe, Arizona -- A coalition of Arizona State University students and activists rallied Tuesday in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act.

If approved, the proposed legislation would allow thousands of undocumented students in the country to legalize their status, enter the workforce and apply for federal student aid.

The students and advocates demonstrated in front of the Memorial Union building in the Tempe Campus, where they held signs, chanted and talked to other students in an effort to educate them about the DREAM Act, and persuade politicians to approve it.

The rally also sought to create awareness on the campus and encourage supporters to call senators to ask them to vote in favor of the DREAM Act. Similar actions have been taking place in other major cities in the U.S.

Students have also been traveling to Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard in a time they deem pivotal to get the bill passed.

A new series of hunger strikes was also announced during a press conference held in the Memorial Union building. The strike will be among other actions aimed to call the attention of politicians like Senator John McCain.

"We have an entire generation of students who were brought here (to the U.S) without a choice," said student Debbie Robles, 18, a Chicano Studies major at ASU was among those who participated in Tuesday's rally.

Robles believes the DREAM Act would allow undocumented students to give back to the country since they have been educated in the United States and hold college degrees.

Carmen Cornejo, a long-time advocate for the DREAM Act who also participated in the rally, stated the United States would benefit from legalizing this cohort of undocumented students, since they have degrees and fields related to science engineering, technology and mathematics.

"These are key fields needed for the future of this nation," said Cornejo, a member of the advocacy group CADENA.

In Texas, a number of students have been on a hunger strike for three weeks. Dreamactivist.org, a social media site that promotes the passage of the DREAM Act, reports some students met at Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's office in San Antonio after a rally. The group was seeking the senator's support for the DREAM Act but reportedly they were arrested.

Fox 29 News reported San Antonio Police Department arrested 16 University of Texas at San Antonio's students Monday when they refused to leave Bailey's office.

Students and advocates agree the DREAM Act currently has one of its best chances of being passed. However, the bill has been repeatedly defeated.

Cornejo blames this to several factors, including educational and political.

"There are not enough educated people about the DREAM Act, and people in Congress are being driven by politics, not by rationality or the imperative need of the passage of this legislation."

 

Comments

[Maya Ying]

12:32 AM on 12/04/2010

Millions of Americans out of work, entire families homeless sleeping in cars and shelters. Our citizens have not suffered like this since the great depression! And what are the democrats trying to push through congress at this time? Why its gays in the military and amnesties for ILLEGAL aliens. Sometimes it feels like I'm living in the Twilight Zone!

[Viper1st]

01:33 PM on 12/03/2010

This mornings news ~

The DREAM Act will cost the U.S. Taxpayers $6.2 billion USD annually to administrate this new proposed legislation.

$6.2 billion annually calculated over the 12yr life of The DREAM Act is over $74 billion USD for the benefit of only 2.5 million students w/o documentation


My calculator isn't capable of all the zeros, but if my hand calculations are correct ~ that almost $3 million per student w/o documentation over the life of The DREAM Act

I can't support the costs of this legislation as being a benefit to the best interests of the U.S.

[Texas rebel]

11:41 AM on 12/03/2010

The DREAM act needs to be done away with and enforcement instead. Why were these illegal children allowed in our schools to begin with? They should have never been accepted any any school using our tax dollars to educate them.

[DARRELL LANIER]

11:16 AM on 12/03/2010

This is dead. They basically have 16 days that require passage of bills pertaining to our economy (unemployment rate ticked up to 9.8%). Currently, they do not have enough firm votes for this bill, as well. Lastly, the GOP has stated that they plan to filibuster any bill that does not deal with taxes or spending.

[Little Pima]

10:35 AM on 12/03/2010

With unemployment shooting up again this month, there is no way the Congress is going to be legalizing a lot of people who entered the country illegally.

DREAM is dead, give it up.

And well it should be, since any sort of amnesty-like thing gets wide news coverage in Mexico, Guatemala, etc and leads to yet more people pouring in. "If they do some sort of amnesty every few years, just go in there and eventually they will let you stay."

We are not such a rich country anymore, and we cannot run our affairs as if we were one big charity. Truth is, we may be poised for financial destruction a la Greece and Portugal. THe government is borrowing almost half of what it is spending this year! This can't go on. We do not need new charitable ventures. We can't afford all the humanitarian commitments we already have to our own people.

Give it up, the Dream is Dead. Hunger strikers, at least you got to slim down a bit. Now pack up and go home.

[Lisa Maulden]

09:32 AM on 12/03/2010

I feel that this Act should be passed, because it allows the people, who have worked hard in public or private school and graduated, a chance to obtain a higher education, either through enrollment in the military, or seeking a degree at a college or university. If someone comes into our country and is willing to work and better themselves, I feel that they should be allowed to work to live here as well. They wouldn't just be given legalization, they would be working towards it through their education. You have to also remember that this Act applies to (mainly) the top of the spectrum of illegal immigrants, and offered to the ones who have excelled in previous schooling, and who are willing to work to stay in this country. If they violate certain rules, their status is terminated and they go back to the immigration status they had prior to receiving the conditional permanent resident status under this Act. It would be another thing if they were slackers, just feeding off our country and not trying to better themselves... But these people are actually striving to become citizens and live in the US. They might as well be educated.

[fabiantahoma]

09:26 AM on 12/03/2010

i believe that we should pass this act because it would help the US. like they stated in the video, they have come here with no choice, some of them, when they get here they come to either work hard or come to study. alot of them even have masters degrees in have graduated in major fields. i have alot of american friends and alot of mexican friends and if i compara them i see that really its the mexicans that are putting in alot of hard work in school. why? because most the mexicans including myself have come from a family with little or no education and they have put their faith in us. if we as mexicans dont study hard and get a career all our parents efferts would be worthless.

[Texas rebel]

11:43 AM on 12/03/2010

Then hopefully they will all be deported soon and they can use their degrees in Mexico.