Students ‘DREAM’ for Congress to pass act

Imagine being in a country where your identity carries a negative connotation. 

Imagine the constant fear of getting picked up by customs officers any time and being deported. 

Imagine wanting to go to college but being denied because of lack of citizenship or insufficient funds.

Out of approximately 2.8 million students who graduate from high school in the U.S. each year, about 65,000 won’t be able to continue to higher education because they are considered undocumented immigrants. 

But they have hope that the DREAM Act, first introduced in 2001 to Congress, will give these potential students an opportunity to gain citizenship by enrolling in either college or the military and maintaining a clean record.

DREAM IU, a student group formed in January 2009, will have its call-out meeting at 7:30 p.m.Thursday in the Indiana Memorial Union Sassafrass room. The group branched out from the Latino Youth Collective, based in Indianapolis.

Sophomore Minelle Amezquita, webmaster for the group, said the group will do presentations, participate in outreach with high school students and try to gain support for the DREAM Act.

“We want to try and form support for undocumented students and basically plan to carry this out by reaching to academic orientation and the Bloomington community,” she said.

Amezquita said the group is also trying to organize a Trail of Dreams march in Bloomington on May 1, which will correspond with a march of dreamers. Four undocumented students are currently marching from Florida to Washington, D.C. and hope to reach their final destination by that day.

Identities of undocumented students still remain hidden, but the issue is closer than one might think.

Sophomore Ivonne Romo, one of the founders of DREAM IU, said the issue affects people “close to her heart.”

“There were people I had no idea had friends who are undocumented,” Romo said. “This is an issue we tend to not think of. A student told me any time she goes out with her friend, she can’t drive because she doesn’t have a license.”

Romo added that while President Barack Obama has expressed concern for immigration reform, he hasn’t been able to act on his words yet.

“Because of the recession, the issue of immigration has been pushed back,” she said.
Melissa Quintela, graduate student adviser for the group, said it’s important that IU students and the community get involved with the movement because it speaks to a situation that immigrant youth didn’t choose themselves.

Quintela said the DREAM bill was reintroduced in 2009, and she thinks this is the year it should pass because the “conditions are the most optimal.”

“The term undocumented it is akin to illegal alien, which carries with it a very negative stigma in society,” she said. “So it is a lot easier to advocate for your rights with a group. Students are apprehensive about putting their identities out there.”