Students advocate for a pasage of the DREAM Act.
By Michael Marcell
Some 300 undocumented students and supporters of the DREAM Act marched a circle around Capitol Hill July 20 in an effort to get legislation to the floor before the Oct. 8 congressional recess.
The DREAM Act, S.729, would enable an individual who entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday, has lived in the country for five years with no criminal record or final order of exclusion, deportation or removal and who has already obtained a diploma from a U.S. high school or its equivalent with concurrent acceptance into an institution of higher education to receive in-state tuition and the ability to apply for federal work study programs and government student loans.
The bill would also facilitate an expedited path to citizenship for those individuals who complete an associates degree or receive an honorable discharge from the military. Sen. Richard Durbin (DIll.) spoke in support of the DREAM Act at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church before the protest.
Durbin, the bill’s sponsor, said he does not see the passage of the DREAM Act as a consolation prize in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. “I want the DREAM Act passed, and I’m working privately with my colleagues on comprehensive immigration reform with the DREAM Act as the lead part of it,” he said.
Durbin said the issue s about timing and he and other members of Congress are waiting for the right moment to push reform. The students were unimpressed by talk of political strategy. Some drove from as far as California, were living in the storage rooms of local churches and forewent the comforts of a shower for several days.
Rosario López, a University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill graduate who emigrated from Mexico City as a child, is one of 17 undocumented students who risked deportation by refusing to leave the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building.
“We want our leaders to take risks because we have shown them we are willing to take risks as well,” she said. “We were risking arrest, we are risking deportation and we are no longer afraid. They need to step up.”
López and 16 others were detained by the U.S. Capitol Police, charged with disorderly conduct, and released the same evening. Protest spokesperson Juan Escalante said the goal of the sit-ins was to have students arrested and brought into deportation proceedings to raise awareness of the issue.
Four other students who refused to leave the offi ce of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Russell Senate Offi ce Building were arrested later that day and released the following afternoon on the condition that they would not return.
As of right now, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has not been contacted by D.C. authorities, Escalante said.
In other news:
Franken Bill Protects Children of Families Captured in ICE Raids
by Tiana Pugh
Democratic senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin are rallying support for a bill they introduced June 22 to protect children of parents who are on the verge of deportation.
The bill, the Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) for Separated Children Act requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take adequate steps in protecting the children’s best interests during raids and the place-ment of their parents in detention centers.
Their proposal specifi – cally states that ICE must “keep state and local authorities in the know, … allow parents to arrange for care of their children, protect the kids during interrogations… (and) allow parents to participate in family court proceedings.”
His determination to keep children “safe, informed and accounted for” stems from raids such as the December 2006 sweeping of Swift &Company meatpacking plant in Worthington, Minn. During the raid, a second- grade child came home from school to find his parents missing and his two-year old brother sitting alone. The children were neglected for a week until their grandmother was informed and came to their care.
Another sweep in June 2007 of Jackson Heights Manufactured Home Park in Shakopee, Minn., left a seven-year-old girl wandering in a park in search of her parents. A neighbor called the authorities and learned the girl’s parents had been detained.
“Four million U.S. citizen-children have at least one undocumented immigrant parent,” said Franken. “Forty thousand of those children live in Minnesota.”
Kohl said, “It is essential that children are protected and cared for when their parents are detained.”
The bill is endorsed by several Minnesota groups, faith and community leaders. Hispanic Link.
