We mention the DREAM Act a lot on this blog, usually in the context of trying to convince Orange County’s only decent Congressperson Loretta Sanchez to support it more enthusiastically. Did you know it’s an acronym, for “Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act” – it basically gives a “conditional path to legal residence” to undocumented high school graduates who serve at least two years in the military or complete two years of higher education.
The idea is that, as Harvard’s Edward Schumacher-Matos puts it, “If they’re good enough and have responded enough to be able to get to go to college, then we as a country need these people and should want these people.” People like the young lady to the right, a Santa Ana High School graduate whom we’re referring to as Gloria M. This is her on the cover of the Harvard Crimson, face obscured to protect her identity. In the current climate, even a Harvard graduate, aspiring high school teacher, never in trouble with the law, could be deported at any moment to Mexico, a place she’s never seen, because her parents were undocumented.
Gloria is back in Santa Ana now, trying to work as a teacher and give back to the community she came from, but work of that sort for an undocumented person is limited to irregular part-time gigs at small open-minded institutions, and the usual menial labor. If the DREAM Act, supported by a wide bipartisan coalition in Congress, but for various reasons kept on the back burner for a decade now, had passed – or would pass this year – things would be much different for Gloria and thousands of other exemplary young people across the nation, and they would be contributing greatly to our society instead of living in the shadows like the many students profiled in the fine Harvard Crimson article.
Harvard has accepted Gloria back for graduate work, but financial aid is one of many amenities out of the reach of undocumented youth. So some of her friends, and teachers who believe in her, have set up a Facebook page to raise money for her to get back to Harvard. The page contains testimonials such as “Gloria has inspired so many students at Santa Ana High School to apply to college. I know that any amount that you donate to her will go to someone who truly deserves it.”
OJ friend, Santa Ana High School professor Dr. Gary Reynolds, one of Gloria’s biggest supporters, originally alerted us to this situation:
Many, many, many undocumented residents of Orange County were brought here as children. They have been raised here, gone to school here, said the pledge of allegiance each morning as does any American school child, and have always thought of themselves as American as any other of their classmates. To most, Mexico is a distant, somewhat frightening, foreign land. I’m not sure at what age they become “illegals”, open for deportation to a place of which they have no knowledge, no family, no friends…
Gloria’s precedent-setting accomplishment of being the first status-challenged Latina to ever be accepted into Harvard Grad School of Education is in jeopardy of not happening… We’ve gotten creative and will be having a local fundraiser on May 4th at Polly’s located at 2660 North Main Street. She is a brilliant Latina and it would be a travesty to lose her. All funds generated will be tax deductible and may be sent to the Santa Ana Education Project in c/o of Gloria M. PO Box 10134, Santa Ana, CA 92711-0134. ”
SANTA ANA EDUCATION PROJECT
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit
But, keeping our eyes on the big picture, LET’S GET THE DREAM ACT PASSED!
Gloria M. at the famous John Harvard statue
Correction: the cover of the crimson is a picture of a different student
The Dream Act is a joke. What is this country coming to when we prioritize illegal aliens over our own children. We need to spend our money on aid programs to assist our legal young adults in obtaining increasingly costly higher education. Every illegal you help with dream act is someone’s son or daughter getting the shaft. Educate our population, not Mexico’s. Get your priorities straight.
I heard some Gringos crying the other day about how hard it is to get their little Gringitos into California colleges. They don’t like that the CA schools are taking out of state and out of the country kids because they pay higher fees. They say they pay taxes and blah, blah, blah! All I know is that my kids got accepted into UCI, UCLA, and San Luis Obispo with above average grades (not super high) and they attended crapy Santa Ana schools (Willard/Santa Ana High). So quit crying Gringos.
Yo, J. T., my old Derail-the-Sale ally! Your unfortunate prejudices are infecting your brain.
Listen: The DREAM Act is not about spending money. (If it were it wouldn’t have so many Republican sponsors like authors Orrin Hatch and Dick Lugar.)
It’s about a PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP for young “illegals” who show themselves to be the best of the best. Tone down the xenophobia a spot, it doesn’t become you.
JT you idiot: Those DREAMers ARE American, and a hell of a lot more courageous and patriotic than your Know Nothing ass.
There is not a need for a “Dream Act” when decent people come together and self fund a project of a deserving individuals education, as in the fundraiser described above for Santa Ana Education Project.
To force others to participate in something they are opposed to, is just wrong.
Who is benefiting from the current situation of keeping the children that are not US citizens or resident nationals from being identified so corrective action can be taken on their behalf?
“To force others to participate in something they are opposed to, is just wrong.”
Cook,
I am opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the giving of financial/military aid to Israel and yet I am forced to participate.
Should I be able to opt out of having my tax dollars go towards these things?
“Every illegal you help with dream act is someone’s son or daughter getting the shaft.”
This is propagandistic crap. The fact is that the war on education in this country (particularly California) is a direct result of the massive transfer of wealth upwards (i.e. prop 13), not because a few immigrants want to go to college. Jesus, you act as if there are a hoard of illegal immigrants pushing down the gates of higher education. The fact is that people’s “sons and daughters” are not being screwed by those with the audacity to seek a better life for themselves, they are being screwed by a boomer generation that inherited more in terms of social programs and infrastructure than any generation previous, and has liquidated much of this for themselves. The generation that did the least with the most.