Civil actions that have taken place across the country will culminate with a vote on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act on Nov. 29.
The Share the Dream Vigil was held at Butler Plaza in front of M.D. Anderson Library on Nov. 11 as part of the National Week of Action, which began Nov. 8.
Groups across Texas staged rallies, marches and candlelight vigils.
Organizer of the UH vigil and director of Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (Immigrant Families and Students in the Struggle) Caesar Espinosa said that events such as these were held in 32 states across the country.
“We have already invested 12 years of education into these students and to have them drop out would be inhumane,” Espinosa said.
Espinosa states that there are approximately 3,000 undocumented students at UH and about 9,000 at universities and community colleges in Houston.
He also notes that this is only an estimate because many students are afraid to disclose their status.
The DREAM Act would serve to provide citizenship for immigrants that entered the country before the age of 16, have lived in the US for at least five years and have either served in the military or completed two years of college. The act was initially introduced to the Senate in 2001.
The legislation suffered a defeat in September when it was attached to a broader defense spending bill. The Nov. 29 vote will be solely on the legislation, which will be introduced as a stand-alone bill.
The student organization DREAM Act Now! at the University of Texas-San Antonio is on day 13 of a hunger strike to garner attention for the DREAM Act. The students are urging the passage of the federal law that would give undocumented students a path to citizenship.
UTSA senior Martha Quintanilla, who is double majoring in Mexican American Studies and political science, is one of the strikers.
“The purpose is to make the community aware that there is a broad community of DREAMers among us who are being stepped on,” Quintanilla said “We want to make the DREAM Act a reality.”
According to Quintanilla, 17 students and five professors are participating in the hunger strike at UTSA that began Nov. 10.
“We are bringing this unheard population of undocumented students out to the public and letting the public know what is being done to them, and that nothing is being done about it,” Quintanilla said.
During a press conference Thursday, Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged lawmakers to debate and pass the DREAM Act.
He stated that the US is in “desperate need to have a better educated and knowledge-based workforce.”
One would hope such legislation would fail quickly.
Illegal immigration is Illegal. The people involved can
leave the country and apply for a legal visa.
Henry with due respect you are an ignorant. Be thankful this thanksgiving that you are an American Citizen and that you don't have to worry about this issue, and that you take for granted the fact that you have the right to vote, work, live in this beautiful country and that your kids can go to college, be successful in life because this country is all about success. You are fortunate to have had grandparents that came to this country and you had the blessing to be born in the U.S. before making such comments get in the "illegal's" shoes and don't be such an ignorant.
Do you realize that minors have no choice when they come into this country undocumented with their parents? That they are force to come into this country and force to attend school. That these parents push their children to do the best that they can in school. That these kids to take opportunities that their parents didn't have. That these kids stay out of trouble just to make sure they don't risk endangering their families. That these children are just like any kid that is behind a desk that wants to do something with their life.
The cold hard fact is that there is nothing for these kids when they go back home. Most of them have been in the United States most of their lives and might as well be Americans. Yet there is legislation that is willing to punish these kids because they were force to come into this country. We are spending money to teach these kids and you just want to throw away everything they worked for just because they weren't born in this country? Sounds genius.
Faulty logic. The problem therein lies in the fact they never should have been taught in the first place. An American wouldn't be given the same courtesy elsewhere in the world if they entered another country illegally. Therein lies the outrage. It's a matter of legality. Why pay for them to essentially be here and use our public schools when they shouldn't be here in the first place (by being here illegally)? Spout sob stories all you want thats simply the reality of the world, immigration laws and laws in general are in place for a reason. Leniency and "humanity" does nothing, it will not bring about change or improve our image on the world stage and the odds are very unlikely that we'd get any major benefit from allowing the immigrants to further their education and become citizens outside of increasing some revenue from taxpayers (however that would in turn lead to an increase of overpopulating our land which is already overpopulated as it is). The EU and the other major groups out there could care less about such policies compared to other policies (in fact they're stricter with enforcing their immigration policies) and as I said an American would not receive the same courtesy elsewhere in the world if they were in another country illegally. End of discussion.
"an American would not receive the same courtesy elsewhere in the world if they were in another country illegally"
it helps that america is not a third-world country fighting a civil war against a highly militarized drug cartel. and that it doesn't share a land border with a country resolved towards exploiting it's desperate workers for profit. you know, details.
labor should be allowed to cross borders as freely as capital does. this blows your mind because you are a dull nationalist child. END OF DISCUSSION THREAD CLOSED
It doesn't matter on the state of the country, an American would not legitimately receive free education in another country if they were there illegally. In fact honestly its impractical for the DREAM act to be passed right now, its just going to overcrowd an already quite crowded job market and in that respect would be unfair to actual American citizens and legal immigrants, its bad enough they either got fired or can't find a job in general because no one is hiring, now you want to lessen their odds of finding a job by adding in a substantially sizable new amount of prospective employees/workers for them to compete with (who I might add weren't supposed to be in the country to begin with)?
The policy brings hardly anything useful to the table.
The Dream Act is a clear, honest and humany action …may be, after this bill pass, God will care all America AGAIN….because…we need Him looking for us.
I support the DREAM Act. Pass it. As a recruiter, its disgusting to see those sitting in their chairs behind their computers spewing nonsense. Do you idiots want a draft? Or are you going to enlist in the military and go through Basic Training? Wussy keyboard warriors.
Thank you to all the supporters of the Dream Act Bill. CASH ALL THE WAY. I have been living in the US since my fifteen birthday. I went to a catholic private school for two years. My mother paid my tuition casH by working as a home attendant, 7 days, 7 nights. After high shcool, i enrolled in John Jay College of Crimanl Justice for 4 years, in which i graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Cum Laude. I wanted to go to law school. That was my dream. I am still watiing to go to law school. I am not complaining about paying. I just want to point out that most of us are not living off of the system. I was home for two years in which i did odd jobs babysitting, nannying and working as a home attendant, here and there. I returned back to school to fulfill a degree in nursing. Once again, i am home doing nothing. I did not ask for handouts for my tuition. I paid cash all the way up to nursing school; so know that i was not educated for free.
I willing to bet, that there are millinons like me who did not mind paying for their tuiiton. I know there are other immigrant students who went to public school, but please when you make an argument about immigrants, do not generalize us to one group. The problem is bigger than you think. I am a Vincentian American. Whenever the issue of immigration is mention, i feel like mexicans are always mentioned. They have their own issues- I have mine. It was not my choice to stay in this country illegally. What will i returned home to, if i was deported? Nothing. I might as well be dead.
It is sad to see how uninformed people still try to comment about something they know nothing about, or that they have not experience first hand. We are talking about exemplary people that earn their education despite their situation and are now trying to be recognized as an integral part of this country. This is not a handout, it is a well deserved opportunity. These are future professionals we are talking about, not your average blue collar immigrant worker. These are students and professionals raised and educated here in this country.
Here are the facts for those who are uninformed about this:
Must have entered the United States before the age of 16 (i.e. 15 and younger) (minors at the time of entering)
Must have been present in the United States for at least five (5) consecutive years prior to enactment of the bill
Must have graduated from a United States high school, or have obtained a GED, or have been accepted into an institution of higher education (i.e. college/university)
Must be between the ages of 12 and 35 at the time of application
Must have good moral character ( no criminal record)
THE DREAM ACT! ANOTHER TAXPAYERS NIGHTMARE–AMNESTY!
AMERICAN TAXPAYERS MUST READ THE FULL TEXT OF S 3827, BEFORE THEY CONDEMN THOSE AGAINST THE LAW
READ the facts about the Dream Act and not the propaganda from Senator Harry Reid's Liberal party leadership that must–END? Sen. Jeff Sessions put out the following release last week on the DREAM Act, that it’s an incremental illegal-alien amnesty bill. IT IS A VERY CAREFULLY PLANNED AMNESTY, FULL OF RHETORIC? BUT EVERY TAXPAYER NEEDS TO READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE WHITE PAPER. Remember your taxes are certain to accelerate upwards, to pay for all these indecent provisions. American citizens are already having money extorted from them to pay for the babies of illegal aliens born here, the education of illegal alien children, the health care for all family members and crammed prisons and jails for convicted illegal alien felons. All needs to to be paid for by your taxes? High on the list of Negatives is that the students, will be able to sponsor immediate family members under the chain migration law.
Not so much the students who would become naturalized citizens, but the chain migration that would snowball for all family members. As I have said before we are committing financial suicide, because the majority of guarantors never honor their affidavits to support the people they vouch? In the end the older family folks who have never paid into the Social Security system, become another public welfare liability. Hundreds of thousands or may be millions have been allowed into America on the surety of the original sponsor, who failed to support his-her immediate family. Over the years taxpayers have been confronted with this issue, as the US government never had the man-power to enforce this sponsorship law. Years of non-compliance has be come yet another Social Security, (SSI) Supplementary Income of Tax payers left to pay even heavier taxes in support of people who were sponsored and then neglected. The amount of money that cannot even be estimated, that is being appropriated every year to account for the illegal immigration invasion.
Another provision that misleads the public, is the fact that an illegal alien can join the military in this time of conflict and collect as a gaurantee a path to citizenship. Under under current law (10 USC § 504), the Secretary of Defense can authorize the enlistment of illegal aliens. Once enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces, under 8 USC § 1440, these illegal aliens can become naturalized citizens through expedited processing, often obtaining U.S. citizenship in six months.
The invasion hasn't stopped and never will until we cut of all welfare entitlements?
WANT THE REALITY OF COSTS? GOOGLE—Illegal immigrant costs and find out for yourself and then you decide? Then go to the Heritage Foundation website and it will explain with graphs, projections and text by the reputable in-depth analysis by Robert Rector.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/06/…
Next week will add further enticements for illegal immigrants to come here, if this Dream Act passes?
Here is the full text of the Dream Act (S. 3827: Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill…
These corrupted legislators will not even tell you the real costs, for settling instant-citizenship infants (Anchor Babies?) Here is the last chance to harass your Senator or Representative by phoning (202)224-3121. Challenge them to stop the Left wing zealots for planting another Amnesty in America called the DREAM ACT. HOW CAN SENATOR HARRY REID AND HIS HIERARCHY OF LIBERAL CRONIES, PUSH PASSAGE OF THE DREAM ACT WHEN 15 TO 22 MILLION AMERICANS ARE GROVELING FOR A JOB. IN MOST CASES ANY JOB TO FEED THEIR FAMILIES OR LOSE THEIR HOMES TO FORECLOSURE?
Yes, they broke laws to live here. they are illegal immigrants. but HELLO! It's partly the U.S.'s fault that they did so. where were the border controls? The U.S. has to own up to its own mistakes. They broke the law only because the U.S. let them. The U.S. needs to pass the DREAM Act. It is common sense. Everyone is a HUMAN BEING before a citizen of any country. Let the kids have a way to become citizens.
They willl benefit trillions of dollars to the economy. We already spent trillions on their education up until high school so far…what a waste, I say, if they can't benefit society with what they learned. The people that don't agree with the DREAM Act are just bitter and are so close-minded.
These kids are HUMAN BEINGS. It is only right to let them have the opportunities and respect a human being should have.