Posted on 12/15/2002 10:28:30 AM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
Illegal immigrants can get degrees, then can't get jobs.
Ricardo Leyva was 11 years old when he was smuggled across the border into the United States, a place he now calls home.
Now 22, the Mexico native has been accepted to the University of California San Diego, where he wants to study medicine. But he's caught in a predicament faced by the 50,000 to 70,000 undocumented immigrants who graduate from U.S. high schools each year.
Though he could earn a college degree, Leyva can't legally work in the United States. He isn't eligible to receive federal financial aid either.
A bipartisan bill making its way through Congress could change that.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minor Act, known as the DREAM Act, would grant U.S. residency to certain undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school. Its supporters are optimistic the bill will become law, because it has influential sponsors on both sides of the aisle: Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
The bill quietly cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in June but didn't come up for a full vote. A spokeswoman for Hatch said he plans to re-introduce it when Congress reconvenes. The House of Representatives was considering a similar bill.
Students throughout the United States, led by groups such as the National Immigration Law Center, are lobbying for the legislation. Leyva, whose short, thin build and baby face make him look younger than his age, is so determined to see the bill passed that he's speaking out publicly, despite the risk of deportation.
He and another undocumented San Diego college student recently formed the Coalition of Student Advocates; set up a Web site, www.cosaonline.org and began a letter-writing campaign to President Bush and members of Congress.
"I knew what I was putting myself into by exposing myself," Leyva said about his decision to reveal his immigration status. "But I'm ready for anything. It's better to do something than to remain quiet."
The DREAM Act would apply only to young people in the United States at the time of its passage and would expire after six years. Applicants must be between 12 and 21 and have been in the country at least five years when the bill became law. Anyone with a criminal record would be excluded.
Immigrants over 21 would qualify if they obtained their high school diploma or equivalent within four years of the law's enactment and are enrolled in college or have graduated from college.
Also, the bill would make it easier for states to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges. Currently only California, Texas, New York and Utah allow that.
The bill's opponents include Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who said it would reward illegal immigrants and encourage illegal immigration.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform said the federal government should not have to pay for the mistakes of parents who brought their children to the United States illegally.
"These kids are in difficult situations, but these are situations their parents put them in," said Ira Mehlman, the organization's spokesman. "We all have to live with the decisions that our parents made, good or bad."
Mehlman said the United States must be careful about helping undocumented immigrants at the expense of native-born Americans.
"When you admit someone who is here illegally you are saying no to somebody else," he said.
But in his remarks to the Judiciary Committee, Hatch said his bill will help young immigrants who came here through no choice of their own and have assimilated into the American culture.
"They attend school, participate in extracurricular activities, and even go to college," he said. "But the law denies them any chance, no matter what their individual accomplishments, to become lawful permanent residents."
Hatch cited the case of a 19-year-old University of Utah student who came here illegally at age 6 and was later abandoned by his mother. The youth overcame a drug problem and went to college, but without federal intervention he can still be deported to Mexico, a country he hardly knows.
Hatch said the Utah student and other young immigrants need to know that their education will mean something. Undocumented immigrants have a right to public education only through high school.
"We cannot sit idly by while more minds and potential go to waste," he said.
Public opinion over immigration remains sharply divided.
Earlier this year, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to investigate 18-year-old honors student Jesus Apodaca and his family after the youth was featured in a newspaper article talking about the difficulties undocumented students face when trying to go to college. The Apodacas weren't deported, but the family went into hiding because of the controversy. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is seeking a private bill to legalize the family.
Leyva said he was shocked when he heard about the incident, because Apodaca's story is so similar to his own.
He, his mother and two younger brothers, now 18 and 19, were smuggled across the border in 1991 to join his father and other siblings in San Diego. Years later his parents separated and he and his mother, three brothers and a sister were briefly homeless.
He dropped out of school for a while but went back, took a liking to math and science, and graduated with a 3.96 grade point average from Garfield High School in 1999. "I just wanted to be somebody in life," he said.
A high school counselor helped him enroll at San Diego City College, where he studied with the help of a private scholarship, made the dean's list and participated in student government and honor clubs.
He realized a dream in September when he transferred to UCSD, where he was accepted into the bio-engineering department. But he had to withdraw after a few weeks, because he couldn't scrape together the money for his tuition.
Leyva plans to return to UCSD next month with the help of a small loan from a high school mentor. He also plans to keep lobbying for passage of the DREAM Act.
Last week he and a friend organized a workshop at City College to explain the legislation. About 50 students, most of them Latino, attended.
The lone critic in the audience was an older man who was vocal about his belief that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for services for "illegal aliens."
Leyva and his friend let the man speak his mind. Later Leyva said he used to feel guilty about his immigration status, but not anymore. He feels like he's an American. All he wants now is to make it official.
"I feel I'm deserving," he said. "I've carried myself in a manner worthy of it."
Many illegals use bogus SSN's, apparently colleges don't bother to check, or aren't required to. Some banks and other institutions are accepting matricular cards now, only illegal aliens would need them.
The whole system is turning into a scam, one set of laws for the lawbreakers and one for the rest of us.
Sharply divided between globalists and Americans.
Would my US citizen kid be denied in-state California tuition just because he was born in Texas? I don't see how someone born in Mexico thinks they should be entitled to more than someone born in the USA is.
This kid is a foreign citizen, he should not think he's entitled to anything more than any other foreign student, he can apply for a student visa and pay the foreign tuition rate. Why does he think his parents' breaking the law should entitle him to freebies and handouts?
The whole argument about why we need massive illegal immigration is because we need many people here to pick lettuce and tomatoes and now some of these are turning around and demanding they should have more access than students obeying the law. What happened to the need for the cheap labor?
I have to disagree re there being no medical care to speak of in Mexico. But I do agree that the Mexicans are more in need to more good doctors than we are. One of the great things about the U.S. immigration system is that we legally take in lots of poor immigrants.
This Dream bill is really a Mexico brain drain bill.
Hard to say. Foreigners can get a U.S. taxpayer identification number, which is really exactly the same thing as a social security number. If that person ever immigrates here, that is their social security number. Legally (although perhaps not enforced) this number is required for VA benefits -- for example, if you are the foreign national spouse beneficiary of a government life insurance policy taken out by your deceased GI husband, you are supposed to get a number.
However, this is a good question to raise. When you apply for a number, don't you have to provide your nationality? And did these people tell the truth about that?
I wouldn't look for them to ever bothering to check either. They could care less where the student comes from, as long as they are getting their $$$$ out of it. That's all they care about. Look at all the over stayed, illegal student visas already are out there. As long as there is a $ sign attached to them, the liberal colleges (which equates to almost all of them) could care less.
"but no one was hurt in the process, and I did it for a good reason, my kids needed food and a better house to live in and look, I am going to use the money to go to medical school so I can become a doctor.. so how can you find fault with this, give me congressional amnesty, make it legal and ok that I robbed the bank, it's the humanitarian thing to do afterall."Bankrobbing is STILL A CRIME and if we let some criminals get away with it and even reward them for it, then robbing banks will become a common occurance. or manybe it already has!
Shameless media whores bump.
That's what I voted for too. Either we do this now, or every five years we're going to have new "Dream Act" bills coming out of Congress.
My guess is because we have bleeding heart politicians in Washington like Orin Hatch who are more than willing to spend our money on them while at the same time forgiving their lawbreaking.
Illegal aliens openly brag that the politicians of this country care more about them than their own people, can you blame them for taking advantage of it?
Stealing from the US treasury, which is what this bill does, is the same thing as robbing a bank.
There have been stories in the national media lately blaming the health care crisis and the financial burdens in Florida and other places on the elderly. No mention of the real cause: the millions of illegal aliens, wouldn't be politically correct.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.