For the 70,000 undocumented students that graduate High Schools each year the future is uncertain. Their access to post-secondary education in the United States is halted due to their immigration status and the inability to access public funding for higher education.
Aspiring undocumented college bound students are ineligible for public forms of financial aid often needed to finance the cost of their education and in certain cases are denied admission to public and private institutions despite their academic qualifications, due to their undocumented status.
But students are not standing by idle; they are pushing for an educational reform that could also grant them a pathway to citizenship under certain parameters the Dream Act would enable immigrant youth who meet certain criteria, coming to the U.S as children, having graduated from a U.S. high school, and completing two years of college or military service, an opportunity to legalize their immigration status.
Yesterday a group of Hispanic students valiantly stood outside the office of congresswoman Nydia Velázquez president of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to urge her to support the stand-alone Dream act. Velázquez currently supports the Dream Act as part of the comprehensive immigration reform, not as a stand-alone. But students are weary of the passage of a comprehensive reform and are urging a stand-alone piece of legislation.
It appears that the organized marches, hunger strikes outside the offices of congressmen with the power to pave a new path are paying off. Congressman Luis Gutiérrez who shares the views of Velázquez has agreed to try and convince the members of the Hispanic Caucus to support the stand-alone cause of the next Latino generation, as a stand-alone piece of legislation.
Anyone interested in supporting the cause there will be a national mobilization in Washington D.C. urging nation’s leaders to approve the law. For more information on the march visit www.thedreamiscoming.com
