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10.18.2007 = JAYPLAY
ABLE DREAM
e people the news talk about, two students who attend a university everyday and live as undocumented immigrants.
you do if everything seems to be nst you?"
to be able to pay in-state tuition, a sister has his sister to sign an affidavit making that she will apply for friendship as soon as she can qualify, dents also have to graduate in a Kansas high school and lived in the state for at least e years. Because of the Federal it to Privacy act, the University not allowed to release any of the residency details that are directory information.
since the passage of the law, it
been challenged many times by
opponents, including out-of-states
and other organizations.
a Mehlman, a spokesman for Don't Speak For me, a nationalization of Hispanics who speak against illegal immigration, says
undocumented immigrants committed a crime by crossing United States and their children did not be rewarded.
heilman says that not passing the development, Relief and Educationallen Minors (DREAM) act, which did allow students who have been the United States for five yearsmore, have graduated from highcollege and plan to go to college,apply for American citizenship,id not punish the children of
undocumented immigrants. The children would still be allowed to remain in the nation, but they would also not be rewarded for their parents' crime by receiving citizenship.
"Somebody else's kids are going pay the price. If an undocumented student gets into KU somebody else in the state of Kansas isn't getting in."
He says that because the parents of undocumented immigrants put them in this situation, they should be the ones who deal with it and not the US government.
Maria, an undocumented student at Kansas State University studying architecture who has asked that her name be changed for security issues, is another one of the students Mehlman is referring to.
She found a way to pay for college through privately funde scholarships that didn't require a social security number. Like Karina's sister, Maria can't work to pay for her tuition because she doesn't want to break the law.
Yet, she believes that same determination that got her into a state university will lead her to find a path towards citizenship.
"I learned you can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it," Maria says. "I do have obstacles. I'm trying to get an internship and I
can't work but I'm trying to find a way. There is a way. I have to find a way."
immigrants, her daughter to have a good education and a higher quality of life than they did in their home country. In Mexico, her father sold fruits and vegetables out of the back of an old car. They used the business as means of living until they could pay for
undocumented parents wanted
"WE WANT TO BE PART OF THE ECONOMY, WE WANT TO BE GOOD PEOPLE AND WE WANT TO GET EDUCATED."
gasoline anymore. Maria tells the story of her family having to push the car to take it around town with a shyiqole.
Although Maria knows that a family pushing a car around is a comedic image, what the image represents is also what brought her parents to the United States a year and a half after that episode. They left a 14-year-old Maria in Mexico and moved to Kansas where they worked as cheap labor.
college as an architect with dreams of one day being able to build affordable housing in Kansas. But she doesn't meet any of the requirements to be
Today, Maria is a year and a semester away from graduating from
--KARINA
able to apply for citizenship in the United States.
The path to reaching her dream, she says, is very blurry. Mary won't be able to legally apply to for a job once she graduates, she can't apply for internships, and because she doesn't have a driver's license, she won't be able
to take a required test for architecture students to get recognized.
But Maria doesn't sit waiting for policies to change. She belongs to organizations that promote the DREAM act. The act is planned to be introduced to the senate in late October or early November.
"I don't want to go back to Mexico. I keep saying that I will see what happens when I graduate. I really hope the DREAM act happens, that's all I can say."
But the debate about the law that
would allow Maria to work after she graduates and Karina's sister to afford the University is still heated.
David Trevino, an immigration lawyer, believes that children of undocumented immigrants should have an opportunity to study and work in the country that formed their education.
"Even though it was the parent who broke the law, the children shouldn't be held accountable for that. They should be given an opportunity to legalize." Treino says.
Both Karina and Maria listen to all sides of the debate carefully. For them, it is not an isolated problem that is being discussed in offices in Washington or on CNN—it is a law that would change their lives.
When talking about the illegal immigration discussion, Karina's sister starts talking non-stop, getting obviously frustrated with every word coming out of her mouth. She says if she could talk to the people who discuss the issue on TV or in the legislature, she would have too much to say.
"I just want them to know that we want to be part of the country, which is not a bad thing," she says. "We want to be part of the economy, we want to be good people and we want to get educated."
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