Waiting to Live the DREAM Act

Carlos Roa, a 22-year- old, Venezuelan-born student is just trying to do something about his situation. Roa is one of nearly 65,000 undocumented young people each year who live in fear of being deported even though they came to the United States as children, without a choice. But Roa, who attends Miami Dade College, is working on pushing for passage of a bill that would change his life and the lives of thousands of others.

To push for the DREAM Act, legislation that would help educate and legalize an entire generation of young, undocumented immigrants, Roa and three other activists began a five-month walk from Miami to Washington, D.C., on January 1. They called it The Trail of Dreams, and along the way, they shared their stories and became personal heroes to millions of undocumented immigrants in the country. [Disclosure: Campus Progress is working actively in partnership with Trail of Dreams on activities in support of the DREAM Act.]

There are over 1.5 million undocumented young people in the United States without a path to legalization and without access to higher education. Many of them are now fighting to become residents and citizens of the United States, to gain access to higher education and to participate in what most Americans take for granted: the ability to work, drive and live without the fear of deportation.

Without a job or an education to fall back on, Roa was 20 when he became frustrated with living in a country for 18 years without really being a part of it. "I couldn’t fulfill any of my dreams," says Roa.

Now, Roa has become a leader of the immigrant youth movement, one he describes as "creative." That movement acts largely to pass the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant conditional residency to undocumented students who were brought to the United States before the age of 16, demonstrate good moral character, graduate from high school and complete two years of college or military service.

"I’ve never seen [youth activism] at this level," Roa says. "It’s because of the sheer urgency [for the bill] that we’ve seen a lot of activism."

That urgency hits on a personal level, with many activists facing the risk of deportation by outing themselves as undocumented. During a recent sit-in to urge Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to support the DREAM Act, four students were arrested and three of them now face deportation. DREAM activists also focus on civil disobedience — they rally across the nation, walk thousands of miles in protest, stage sit-ins, write letters to Congress and hold public press conferences.

"A lot of students don’t realize that we’re organizing nationally," says Erika Andiola, president of the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition, an alliance of statewide organizations dedicated to the passage of the bill. "The DREAM Act isn’t only a bill. It’s been something that’s united the youth. It’s not going to stop once the DREAM act has passed. It’s going to grow into something that will affect the whole community."

Andiola realizes she’s one of the lucky few. Even as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, she was able to graduate from Arizona State University last year. Her experience as a DREAM activist has clearly been affected by the fact that she’s living in Arizona. The state’s recently-passed SB 1070 (PDF), which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally, gives law enforcement officers the authority to check the immigration status of anyone they stop and eliminates sanctuary cities she says, is a double-edged sword. The controversy over the state’s law has taken the focus off of the DREAM Act, but it has also given a face to the struggle of undocumented immigrants.

The DREAM Act has a long history [PDF]. The legislation was first introduced in Congress in 2001, and since then, it has been re-introduced every few years by members of Congress. It has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee twice with bipartisan support in the 2004 and in 2006 as an amendment to the comprehensive immigration reform bill that was moving through Congress at the time. In 2006, the DREAM Act passed the full Senate as part of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, but the bill failed in 2007.

The bill was re-introduced last year in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), along with six co-cosponsors, and in the House, as the American Dream Act, by Representatives Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) along with seven co-sponsors. The 2009 versions of the bill currently have 119 co-sponsors in the House and 39 co-sponsors in the Senate. President Barack Obama has even pledged to sign the legislation if Congress passes it.

The DREAM Act is one of the few immigration bills that continues to attract the support of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate because of the benefits of educating and legalizing a young generation of immigrants—including a major economic benefit [PDF]. "Our country would benefit from these thousands of well-educated young people," writes Sen. Lugar in a statement to Campus Progress, "and the DREAM Act would allow them to continue their studies or open up the opportunity for service in our Armed Forces."

And while many DREAM activists support comprehensive immigration reform, they’ve largely focused on pushing for this particular piece of legislation. Activists note that Congress has yet to take up immigration reform on the floor, either because a large-scale bill does not yet have Republican support or because it’s simply unlikely that it’ll pass right before mid-term elections. So instead of pushing for immigration overhaul, many activists and organizations are asking Congress to pass the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill, which they believe has a much better chance of passing.

"We came to a conclusion that it’s almost impossible for [comprehensive immigration reform] to pass this year," says Andiola. "What we want is to legalize those students that came here and are vulnerable. We want the DREAM Act to be the first step to a reform."

DREAM Act supporters in Congress, though, aren’t sure if passing the bill as a stand-alone is the right thing to do. According to a recent article in The Hill, Durbin does not plan to push for the bill anytime soon because it might damage plans for immigration reform. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is working on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, also opposes moving the bill separately.

Lugar is one supporter who’s been open-minded about passing the bill as a stand-alone. "I have urged my colleagues to consider the DREAM Act as an important step toward immigration reform, whether considered separately or as part of a larger bill," he wrote to Campus Progress.

"We’re trying to get the community on board [for a standalone bill]," says Andiola, who acknowledges that many immigration activists fear passing the DREAM Act could hurt a reform bill. "The DREAM Act is something we can pass within weeks if we can support it … [but] we still have a lot of work to do."

Despite some uncertainty about how the bill will be passed, the DREAM Act is continually gaining support. Like activists, lawmakers supporting the DREAM Act aren’t giving up: In April, Lugar and Durbin asked Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to stop the deportation of young people who would qualify for legal residency under the bill.

And until it becomes law, the student immigrant movement won’t be slowing down either. "We need to continue to push Congress and the president," says Roa. "Students can no longer wait."

Julissa Treviño is a staff writer for Campus Progress. She graduated from Ithaca College in 2009.

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