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 Post subject: NWI Times beats the drum for DREAM Act
PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 8:02 am 
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... ca04d.html

Dream Act could open door to college, work in immigration reform

By Carmen McCollum carmen.mccollum@nwi.com, (219) 662-5337 | Posted: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:00 am

Editor's note: This school year, The Times embarks on a project, the first of its kind in Northwest Indiana, to follow Calumet and Hammond high schools, which are on academic probation.

HAMMOND | For his protection, we're going to call him Mike. Mike is a junior at Hammond High School, a good student with a B+ grade point average who participates in numerous school and community activities.

Mike yearns to go to college and is saving up money from his part-time job. But realistically Mike doesn't expect to attend college, unless he can pay for it himself. He is one of thousands of undocumented students in Northwest Indiana who are enrolled in public school but because of the law is not eligible for financial aid for postsecondary education.

Mike was born in Mexico but came here with his family as a toddler. Mike is unwilling to talk more about his family life or to reveal his real name for fear the Immigration and Naturalization Service could deport him and his family.

The Dream Act could change all of that for hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people across the country. The Dream Act, reintroduced in both houses on May 11 after President Obama called for illegal immigration reform, calls for conditional permanent residency to certain illegal and deportable immigrant students who graduate from U.S. high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. legally or illegally as minors and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment.

Ana Morales, a social worker at Hammond High, said the issue of going to college is a problem facing many undocumented students.

"Once they finish high school, there is nothing else for them to do in terms of furthering their education," she said. "The only thing they can do is find outside jobs. Even if they are on the honor roll every semester, in honor society and have done everything right, there are no opportunities for them."

Because of their status, students cannot get a driver's license or a Social Security card. She said the students are often concerned about their families, their future and life after graduation.

Morales said it just doesn't make sense. "It creates a bigger problem for the community when young people are not educated. It would be a great thing for our community if the Dream Act were passed," she said.

Morales said her mother was a U.S. citizen, born in Michigan, but she, herself, was born in Mexico. She said when she was a teenager her mother brought her and her siblings to the U.S. and got the necessary documentation for them.

'It's much harder to get documentation after you are 18 years old," Morales said. "It can take 10 to 15 years."

Hammond High Principal Leslie Yanders said she understands the problem from talking to her students.

"I've written legislators about it over the years. Undocumented students should have an opportunity to attend college, at least, in Indiana, if not across the country," she said.

Allert Brown-Gort, associate director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, said immigration is a complicated issue but the one aspect of the Dream Act is black and white.

"The problem with being an undocumented student in Indiana is there is very limited financial assistance and one cannot access any federal dollars," he said. "Even if a student pays for their entire college education themselves, they are still part of this sort of shadowy economy. What many Latino graduates have done is to open their own businesses."

But Brown-Gort argues that it doesn't make sense to say to these young Latinos that there is nothing for them after high school, and that's why the Dream Act is so important.

"These undocumented children have been raised American. There is no sending them back home. They grew up here. This is their home," he said.


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