Student Advocates Help Realize a DREAM

Oct. 8, was a day of victory for a group of 22 Life Academy students in Oakland, Calif.

They are part of a 2-year-old advocacy club called “The Real DREAM Act Movement.” Students met regularly to support in campaigning for the passage of the federal DREAM Act. After several weeks of active letter writing and campaigning, their dream had finally come true: California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 131 [2], a companion bill to AB 130, together known as the “California DREAM Act.”

Starting in January, 2013 this act will allow undocumented students in the state to apply for and receive state financial aid for college in addition to private scholarships—a first in California history.

This journey required travel, courage, passion, hours of work and personal risk. Two weeks before the victory, 11 members of the campus club dedicated to passing the DREAM Act traveled to UC Berkeley after school to attend a Living the DREAM conference hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies.

Among the speakers was Assemblyman Gil Cedillo who believes in investing in public education and has made it his mission to give undocumented students full access to a university education.

Cedillo, the son of immigrant parents, argued that, “As an American, it really is our duty…to advocate for immigrants and for the integration of immigrants into the mainstream.”

Life Academy students were the only high school group represented at the conference. Colombian-born 10th-grader Jaime Sakr addressed Assemblyman Cedillo in the Q&A session. Cedillo congratulated Jaime and praised his courage.

“You know, I didn’t speak publicly until I was 30,” Cedillo said.

The California DREAM Act “says that in California, in the field of education, we are all equal, and that if you work hard, study, play by the rules that you have an opportunity to go to a great university,” he said. “Through one scholarship, one opportunity…you can transform your life, then the life of your family, and then make an impact on your community.”

Sakr is already making an impact on his community by his work for the California DREAM Act, and so are many other undocumented students.

Life Academy alumna Vanessa Borjas was so passionate about passing the federal DREAM Act that she left her family and boarded a bus bound for Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2010 to attend the “March for America,” which sought comprehensive immigration reform.

Stopping at major cities along the way [3], Borjas became an instant spokeswoman on that trip as she eloquently made her case for college.

An undocumented student herself who maintained a GPA above 3.0 throughout high school, Borjas took a personal risk campaigning openly for the rights of undocumented students. She recalls a terrifying moment when the bus carrying 50 people cross-country—many undocumented immigrants—was stopped by police.

Everyone on the bus was threatened with arrest if they did not comply with a search for marijuana, a search which was only prompted because an employee at the restaurant they had stopped at for dinner had given false information to the officials.

Despite the real threat of deportation, Borjas said, “I knew that whether I got arrested or deported, it would have made a difference.”

Now taking classes at a local community college, Borjas has mixed feelings about the recent passage of the California DREAM Act.

“It just makes me happy that I’m living in California …while all these other states are passing laws against immigrants, California is making a law in support of immigrants,” she explained. “At the same time, I am doubtful because it won’t start until 2013.”

In fact, it’s been a long struggle towards this historic legislation and the fight is not over yet.

California is one of only 11 states to allow undocumented students financial aid eligibility. The federal DREAM Act [4], introduced a decade ago, is stalled in Congress. Just two weeks after the passage of the California Dream Act, campaigns to repeal the law are underway. Opponents say the proposed cost of $14.5 million is unthinkable in a tough economy.

In the meantime, Life Academy students applaud Brown, the former mayor of their own city, for taking a bold move forward.

 “With California passing this law, it’s giving other states an example and the government an example to not be afraid of students who are doing well in school,” Borjas said. “The law is not going to help gang members and dropouts, but people who are trying to have a good future.”

If the law survives the opposition, it will go in to effect just in time for Borjas to transfer to a four-year university where she hopes to study either psychology or business. With the passage of the California Dream Act, her dream may no longer have to be deferred.

Thomas is an English teacher in California.