CALHOUN, Ga. — A group of four students and a mom this week cut pieces of fabric, carefully stitched them together to make small pillows to send to Congress.
Then, to represent the dreams of thousands of Hispanic teens, they glued photos of students in black caps and gowns to the fluffy, white cushions.
The dream is to go to college, said Rosario Reyna.
“I’m lucky to be a U.S. citizen, but I have a lot of friends who are undocumented and are not going to be able to go to college after they graduate from high school,” Ms. Reyna said as she stitched another pillow.
PDF: Dream Act letter and summary
Dream Act bills
* House and Senate versions of the Dream Act were introduced in Congress last week.
* Both bills would let a number of undocumented students become U.S. citizens if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years.
Today, 100 of the pillows will be mailed to Congress by members of the Latinos for Justice and Education Organization. The small, white pillows were made by students — undocumented and not — their parents and other supporters of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which was reintroduced in Congress last week.
Known as the Dream Act, it would enact two major changes in current law.
It would allow certain immigrant students who have grown up in the United States to apply for temporary legal status and eventually become eligible for U.S. citizenship if they go to college or serve in the U.S. military, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
It also would eliminate a federal provision that penalizes states that provide in-state college tuition to residents without regard for immigration status, the center says.
Because of higher tuition rates for illegal immigrants, classified as out-of-state students, advocates say it’s almost impossible for many of them to go to college.
There are about 2 million undocumented children in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, and each year about 65,000 of them graduate from high school.
“We are raising awareness,” said Roberta Warmack, president of the Latinos for Justice and Education Organization. “We want the community, the state and the country to know about (this problem) because many don’t.”
With the pillows, they want to alert Congress and the White House, she said.
“The pillows are to dream and this is what the children are dreaming of, to go to college,” Ms. Warmack said.
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said, however, the Dream Act would reward illegal immigration.
“I understand the complex details of students who are seeking financial assistance for educational purposes, who were brought to this country by their parents without a choice,” he said in an e-mail.
But, “I am not supportive of programs that reward those behaviors,” Sen. Isakson said. “I would not support legislation that will pay for the education of an illegal immigrant when there are thousands of United States citizens who are in need of similar educational funds.”
Keli Morales, a 10th-grader at Gordon Central High School, said she wants to lead by example, reach her goals and make her dreams come true.
Flor E. Sanchez, who stitched pillows with the help of her mother, Flor, said participating in the project is a way to show Congress that teens care about the Dream Act, too.
“Congress will see that teenagers really want this to happen, it is not only parents pushing (for the Dream Act),” she said.
Mrs. Sanchez said Congress should realize it was not the children’s fault they were brought to the country illegally.
“It is a decision their parents made, and the children should not be punished for it,” she said.
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. In 2011 she participated in the Bringing Home the World international reporting fellowship program sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, producing a series on Guatemalan immigrants for which she ...
The proposed DREAM act is discriminatory and unconstitutional. But is not surprising that the illegal alien lobby would propose to reward illegal aliens who have successfully evaded arrest.
Schools are not willing to forego out of state tuition for American citizens and legal immigrants who are not legal residents of the state, and illegal aliens are not legal residents. Schools require that foreign students who have come into the country legally pay out of state tuition, yet illegal aliens think they should be entitled to a reward for not being deported.
This is nothing more than one of many pieces of legislation designed to provide amnesty to illegal aliens, something that they American people are overwhelmingly against.
What other criminal -other than an illegal alien - would gain any sympathy for holding their children in front of them to evade punishment for their deeds?
I propose that we overturn th e Plyer vs Doe decision, the 5/4 decision that allowed minor illegal aliens to be educated in our public schools. I invite you to read that decision. It specifically stated that "education is not a right". The American citizens and legal immigrants have been paying for that decision since then and our schools have suffered tremendously. Our children are being victimized by illegal aliens.
The pillow idea sounds just like the rest of the fluffy rhetoric being passed around about how much American citizens and legal immigrants owe the ILLEGAL ALIENS just for having violated the sovereignty and laws of the United States. How about putting some of the responsibility on the parents of illegal alien children! What is wrong with this picture is that Americans are too polite and self conscious to fight back against the invasion and crime of illegal aliens. If American citizens and legal immigrants would wake up and realize that illegal aliens are thieves in the truest sense we would send them home where they belong.
I think it is a great idea. These students go through most of their lives in the United States learning the language, culture, and some even graduate with honors. I know that being ILLEGAL here in the United State is Illegal but it is not their fault that their parents decided their future for them. If they qualify for the DREAM ACT then they have earned the right to get a higher education and be some one in the world.
These students are NOT CRIMINALS!!!!! They are students trying to make it in this cruel world full of hate toward any thing that is different from them.
I AM A PROUD US CITIZEN FROM BIRTH AND IF THESE STUDENTS HAVE DEMONSTRATED TO BE WORTHY FOR THE DREAM ACT THEN I AM ALL FOR IT.
If you read every word that is on the DREAM ACT you would know that they have to pass requirements (HAVE GOOD MORAL CONDUCT, GO TO COLLEGE OR JOIN THE SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES)and this will not benefit any of their family members in any way. The student will be the only one that gains something out of this DREAM ACT. It is a CONDITIONAL RESIDENCY THAT THESE STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE AND AFTER THEY HAVE FINISHED THEIR COLLEGE DEGREE THEY ARE STUCK BEING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AGAIN.
First of all, there are many criminals who have children - who suffer for their parents acts. Look at any jail or prison in the United States. Giving them a benefit as a result of their parents criminal acts would encourage parents to commit criminal acts. It makes no sense. What bank robber who gives his children the money allows the children to keep the money because they are nice people?
They need to return to their country of origin. They are adults now, and capable of making adult choices with integrity. We do not owe them a college education. Foreign students are expected to follow the rules, or they are not allowed to attend college in the United States. Illegal aliens should do the same.
Receiving an elementary education - among the many other taxpayer funded benefits that they have received - does not mean that they are entitled to continue receive benefits as adults. They have already received much more than what they are entitled to.
In case you haven't noticed, the schools have had their budgets cut tremendously. If they give In state tuition to illegal aliens, then they must give it to all American citizens and foreign nationals. If you propose that the schools receive a reduction in tuition, where do you think the money should come from? Who is going to pay for the freebies you want to give to illegal aliens?
If you want to make a humanitarian statement, pull out your checkbook and pay for their education. Don't force the taxpayers to pay for your charitable causes.
PS. It is not hateful to insist that a certain group of people abide by the same rules that we all must abide by. It is not racist, hateful, or xenophobic. It is common sense.
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