Jose Luis Zacatelco didn’t know what a social security card was until he started to fill out college applications in high school.
He asked his parents, who brought him to the United States from Mexico at age 10, for the number and they told him that he didn’t have one. Without a social security number, his Long Island City High School college counselor told Zacatelco he could not apply to college. A friend told him he could, but would need to pay full tuition since he did not qualify for federal financial aid. He saved money and, in 2001, at age 21, enrolled at LaGuardia Community College. In 2002, New York State passed a law to give undocumented students in-state tuition. A total of 10 states now do, but Zacatelco hopes to get more to do so.
In a forum entitled “A Dream Deferred: The DREAM Act,” at LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC) on Monday, May 11, Zacatelco, now 28 years old, represented one of the 65,000 undocumented students that graduates from high school every year, who, according to the National Immigration Law Center, cannot afford the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition, which in most states averages about $18,000, continue to lack a social security number upon graduation – without which they cannot work – and have never lived in any other country other than the United States.
The forum panel, which included an immigration lawyer, community immigration services and a member of the local media, aimed to provide a background to members of the LAGCC community about the DREAM Act, which,, if passed, would help more students receive a post-secondary education and begin a path towards legal residency, if they complete their college education or serve at least two years in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The bipartisan bill, reintroduced on March 26, by Senators Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Dick Durbin (Illinois) along with their colleagues in the House Representatives Howard Berman and Lucille Roybal-Allard (California) and Lincoln Diaz-Balard (Florida), would “determine state residency requirements for higher education” and “authorize the cancellation of removal” of students who entered in the United States as children. This marked the fifth time the DREAM Act had been introduced in Congress.
LAGCC spokesperson Jose L. Orengo said that LAGCC “was more than happy to be an advocate” on behalf of the DREAM Act, but reminded attendees that “introduction does not mean it’s going to pass.” Passage of the DREAM Act could impact close to 10,000 undocumented City University of New York (CUNY) students, according to a lawyer who advises CUNY on immigration issues.
To educate undocumented students, Zacatelco became involved with other students and in 2006 co-founded the New York State Youth Leadership Council. His organization now helps organize high school and college students for letter writing campaigns, protests and lobbying trips to Washington, D.C. Both Senators and eight Representatives of New York State have co-signed the bill.
Opponents of the DREAM Act claim that passage of the bill would encourage illegal immigration, take college seats away from legal residents, broadly define ‘student’ and unfairly allow illegal immigrants to skip ahead of other people who have lawfully applied for residency in the United States.
“Once again, Congress is ignoring the interests and concerns of hard-working, law-abiding Americans in order to reward illegal immigrants and pander to the illegal alien lobby,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in a press release issued on March 27. “Even as American families are struggling, and nearly every state is facing a budget crisis, Congress is prepared to mandate huge additional burdens in the form of a massive illegal alien amnesty.”
Proponents of the DREAM Act, however, like the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), claim that many of these undocumented students are hardworking, goal-oriented, high achieving students that, once they graduate, will form part of an educated professional class less likely to be a burden on society. NILC also notes that less than two percent of high school graduates are undocumented students making it unlikely that these students are displacing citizens of students with legal residency.
And as the DREAM Act floats from one congressional committee to another, undocumented students – some present at the LAGCC forum – wonder what will happen to them if the act doesn’t pass. For this reason, Zacatelco said that “even if the DREAM Act didn’t help me, I would still fight for it.”
“Immigrants come here thinking about the future of their children,” he said. “The act supports everyone’s dreams.”
