Padres Unidos staffer DREAMs of justice

By Cindy RodriguezDenver Post Staff ColumnistMarch 20, 2007Julie Gonzáles, a youth organizer from Denver, watched in awe as thousands of Americans converged on the nation's capital last week to lobby on behalf of undocumented immigrants.
As a staffer at Padres Unidos, the nonprofit Colorado organization fighting for educational justice, she lobbied congressional aides on a particular bill: The DREAM Act, which would enable undocumented students who have grown up in America to attend college at the in-state tuition rate.
Gonzáles, a 2005 Yale University graduate, knows the value her degree commands. But she's putting her Ivy League education to work for voiceless students, the tens of thousands of children who - without the DREAM Act - are priced out of college.
"We're hoping this bill will be passed this session," she told me. "Too much is at stake."
At 24, Gonzáles has amazing insight: "If the end goal is to go to college and they're unable to do so, many students think, 'What's the point?' They lose motivation in their studies and drop out."
In the debate over so-called illegal immigration, hatemongers hurl venomous words to dehumanize hardworking people. Those people may be brown-skinned and speak a foreign tongue but they're no different than the millions of European immigrants who arrived in this country a century ago - without documents because back then the U.S. government didn't require them.
Yes, we need secure borders to better control the flow of people entering our country. But a more holistic approach that takes into account the reasons people arrive is necessary.
When it comes to the children of undocumented immigrants, Americans are sympathetic. Even curmudgeons realize children have no say in where their parents take them. If these kids work as hard as their peers in school, why should they pay three times as much to attend college?
Smart members of Congress understand the consequences. That's why this measure, titled "The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act," was introduced in both the Senate and House earlier this month with bipartisan support.
It would allow the estimated 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from high school each year to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation if they can prove they were younger than 16 when they entered the country, have lived here for at least five years and have not committed any crimes. To become legal residents they would have to complete either two years of college or serve two years in the military. It would allow these students to apply for college loans and allow states to decide whether to grant them in-state tuition.
It would undo a provision in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that bars states from allowing undocumented students to pay the in-state tuition rate and cancels a provision requiring the students be deported.
Without this law, these students are left in limbo, unable to legally work and unable to attend college, since the tuition would be out of their reach.
It's the only logical solution. Think about the alternative: If they are blocked from receiving higher education - the great equalizer in our society - they will wind up in some of the same dead-end jobs their parents had.
Countless studies show that when the succeeding generation remains in the underclass, it's likely to spawn future generations that remain mired in the cycle of poverty. As it goes with any economy, when groups are stymied, it becomes a drain on the rest of society.
Gonzáles puts it this way: "We've been investing in the education of these kids from kindergarten to grade 12 and then saying, 'That's it.' It's like having thousands of shares of stock and saying, 'I'm going to throw that investment away.' "
Cindy Rodríguez's column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Visit Cindy's blog at denverpostbloghouse.com/rodriguez
Leave a voice message at 303-954-1211 or e-mail her at crodriguez@denverpost.com.