UCLA student Lucia Mendes has realized her dream of attending a
university. But for her, it comes at a price that many others do
not have to pay.
Because her parents, who make little more than minimum wage
““ her father as a mechanic and her mother as a housekeeper
““ are unable to financially support her education, the
third-year political science student is a part-time student working
full-time.
She lives with the very real possibility of not being able to
afford her next quarter in school.
But unlike many other students in a similar financial situation,
she is not eligible for financial aid because she is not a U.S.
citizen.
Mendes shared her story at the Immigration Reform Forum on
Tuesday night, hosted by the Immigration Rights Coalition, whose
goal is to address the current immigration problem and discuss
relevant legislation proposed to resolve it. She recounted numerous
barriers in the way of her higher education, including the fact
that college was never considered an option for her until middle
school.
A lack of public awareness and a need for more student
involvement, problems that plague immigration reform, were
discernible at the forum Tuesday night.
Though guest speakers and coalition members had many points they
wanted to discuss and get across to the student population, few
were there to listen, with barely a dozen students present.
The forum focused on two pieces of legislation that were
specifically relevant to college students and residents of
California, the state with the highest percentage of immigrants in
the country: the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien
Minors Act and the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and
Security Act.
The DREAM Act, which was reintroduced to the U.S. Senate on Nov.
18, would allow immigrant students who have graduated from high
school and lived in the United States for at least five years to
gain conditional legal status for six years to pursue higher
education.
The forum came a day after President Bush visited Tucson, Ariz.,
pushing to strengthen security at the border, increase the number
of holding cells for detained immigrants, and create a new
temporary worker program that would match workers with American
employers “to fill jobs that Americans will not do.”
But Bush would not offer a pathway for citizenship.
Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants, Bush said, would
encourage more people to break the law and allow them to be
rewarded for it.
But several members of the coalition expressed an increased
urgency prompted by Bush’s new policies on illegal
immigration and emphasized the importance of debating the efficacy
of these policies.
“We feel that when we talk about immigration, all people
want is deportation, deportation, deportation and enforcement of
laws,” said Jorge Rios, a third-year economics student and
coalition member. “Very little is being done to address the
problems of the people who are here already.”
Diana Tellefson, United Farm Workers national immigration reform
field director, said comprehensive immigration reform should
include a path to citizenship, protection of workers’ rights
regardless of citizenship, and a way to keep families together.
She also spoke about AgJOBS, which would provide the opportunity
for immigrants to gain citizenship after working a certain number
of days per year at a job in the agricultural industry.