Every day, 12-year-old Kevin Prada sends a letter to President Barack Obama.
The letter tells the heart-wrenching story of his father, a Peruvian immigrant who was deported after years of working and paying taxes in the U.S.
“The day he got deported was the worst, saddest day of my life. My dad paid taxes, and established a life in America, but he was arrested like a criminal,” said Prada, as he read his letter aloud at a community hearing to raise support for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act on Saturday.
Prada continued reading his letter, which urged President Obama to implement immigration reform so that his family, and others in the same situation, could one day be reunited.
Although Obama still has not replied to the letter, hope for immigration reform might be on the horizon, according to various members of the UCLA community, including the director of the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, Kent Wong.
“We now have a president who has publicly stated his support for the DREAM Act. Also, we have a larger Democratic base in Congress. So I think this year, above any other, we have the best chance of passing the DREAM Act,” Wong said.
The DREAM Act, if passed, would provide a way for long-term resident immigrant students with good moral character to apply for legal residency, according to a press release from the National Immigration Law Center.
Implementation of the DREAM Act would give about 65,000 undocumented students living in America the chance to pursue education and participate fully in their communities, the statement added.
Members of the UCLA community, and supporters of the DREAM Act gathered at Saturday’s event in Moore Hall, which was hosted by the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, along with various other communities organizations, including student group Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success.
IDEAS is a student organization which was created to support undocumented students, particularly those with AB 540 status.
Undocumented students with AB 540 status are those who have graduated from high school in California that they attended for at least three years, and who are currently in the process of adjusting their immigration status, according to a press release from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Under the AB 540 law, undocumented immigrant students are exempted from paying the out-of-state tuition fees that they often cannot afford.
The AB 540 law, which was passed in 2001, has faced opposition since its introduction from those who argue that it violates the rights of U.S. citizens, particularly those still required to pay out-of-state fees.
About 75 people attended the event, which included testimonies from undocumented UCLA students, as well as screenings of short films created by UCLA students and alumni.
One of the videos, directed by 2006 alumna Tam Tran, featured a male undocumented student with his face blurred to protect his identity.
“We’re here struggling. Hoping to make it, hoping to dream and hoping those dreams will become a reality,” said the anonymous student in Tran’s film.
But it was the student testimonies that drew the most emotion from the attentive crowd, whose applause increased with each testimony.
Karina Dorado, a first-year psychology student, told of her immigration to the U.S. at age 4 with her family, who hoped to “fulfill the American dream.”
However, Dorado said she faced a harsh reality when it came time to apply for colleges, and she was forced to pay a huge number of different fees.
Dorado added that she still struggles to pay educational fees.
“I’m here in good standing, I don’t do anything wrong. But yet I have to work harder than other students,” Dorado said.
But Dorado, along with the other student speakers, voiced hope that the DREAM Act would soon become a reality.
In fact, the act is expected to be reintroduced in Congress within the next month according to recent conversations with members of Congress, Wong said.
Margaret Mott, a representative for California congressman Howard Berman, the original author of the DREAM Act, asserted that Berman will push to get the DREAM Act considered by Congress.
However, in October 2007, Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the DREAM Act, citing the state’s limited financial aid resources as the sole reason for the veto.
In addition to the act’s unsuccessful history, there are other difficulties standing in the way of the passage of the DREAM Act, Wong said.
“The main difficulty we face is that there is fierce anti-immigrant sentiment especially because of the economic crisis.
“In times of economic crisis, there tends to be more negative sentiment towards immigrants,” he said.
Maria Rodriguez, a youth organizer at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, agreed that there are barriers in the way of achieving immigration reform.
“There are still a lot of Congress members who are not willing to speak out for fear of retaliation. Also, there is a need to undo myths that exist about immigrants,” she said.
Students, according to both Rodriguez and Wong, are integral to the success of the DREAM Act and immigration reform in general.
Rodriguez said the biggest contribution that UCLA students can make is to write and call their representatives in government and ask them to support immigration reform.
As part of the ongoing action to pass the DREAM Act, UCLA students have already testified in front of Congress, held food strikes, and reached out to the media, Wong said.
Wong estimates that there are currently several hundred undocumented students at UCLA, although the exact number is not known.