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April 13, 2009 · President Obama recently rekindled hope for some of those pushing for comprehensive immigration reform. As a result, Congress may try tackling the issue this year, and the DREAM Act could be part of the effort. It would let some college-aged, undocumented immigrants attend college or join the military. And it could affect more than 10 thousand students in Texas.
Benita Veliz, 23, may be the DREAM Act poster child. A San Antonio church employee, school tutor, and choir director, she came to San Antonio from Mexico when she was eight and her parents are undocumented.
Veliz was her high school valedictorian, received a full college scholarship, and graduated with a double major. But two months ago she was pulled over for running a stop sign. Because she’s not a legal resident and lacks a license, she now awaits deportation.
“I feel every bit American … Really, I think like I am an American. I wouldn’t know how to be anything but American, anything but Texan. I literally would have no place to go,” she says.
Veliz hasn’t been in Mexico for nearly 20 years. She was in Dallas for an SMU symposium on the DREAM Act, short for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors. The act would let her pursue a dream of attending law school. Others could join the military for a limited period of time. Attorney Beto Cardenas, who was Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s General Counsel, says the act makes sense because it’s for good kids who stayed in school.
“Here they are doing exactly that, getting good grades, graduating with a high school degree when we have a 50 percent Hispanic dropout rate. These are the children that did what they were supposed to do,”
he says.
Cardenas says the act needs tweaking, and is not an amnesty program which critics have labeled it. He says these children should not pay for the sins of their parents. A Texas law allows undocumented students to attend a state college for in state tuition, but the DREAM Act would grant temporary legal residency and let hopeful college students apply for federal aid. |
