Claudia Magana: UC students ready for DREAM Act

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^ | 02/27/2011 | Claudia Magana

[moonshinner_09]

My friend Ernesto is an undocumented AB 540 student at UCLA. He grew up in Los Angeles, graduated from a California high school, was the student body president for Rio Hondo Community College, and has never been in any trouble. The only trouble Ernesto gets into is debating with his friends how he prefers Lil Kim over Nicky Minaj.

Now a fourth-year English major with dreams of going to grad school in public policy and a career as a public servant, Ernesto's road to attaining a higher education has not been easy.

Ernesto, along with tens of thousands of other students in California, faces an unjust two-tiered financial aid system that creates insurmountable barriers to pursuing higher education. Despite the fact that Ernesto graduated from a California high school, has lived here most of his life, and has beat the odds to become a UCLA student, he is denied any access to state grants, scholarships, subsidized loans and institutional aid.

As students know all too well, our fees at UC, CSU and community colleges have skyrocketed over the past few years. Fees at the UCs are now well over $10,000, and total cost can easily surpass $30,000. Like all other students in higher education, undocumented students struggle to afford these fees and costs, yet also have no access to any systematic financial support.

For Ernesto, these costs have made pursuing an education nearly impossible. It took him four years at a community college to get to UCLA, working long hours to save up enough for tuition, and has had to take a number of quarters off since coming to UCLA to be able to deal with the costs.

[kittymyrib]

Why doesn’t he aspire to be something more honest, like a pimp, instead of looking forward to dedicating his life to being a parasite on the body politic?

[x1stcav]

Now a fourth-year English major with dreams of going to grad school in public policy and a career as a public servant,

Oh!, good, another tax taker. Got my good wishes.

[SatinDoll]

An exceptional young man who will be an asset to his country of origin.

[pogo101]

1. I sympathize somewhat with illegals (not “undocumented”s) who are brought here as young minors by their parents. But the solution is not to legalize them. Doing so simply sends a message to FUTURE would-be illegal-border-crossers: “Hey, if you and/or your kids get caught, the very fact that you have kids will somehow keep you all from being deported. So COME ON IN!”

2. DREAM is overbroad even IF we wanted to “not deport” the Ernestos of this land. DREAM allows anyone at least a two-year grace period of legality once he/she even APPLIES, no matter how false the application, no matter how long his/her criminal record. DREAM also allows the DREAMers’ relatives to jump to the front of the green card line, etc.

NO to DREAM or any other measure that makes to better to cut in line (to illegally immigrate) than to follow the law in the first place. No, no, NO.

[HiJinx]

Ping!