Help students DREAM

BY JARED POLIS
Week of February 1, 2006

An estimated 65,000 students who successfully graduate from high school each year are ineligible to work legally, join the military, pay in-state college tuition rates at public colleges and universities, or apply for financial aid. These students live on the margins of society and face limited futures because of their undocumented status. Although they consider the United States their home and want to contribute to its future by serving in the military or giving back to their community as teachers, doctors or engineers, undocumented students currently have no way to legalize their immigration status and get on with their lives.

Hopefully this will change soon. In a strong show of bipartisan cooperation, a group of senators recently reintroduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2005, which had been introduced originally in 2001 and again in 2003 by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). The DREAM Act of 2005 is sponsored by Durbin, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and co-sponsored by five Republicans and five Democrats, including John McCain and Joe Lieberman. This act puts new life into legislation that had been on hold since being approved in 2003 by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 16-3 vote.

If enacted, the DREAM Act will transform the lives of undocumented children who were brought to the U.S. years ago by their parents and who have stayed in school and out of trouble since their arrival. Specifically, it allows high school graduates who have lived here for at least five years and who were brought to the U.S. before their 16th birthday to apply for a six-year conditional legal immigration status, which would become permanent if they go to college or serve in the military.

Instead of living in constant fear of deportation to countries they do not consider home, these students would be allowed to continue their education beyond high school or serve their country, and become productive members of society. In addition, undocumented middle-school students would have a greater incentive to study hard and succeed if they knew that a realistic opportunity to attend college awaited them.

This act eliminates a federal provision that discourages states from allowing their undocumented student residents to pay in-state tuition, which places the costs of a college education out of reach. For example, this year the in-state tuition for a full-time undergraduate student at CU-Boulder is $4,446 while the out-of-state tuition is $21,900; the in-state tuition at Arapahoe Community College is $1,746 while the out-of-state is $8,284. The vast majority of undocumented students come from low-income families that are unable to help them pay these tuition rates, and thus they are confined to a life of fewer career opportunities and lower earnings potential, despite their enormous potential and desire to succeed.

Essentially, we are punishing these children because their parents brought them to this country illegally through no fault of their own. As stated in the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler vs. Doe that ruled against a Texas statute that denied undocumented students access to free K-12 education, “the Texas statute imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status. …The deprivation of public education is not like the deprivation of some other governmental benefit. …[T]he deprivation of education takes an inestimable toll on the social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being of the individual, and poses an obstacle to individual achievement.”

As is often the case, states have decided to move ahead and address this issue themselves instead of waiting for the federal government to take action. Since Texas passed legislation in 2001 that provides in-state tuition to undocumented high school graduates, it has been joined by eight other states, including our neighboring Kansas, Oklahoma and Utah; 18 other states, including Colorado, are considering similar legislation.
At a time that President Bush is pushing comprehensive immigration reform and Congress is preparing to address this vexing issue, the DREAM Act promotes fairness and provides hope to undocumented children for a productive future. Congress should act to ensure that these students have an opportunity to legally pursue the American Dream.
It is the right thing to do — for our country and for these children’s future.

Jared Polis is a businessman and vice chair of the Colorado State Board of Education. This column first appeared in the Colorado Daily.