The Rattler10

values true to her heart because they are the ones she knows. “I’ve grown up in America and I feel that every bit, I am an American,” she said. “If I leave this country, I don’t know what I am.”

Greg Pardo, who graduated from St. Mary’s with a political sci-ence degree in 2005, created the Facebook group “Don’t Deport Benita Veliz” after reading an article in the New York Times about his former classmate.

“I felt like I had to do something,” says Pardo, who is complet-ing his master’s degree at the University of Texas in Austin.

The Facebook group currently has 1,182 members and has been instrumental in spreading the word about the DREAM Act and get-ting people involved in its advocacy.

“[Social networking devices], which are accessible and second nature to a lot of us, can be used as powerful networking tools. We are trying to utilize that to take advantage of the power behind stu-dents and mobilize them for a cause,” Veliz said.

With help from Brother Brian Halderman, minister for social jus-tice in University Ministry, students staged a call-in day to the of-fice of Texas Representative Charles Gonzales in May, urging him to support Benita Veliz – and they made some progress.

“We used the Facebook group,” says Halderman, “and we were successful in doing that.” According to Halderman, “[Representa-tive Gonzales] paid attention to her case and he even introduced a private bill on her behalf.” Due to this private bill, Veliz’ deporta-tion hearing has been postponed until December of this year.

According to Veliz, “there have been three other deportations that have been halted because of social networking sites like face-book.“ These students include 20-year-old Herta Llusho from

What is in the Dream Act

Path to legal residency:

Who would qualify?

Under the DREAM Act, students who came to the U.S. at age 15 or younger at least five years before the date of the bill’s enactment would qualify for conditional per-manent resident status upon ac-ceptance to college, graduation from a U.S. high school, or being awarded a GED in the U.S. Stu-dents would not qualify for this re-lief if they had committed crimes, were a security risk, or were inad-missible or removable on certain other grounds. The Senate bill contain-san additional requirement that the student be under age 35.

Conditional permanent resident status

Conditional permanent resident status would be similar to lawful permanent resident status,

“I’ve grown up in America and I feel that every bit, I am an American. If I leave this country, I don’t know what I am.”

- Benita Velez, on forcing deportation to Mexico

Continued from page 1

OF CHANGEDreaming

values true to her heart because they are the ones she knows. “I’ve grown up in America and I feel that every bit, I am an American,” she said. “If I leave this country, I don’t know what I am.”

Greg Pardo, who graduated from St. Mary’s with a political sci-ence degree in 2005, created the Facebook group “Don’t Deport Benita Veliz” after reading an article in the New York Times about his former classmate.

“I felt like I had to do something,” says Pardo, who is complet-ing his master’s degree at the University of Texas in Austin.

The Facebook group currently has 1,182 members and has been instrumental in spreading the word about the DREAM Act and get-ting people involved in its advocacy.

“[Social networking devices], which are accessible and second nature to a lot of us, can be used as powerful networking tools. We are trying to utilize that to take advantage of the power behind stu-dents and mobilize them for a cause,” Veliz said.

With help from Brother Brian Halderman, minister for social jus-tice in University Ministry, students staged a call-in day to the of-fice of Texas Representative Charles Gonzales in May, urging him to support Benita Veliz – and they made some progress.

“We used the Facebook group,” says Halderman, “and we were successful in doing that.” According to Halderman, “[Representa-tive Gonzales] paid attention to her case and he even introduced a private bill on her behalf.” Due to this private bill, Veliz’ deporta-tion hearing has been postponed until December of this year.

According to Veliz, “there have been three other deportations that have been halted because of social networking sites like face-book.“ These students include 20-year-old Herta Llusho from

Albania, 23-year-old Walter Lara native of Argentina and Taha Mowla, 18, from Bangladesh. These students, like Veliz, face depor-tation to their home countries, but have deferred their cases due to social advocacy within their communities.

For Veliz, the development proves that activism does make a difference.

“A lot of times people generally think - What’s one call? What’s one email? They’re not going pay attention to it,’” Veliz explains. “The fact of the matter is that they do, especially when it’s a collec-tive group and several people join together for a cause.”

Currently behind the efforts of Students United for the DREAM Act is sophomore political science major, Veronica Lopez. Lopez, a native of Brownsville, Texas, feels that [the DREAM Act] is neces-sary in order to provide for the advancement of human rights in our country.

“Without the DREAM Act, countless students like Benita will be victim to abuse and oppression,” Lopez said.

According to the Urban Institute, there are about 9.3 million un-documented immigrants living in the US; 1.6 million under the age of 18.

“I think a lot of college students don’t even realize that this is a problem,” says Veliz. “The reason we are targeting students is that…college students have the power. They are well educated, they are local and they are articulate.”

Lopez hopes that Students United fot a Dream will be able to spread the word about immigration issues and specifically the DREAM Act. Currently in the works is an informational immigra-tion forum hosted by Veliz.

What is in the Dream Act

Path to legal residency:

Who would qualify?

Under the DREAM Act, students who came to the U.S. at age 15 or younger at least five years before the date of the bill’s enactment would qualify for conditional per-manent resident status upon ac-ceptance to college, graduation from a U.S. high school, or being awarded a GED in the U.S. Stu-dents would not qualify for this re-lief if they had committed crimes, were a security risk, or were inad-missible or removable on certain other grounds. The Senate bill contain-san additional requirement that the student be under age 35.

Conditional permanent resident status

Conditional permanent resident status would be similar to lawful permanent resident status,

except that it would be awarded for a limited duration—six years under normal circumstances— instead of indefinitely.

At the end of the conditional peri-od, unrestricted lawful permanent resident status would be granted if, during the conditional period, the immigrant has main-tained good moral character, avoided lengthy trips abroad, and met at least one of the following criteria:

Graduated from a two-year col-lege or certain vocational colleg-es, or studied for at least two years toward a B.A. or higher de-gree, or

Served in the U.S. armed forces for at least two years.

The six-year time period for meet-ing these requirements would be extendable upon a show-ing of good cause, and the U.S.

Department of Homeland Securi-ty would be empowered to waive the requirements altogether if compelling reasons, such as dis-ability, prevent their completion and if removal of the student would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the student or to the student’s spouse, parent or child.

In-state tuition

The DREAM Act would also repeal section 505 of the Illegal Immigra-tion Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which currently dis-courages states from providing in-state tuition or other higher education benefits without regard to immigration status.

Under section 505, states that pro-vide a higher education benefit based on residency to undocumented immigrants must provide the same benefit to U.S.

citizens in the same circumstances, regardless of their state of residence. Since section 505 became law, ten states have enacted laws permit-ting anyone, including undocumented immigrants, who attended and graduated from high school in the state to pay the in-state rate at public colleges and universities. The ten states are Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklaho-ma, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska. These states all pay the section 505 penalty by providing the same in-state dis-count rate to current residents of other states who previously went to high school and graduated in the state. The DREAM Act would repeal this penalty. This would not require states to provide in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants, but rather would restore this decision to the states without encumbrance.

“I’ve grown up in America and I feel that every bit, I am an American. If I leave this country, I don’t know what I am.”

- Benita Velez, on forcing deportation to Mexico

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OF CHANGEDreaming

Photos by Robin Johnson