Immigration: a dream deferred: what's going to happen to all the young people who admitted they were illegal immigrants to lobby for passage of the Dream Act?

AuthorPreston, Julia
PositionNATIONAL

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It was exhilarating for Maricela Aguilar to stand on the steps of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last summer and reveal for the first time in public that she is an illegal immigrant. Aguilar is a 20-year-old college student who was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. since she was 3.

"It's all about losing that shame of who you are," she says of her "coming out" at the rally.

Aguilar and thousands of other students who are technically illegal immigrants revealed their status last summer as part of a campaign to pass a law known as the Dream Act. It would have provided illegal immigrants brought to the United States as kids a path to citizenship if they graduated from American high schools and went on to college or to serve in the military.

Supporters of the Dream Act argue that those brought to the U.S. illegally as children are a special case: They didn't break the law themselves, and they don't really have a "home country" to go back to; they've grown up here and think of themselves as Americans.

After admitting their illegal status, many of these students lobbied lawmakers in support of the bill. But things didn't go as planned. The Dream Act passed the House last December, but despite President Barack Obama's support, it narrowly failed in the Senate, and the prospect of passage anytime soon is dim: Immigration is always a tough political issue, but it's even trickier with people concerned about competition for jobs in a sour economy and a presidential election approaching.

The situation has left the 1.2 million students nationwide who would have benefited from the Dream Act in limbo. "Many have become extremely frustrated," says Roberto G. Gonzales, a sociologist at the University of Washington. "They had a lot of hope that their activities were going to change the minds of the country. Having the door slammed in their face hit many of them really hard."

A moment of truth, Gonzales says, comes when they graduate from college. Many do well in school, but have a hard time getting jobs because they don't have Social Security numbers. Some end up busing restaurant dishes and cleaning offices--the same kinds of jobs as their less-educated parents, many of whom came to the U.S. to give their kids better opportunities than they had.

It's also left those students who revealed their status at risk. Once students have declared their illegality, they cannot slip back into the shadows.

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