The future Class of 2014 is currently doing one of two things: either eagerly perusing the Tufts Class of 2014 group on Facebook.com or anxiously awaiting May 1 and filling out financial aid paperwork. We all went through the infuriating maze of fees, tests and supplementary essays that eventually landed us at Tufts. However, imagine this: Somewhere in the tangled process, you realize that you weren't actually born in the United States. Your parents brought you over as a child, and there is no independent method for undocumented children of immigrants to become citizens. Thus, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) papers in your hand are useless, and the prospect of a college education has disappeared.
It sounds ridiculous, but it is the reality that approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduating from high school face every year. Although they have done well in school, contributed to their communities and lived in this country for all of their aware lives, they are being denied funding for a higher education.
These students are undocumented immigrants; if you want to manipulate rhetoric, then the term is "illegal aliens." They arrived in the United States as the children of immigrants. They grew up feeling American, attending American schools, even forgetting the language of their homeland. When it came time to apply to college and federal financial aid, these students were blocked out of the system.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, first presented in 2001, was re-introduced in March 2009 by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to Congress. The bill would give graduates from U.S. high schools the opportunity for a conditional path to citizenship. During a six-year period of temporary residency, they would complete at least two years toward a college degree or two years of military service. They would be eligible for student loans and work study, alleviating much of the financial burden. After meeting the requirements during the six-year period, legal permanent residency could be applied, which, if granted, would eventual grant a faster path to citizenship.
This bill has been introduced in various forms since 2001. Every time, it has spurned controversial dialogue about immigration. As of now, 105 representatives and 32 senators have co-sponsored the bill. However, the attacks on the bill are still substantial.
State universities vehemently oppose the DREAM Act, stating that if undocumented citizens don't pay taxes, they should not be attending a taxpayer-funded school and paying in-state tuition. There is also concern that the undocumented immigrants would take the spots of legal citizens at these schools. However, few of these claims are well-supported. There are 10 states that allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition, and the provisions of the DREAM Act grant states the authority to determine whether they want to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. As of now, none of the 10 states have found that legal citizens are disadvantaged by this measure.
On the other hand, undocumented immigrants are disadvantaged by the blatant gap in their educational rights. While they are guaranteed primary and secondary education under the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe, they are abandoned when they seek higher education. Some pay taxes, some don't; regardless, these students and their families have been working, buying goods and supporting the economy just like the citizens around them. After their six-year period, they would get jobs, get married, increase their wealth and have American children. Education is a long-term investment; a safeguard against poverty and ignorance.
Unfortunately, the outpouring of support for the DREAM Act has not come from the more pertinent state universities, but from a couple stops down the Red Line: Harvard University. Last year, Harvard President Drew Faust expressed her support for the DREAM Act after a lengthy campaign by Harvard students. In a letter to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.), she wrote, "I believe it is in our best interest to educate all students to their full potential — it vastly improves their lives and grows our communities and economy."
As a school that values its international focus and motto of active citizenship, Tufts University would benefit greatly from its endorsement of the DREAM Act. Tufts does not carry the stigma of a state university, but it should live up to its reputation of tolerance and diversity in supporting the bill. In his 1989 Farewell Address, Ronald Reagan cited John Winthrop's words of a "city upon a hill," where, Reagan imagined, "if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here." When Charles Tufts picked the property for the university, he dubbed the school a "light on the hill." These two men echo each other in their words of progress and ascension. Let us merge their respective visions of immigration and education by supporting the DREAM Act.
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Suzanne Lis is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. She is the student and academic outreach coordinator for Students at Tufts Acting for Immigrant Rights.
