After being showcased by the New York Times yesterday, another representative of United We DREAM fame, Matias of UCLA Underground Undergrads, made his star debut on CNN this morning as a follow-up to the CollegeBoard press conference on April 21.

Matias on CNN – DREAMAct2009.com from Dream Activist on Vimeo.
Afterwards, representatives HACU and FAIR were roped in to ‘debate’ the DREAM Act.

It’s funny how Ira Mehlman and Co. are scared to attack undocumented students on air and have to resort to attacking our parents and blaming us for the crisis in higher education.

University seats are competitive but lord forbid that in a meritocracy, the more qualified students get into school over less qualified students! FAIR cannot tolerate that idea. Ira also had nothing to say about the Master Education Plan that California has, which guarantees enrollment to all qualified students. If the state cannot guarantee that promise, undocumented students are hardly to blame for it.

One would notice that the extremists at FAIR and other sites have absolutely no numbers to back up their claims. They should also take a look at the College Board report that dispels the “undocumented students take slots from citizens” myth:

Beyond the legal argument, a related concern that has been voiced about the DREAM Act is that it could take away seats in colleges and universities, as well as financial aid, from native-born students.  However, this fear is not
borne out by the experiences of the 10 states that since 2001 have passed laws allowing undocumented students who attend and graduate from in-state high schools to qualify for in-state college tuition. These states are home to about half of the nation’s undocumented immigrants. Two states — New Mexico and Texas — also allow undocumented students to compete for college financial aid, providing a small but significant minority of them with the opportunity to move on to postsecondary education. Such legislation has not precipitated a large influx of new immigrant students, displaced native-born students or been a financial drain on the education system. In fact, these measures tend to increase school revenues by bringing in tuition from students who otherwise would not be in college.

We’ll have Matias personally respond to the hatred and lies evident in Ira Mehlman’s little “blame the parents” and “increased competition for citizens” claims, statements that really do absolutely nothing to solve the current immigration quagmire.

Great job on air Mati.