In an undocumented family, Alberto said, an important lesson is passed from father to son: “You don’t feel you have the right to fight back.”

Here is a wonderful article in the NYMag about an undocumented family living and trying to survive amongst us.

The immigrant dream is one of sacrifice and deferral; parents slave at lower rungs so their progeny might climb. For children like Berto and Juliana, however, the tale is turned on its head. There are 65,000 undocumented children in New York City, according to the Pew Hispanic Center’s Passel, and their quandary cuts across ethnic lines. (An additional 110,000 are birthright citizens with undocumented parents, a whole other predicament.) Among Latinos, most teenagers leave school early in droves or dive into the workforce after twelfth grade. In families from South Asia, college-educated parents may push their children harder to matriculate. “But whether they finish is another question,” said Monami Maulik, executive director of DRUM, a Jackson Heights advocacy group. “A lot of them drop out the first or second year.”

Like all New York residents, Berto and Juliana will be eligible for in-state tuition at CUNY or SUNY. But they’ll be barred from government grants and loans or paid internships, a sneak preview of the formal job market. One of Maulik’s former Queens youth leaders was a slight 23-year-old named Rajesh, an undocumented Trinidadian of Indian descent. A high-school valedictorian, he began his senior year pointing toward medical school. “I wanted to help people,” he said. “I wanted to be a pediatrician. I like kids.” But that fall, when he needed a Social Security number for some scholarship forms, Rajesh realized he was out of the game. He slogged through premed at Hunter College, going through the motions. “I felt like I wasted a lot of time,” he said. “You want to do good, but what’s the point?” Now 23, he works construction full-time for a family friend.

“These kids are being blamed because they were brought here as children,” said Baruch’s Robert Smith. “It’s a morally upside-down universe.”

The reporter really does a great job of covering various aspects of the immigration debate and even mentions the DREAM Act:

Advocates dare to hope for a regenerated DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which would give youngsters like Berto and Juliana a route to legalization through either college or military service. “That’s the kissing-babies issue,” Smith says. “I think we’ll probably get something for the kids. The thing for the grown-ups is a whole other fight.”

Yes, the DREAM Act is NOT an amnesty or pardon; it is a program that would allow students–American students–to gain citizenship given they meet certain requirements.

Check out this letter from Asian Week:

Initially, the cap for the H-1B occupation visas, as they are called, was set at 65,000 per year, which matches the same estimated number of undocumented youth graduating from high school every year. In 2008, H-1B visas hit the 65,000 cap within a two-day period and tech companies are pushing Congress for more visas even with the downward-turning economy.

Many of those who apply for H-1Bs to live and work in the U.S. are recent college graduates from their respective foreign country. Therefore, why can’t we decide to further invest in talented, undocumented youth currently residing here rather than importing more foreign workers?

Can anyone provide an adequate answer to Leticia Smith’s question that does not hinge on dehumanizing our children and young adults?

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

BYLINE: ERIC HOOVER

Dozens of immigrant students, many wearing caps and gowns, held a mock commencement on Capitol Hill last week in support of pending federal legislation that could help them earn real college diplomas.

The high-school students, all undocumented immigrants, came from as far away as Texas and California. For two hours, they turned the Capitol’s west lawn into a multicultural echo chamber. A hip-hop song boomed from a loudspeaker, followed by “Pomp and Circumstance” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Korean-American students played drums. One student read aloud “A Dream Deferred,” by Langston Hughes.

The gathering was both a celebration and a call for help by some of an estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrants who will graduate from high schools this spring. Many of the ceremony’s participants said they could not afford college, or perhaps even remain in the United States, unless Congress passes S 1545, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the Dream Act.

The bill would allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from American high schools to pay in-state tuition — instead of higher out-of-state rates — at public colleges in their home state, and to apply for some types of financial aid. The bill would also permit qualified students to apply to become permanent legal residents.

Although the Dream Act has bipartisan support, its proponents are hesitant to predict a legislative victory. In election years, potentially controversial bills tend to gather dust, and immigration questions remain entangled in political debates over post-September 11 federal policies. Some legislators, as well as the Homeland Security Department’s Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, contend that the United States should deport illegal students, not grant them tuition breaks.

At last week’s demonstration, however, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a California Democrat, told a crowd of activists and students that the children of immigrants face hardships “through no fault of their own.”

“Exorbitant out-of-state tuition essentially bars most of these qualified youth from attending college,” said Ms. Roybal-Allard, a cosponsor of the Student Adjustment Act, HR 1684, the Dream Act’s companion bill in the House of Representatives. “These children lose an educational opportunity to develop their talents and, in turn, our country loses the benefits of their potential contributions as educated professionals and taxpayers.”

Marie Nazareth Gonzalez was one of many honor students who attended the event. Ms. Gonzalez was born in Costa Rica, but grew up in Jefferson City, Mo. A senior at one of the state’s top high schools, she has a 3.4 grade-point average and is a member of the National Honor Society and her high school’s tennis and track teams.

Ms. Gonzalez had planned to attend college this fall, but she and her family, whose visas have expired, face deportation to Costa Rica. Under the Dream Act, though, she would have an opportunity to remain in the United States, graduate from college, and become a permanent resident.

“This country was made by immigrants,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “What have I done to deserve deportation to a country I barely know?”

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