A conference on campus today addresses a Senate bill that would allow exceptional undocumented students a streamlined path to U.S. citizenship.
The League of United Latin American Citizens and other organizations are hosting the two-day DREAM Conference to raise awareness about the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.
National LULAC Youth President Jessica Inéz Martínez said the DREAM Act is widely misunderstood.
“We realized that a lot of people don’t know enough about the DREAM Act, are unaware of it or just completely clueless about what it means,” she said. “We are trying to bring out what the DREAM Act is about and why it’s important for UNM to pass it at a national stage and who it will affect on campus.”
The DREAM Act is a piece of national legislation that would allow undocumented students to remain in the country if they have earned a high school diploma or the equivalent, don’t have a criminal record and have spent two years in either a university or the military, according to OpenCongress.org.
Students should be knowledgeable about the act because it could affect their classmates, Inéz Martínez said.
“The DREAM Act is very important … because it focuses on students and education in general,” she said. “We all had a great opportunity to come here and study at the University of New Mexico, so we should come and learn about some of the students that are unseen and that this is affecting.”
The conference’s agenda includes several documentaries, workshops, a Cinco de Mayo celebration with food and performances and a forum with state and community leaders.
LULAC State Director Paul Martinez, who will speak at the conference, said passage of the DREAM Act will influence important immigration bills in the future.
“We are the majority in the state, and to support that we want to see comprehensive immigration reform that is expedient,” he said. “It provides the immigrated children the opportunity to go to college and better themselves. In this particular time in the country, another change in immigrations is needed because in some states they are not allowed to go to school.”
New Mexico laws on the books allow undocumented students to receive the Lottery Scholarship and attend state universities, Inéz Martínez said, but a degree does not guarantee them legal residency.
“Even if they were to get a degree, it wouldn’t benefit them because they can’t use that degree, so that’s the biggest problem,” she said. “They are not able to use that degree to give back to society and to be hardworking people. National legislation would open up the pathway to legalization.”
American students have a big influence on legislative change, Inéz Martínez said, and student gatherings are important in encouraging reform.
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“A major part of this is to have a stance and to encourage other universities to do the same, to then have a bigger impact on national legislation when it comes up soon,” she said. “These were kids that came here, and it’s not fair for us to punish children who really had no stake in the matter.”
*DREAM Conference schedule for today:
10-11:30 a.m. — Workshops (3rd Floor of the SUB)
Noon-1 p.m. — Cinco de Mayo celebration (Mesa Vista Courtyard West)
1:15-3:00 p.m. — Forum with state and community leaders, UNM faculty (SUB Ballrooms)
3:30-5:15 p.m. — “Papers” documentary (SUB Theater)
For more information visit ElCentro.unm.edu/events/dream*
