With over 19 Senators and 40 spectators packed into the ASUNM Senate hall to debate a resolution to endorse the DREAM act, Sen. Zoila Alvarez asked everyone to keep the debate civil.
“I understand that immigration is a very touchy subject,” Alvarez said. “I want to make sure whatever way the senators vote, it is not viewed as prejudice or racism because people are entitled to their vote and entitled to represent the entire student (body).”
But the resolution passed with little debate and no contest, garnering 17 approvals and two abstentions. When anyone did speak up, it was in favor of the resolution.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors 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.
Michael Westervelt, ASUNM vice president, said the turnout in favor of the resolution supporting the Act was the largest he’d seen in his three years in the undergraduate student government. Extra chairs were brought in to accommodate the crowd.
Key members of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, the Mexican Student Association, El Centro de la Raza and the League of Latin American Citizens stood before the Senate to support the Dream Act.
President of the Mexican Student Association, Brenda Herrera, told the Senate she has dealt with undocumented minors firsthand, and current legislation doesn’t give students an incentive to stay in school.
“It is hope for a lot of students, not only undergrad students but a lot of students in high school,”
Herrera said. “I work with a lot of undocumented students in high school and their (question) is always, ‘Why do we go to high school for if we are not going to get that degree?’”
The DREAM Act was sponsored by Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and the latest version was introduced to the Senate on March 26. It has not been voted on. Instead, it was sent back to the Judiciary Committee, according to OpenCongress.org.
The ASUNM resolution supporting the legislation was received more positively. Alvarez, who sponsored the resolution, said the Act is not an umbrella immigration policy.
“This is very specific for students and for minors, particularly when these people were brought over without having a choice,” she said. “This will only apply to people who are under the age of 16 who have graduated from high school or received their GED and have good moral character — who have either attended a two-year institution or two years in the military.”
The ASUNM resolution states that the DREAM Act would help reform “the current immigration system, (which) has disenfranchised many proficient individuals based on choices and situations that were and remain out of (undocumented minors’) control.”
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Only two senators abstained from the vote — Brandon Call and Marina Weisert. Yet Weisert, in her opening statement, said it was nice to attach a personality (referring to the 40 plus spectators) to the resolution.
“It’s nice to see your passion behind it,” she said. “I thank you for coming and speaking on your causes. That really does help us formulate a face to it.”
Call said the number of students at UNM who would be affected by this resolution is debatable. He said it is not the the student government’s place to get involved in a national issue.
“I completely agree with (the DREAM Act),” Call said. “I actually signed their initial petition that was sent to the representatives, but I just don’t feel ASUNM … should support a political cause.”
