CAL Furthers the DREAM

By Nestor Rivera

As economic times for California continue to show a dim future, California residents and Legislature continue to show support to undocumented students. As the Federal DREAM(Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act failed to pass the US Senate after successfully passing the House this past December 2010, California continues to push for improving the climate for undocumented people in the US. As the support of Senator Barbara Boxer on the US Senate floor debating DREAM and Zoe Lofgren’s stance against “Secure Communities” other CA leaders continue to fight for alternative solutions to resolve what democracy has failed to address in Congress. If legislation such as AB 130 & 131 passes in the CA legislature once again and is signed into law it would ensure students who are of undocumented status to pursue their dreams of higher education in California. As rises in tuition occurring in all three systems of higher education, some foresee double the costs at the University of California within a decade, AB 130 & 131 is the only safety net proposed to keep qualified educated Californians in Higher Ed since the passage of AB 540.

In addition AB 130 and 131 will allow students who had been in the state for 3 years and graduated from a CA high school to be eligible for in state tuition. If passed, these bills would allow students to receive institutional aid in forms of University Grants and other private grants. To further the CA Dream Act AB 131 would extend any leftover monies from allocated CalGrant to AB 540 students who qualify for aid.

Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bills before and pressure to Gov. Jerry Brown during campaigning said he would sign something similar to the previous years CA Dream Act bills. As UC students this February collected over 10,000 postcards addressing governor Brown to sign AB 130 & 131, students hope that the Governor follows through with his promise.

As students have seen their friends who are undocumented drop out of institutions of higher learning due to rises in tuition, these two bills are imperative and were selected as a priority issues to advocate and organize on. It is difficult to know that a friend struggles to fund their day to day operations as they continue their academic career and not do anything to help alleviate their problems. It is difficult to have conversations about the next academic year with undocumented friends who will not know whether they will be able to afford the next semester/ quarter because of the expense. The Federal DREAM Act did not pass, but there are more issues that students can advocate and fight for until enough pressure and momentum is garnered to pass this historic bill that has become a nation-wide movement towards civil rights. As states begin to offer their own versions of the CA AB 540, AB 130 & 131 are the next leading examples that will pave the next decade’s fight toward comprehensive immigration reform.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 12:03 am. It is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.