March 22, 2011 12:13 am
Students Ask for Recognition in Film
By Maria Smaldone, Assistant Editor
On March 8, the Center for the Study of Democracy invited the students of St. Mary’s to Cole Cinema for a showing of the documentary Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth. The film chronicles the lives of five high school or post-high school students who have enough accolades and academic integrity to attend college, but cannot do so because they are illegal immigrants.
To preface the documentary, José Ballesteros, Associate Professor of Spanish, said that there are “ten-thousand students raised [in the U.S.] illegally who have a limited access to jobs and education” after they graduate from high school.
The showing of the film coincided with the Maryland General Assembly’s consideration of the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act. Presently, illegal immigrants who are accepted into state colleges must pay out-of-state tuition, even if they have lived in Maryland for years.
Maryland’s version of the DREAM Act would make illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children eligible for in-state tuition. The DREAM Act rejected by Congress last year would have made two years in college or two years in the military a step towards gaining citizenship.
Papers follows five students on their search for post-high school success. Monica is a giggly teenager who hopes to marry her boyfriend in the near future. However, threats of deportation to Guatemala make her worry about staying with him in the country she calls home.
Jorge is an outspoken young man who struggles with two minority statuses as an illegal Latino immigrant and a homosexual. Yo Sub is a Korean high school student and a National AP Scholar. All twelve colleges he applied to rejected his application because of his illegal status.
Simone, who moved to the U.S. from Jamaica as a child, is barred from attending college and takes dead-end jobs with meager pay–the only jobs employers are willing to give to an illegal immigrant. Juan overcomes his initial disinterest with school in order to fulfill his promise to his mother that he would earn a high school diploma. However, he wonders what is next for him after high school.
The documentary notes how these students do what the government tells them to: stay out of trouble, stay in school, and work hard. Their efforts go unrewarded; the government refuses to grant them access to citizenship, let alone a college education. The film notes that the federal government guarantees secondary education for illegal immigrants, but does not provide for these same students in their college careers.
The citizenship issue ties in with the DREAM Act because illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children have a harder time gaining citizenship than their parents. Undocumented immigrants usually ask for asylum from the government or get help from family members who already live in the country. Without these conditions, the citizenship process is very difficult to navigate.
Papers describes how immigrants built and shaped the United States economy from its earliest days—African slavery was a forced immigration that greatly fueled North and South Americas’ economies, and Irish and Chinese immigrants built railroads in the U.S. a few centuries later.
The film explains immigration history to show how the U.S., “a country of immigrants,” is so ironically unwelcoming and inflexible towards its new inhabitants.
The documentary ended hopefully, with undocumented students from all over the country staging a mock graduation in Washington, D.C. in support of the DREAM Act that was voted down in Congress. Four out of the five students interviewed in the film were attending or already graduated from college.
After the film, Ballesteros introduced the discussion panel: Anthony Colon, a “foremost diversity advocate” and lawyer who brought educational reform to the Latino/a community; Elias Vlanton, whom Ballesteros described as “the most caring educator” he ever met, is a social studies teacher to immigrant students at Bladensburg High School in Prince George’s County; Angie Gutierrez, a junior at Bladensburg High School and an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, is also the president of her class and the first sophomore in her high school to earn a score of five on an Advanced Placement exam.
Vlanton began the discussion, saying that he “thought the film was very powerful.” He explained that the U.S. “wanted workers, and what [it] got was people” who are in need of basic human rights.
He reiterated the film’s notion that “everyone benefits from blue-collar workers,” and the disintegration of the DREAM Act would “suppress a vast chunk of the [U.S.] labor force.”
Gutierrez commented that she can not afford to pay out-of-state tuition at Maryland state universities, and found watching the film with her mother to be “very emotional.”
Colon, a Latino, began his reflection on the film by recalling a time when he was in Leonardtown, MD around 30 years ago and was told to walk on the opposite side of the street in order to avoid “trouble.”
He admits that the issue of undocumented immigration has “a lot of gray.” However, he attributes the government’s unwillingness to promote the DREAM Act to “benign racism,” meaning unintentional racism that is not overtly malicious. Instead, it is shown in subtle ways like the hindrance of the DREAM Act or being told to walk on the opposite side of the street.
The DREAM Act under consideration in Maryland was recently approved by the Maryland State Senate on March 15 and the bill will soon move to the Maryland House of Delegates.
If gringos don’t want to fork over tax dollars to subsidize people who broke our laws, that’s “racism.”
Where can I go in Mexico or Guatemala, break their laws, and get rewarded with freebies and goodies that are meant for their own citizens?
I’d like to agitate for their taxpayer-financed freebies and goodies and then scream “racism” if I don’t get it.
In what was are people who were brought to the US as children guilty of breaking laws? If someone were brought here at one month old and grew up in the U.S., never committed a crime, stayed in school and were a morally upstanding resident, who are you to say that he or she is less deserving than someone who happened to be born here? How is a one month old to blame? How is a child to blame?
In what was are people who were brought to the US as children guilty of breaking laws? If someone were brought here at one month old and grew up in the U.S., never committed a crime, stayed in school and were a morally upstanding resident, who are you to say that he or she is less deserving than someone who happened to be born here? How is a one month old to blame? How is a child to blame?
And if money is truly your concern:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/12/06/dream-act-wont-cost-money/
Latinos are infamous for exploiting their children. Watch the marches for (Can’t believe I’m about to say…) rights for illegals?
They hold their children over their heads like trophys, drag them into marches with millions of crushing people chanting. How scary and unsafe, but the program is to play on the hearts of the American people. Many are photographed intentionally with five or six small children hanging on their Mother’s dress and of course one newborn in her arms.
I’m sort of numb to it all. My country has been invaded and no one is doing a darn thing about it. My family members cannot find jobs in America because they don’t speak Spanish but Spanish speaking people are not required to speak English.
No, a one month old is not to blame, but who is to blame for the fact that the child is in another country illegally? The parents. That’s right. Give more goodies and the goodie eaters will come, children in hand if that is the soft spot they can play on. It’s a game folks. Good marketing. Unless we stop it, the illegals will come and they don’t seem to have a problem with having a few kids they cannot support to get to your heart.
The majority of Americans don’t care which side of the world people come from to settle here, as long as they arrive legally? The Southwest has been invaded and unless the do-nothing US Government starts enforcing the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli bill, as it was intended, we will just been washing billions of taxpayer dollars as down the eternal drain, as we have for decades. The Leftist climb on the bandwagon with pushing the racist card, because they will not examine the truth and are involved in this philosophies of world Government.; facts they will not disclose about spending taxpayer’s money and building larger government agencies so their agenda is successful. These Leftist want wide open borders, with no consideration for the taxpaying public. They can lie in the Liberal press all they want, but the truth is Americans are sick and tired of supporting the impoverished of other countries.
A letter from the promoters of corporate greed, doomed the first chance of fiscal American survival against the illegal alien occupation. The letter signified the influence of the major instigator, the US Chamber of Commerce, whom believes that discount illegal labor is an essential to our wilting economy? A Guest Worker program would alleviated this problem, if it wasn’t full of visa loopholes? We already bring into America over a million and a half a year, so exasperating the process just make citizens and authorized residents resentful and angry. This is especially true when the company bosses do not drive on congested highways, they live in gated mansions or isolated homes and have no dealings with the imported foreign crime and the crumbling neighborhoods full of poverty-stricken foreigners. For Tea Party is apposed to any form of Amnesty, which includes so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Any form of Dream Act or Sanctuary City policies, until the border fence is sealed tight and controlled by at least 5.000 military presence. We just cannot subsidize the worlds poor as its threatening especially the American workers on the lower scale, the State and federal economy and unrest in this nation.
The business industries find ways negate the tax code, but the men and women taxpayers have no such political advantages. Ordinary Americans have no special privileges and cannot attribute, but a few dollars to political campaigns. Only united voices as with the TEA PARTY can fix the hardships of all the populace, by stopping the “Tax and Spend” Liberals, who a major part of bring more illegal aliens to our shores and borders.
Leftist -Democrats and even some Republicans opposed the advancement of the-REAL-fence and placed obstacles so the E-Verify system of catching foreign nationals, before they were hired. However, the Leftist portion of our government haven’t been able to place obstacles in the way of Secure Communities as yet? Just about every newspaper calls illegal aliens–undocumented immigrants, or other De-Facto name, when in truth they are foreign aliens and have no right to be here. The TEA Party knows this and will fight against the Liberal progressives and any other crazy scheme, thinking that Americans are not going to stop these parodies of our laws. Scrutinizing the papers today, one article accessed the growing population of Arizona. We accept high demand skilled workers, but their is no financial room for people who need public welfare. The Bloomberg E-news states When talking about the Arizona census population:
Tests of the limits and effectiveness of immigration policies and procedures are underway in Arizona, where the Hispanic population increased 46.3 percent between 2000 and 2010 to account for 29.6 percent of the 6.4 million residents. Of course the US Census didn’t distinguish between honest Legal and illegal persons which Obama’s Leftist Czars and thought was justified. NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS! They are illegal as they broached the sovereignty of our border. If there was any true intention to seal our border from economic migrants, including the instant birthright baby, entry would have classed as a felony. Its illogical to think that the Greatest nation on Earth, cannot control the inflow of foreign national.
NOT ONE WORD ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA ARE ILLEGAL? THIS MIGHT NOT IMPRESS YOU RIGHT NOW, UNTIL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MORE START DRAINING YOUR STATE TREASURIES THEN THE INDIVIDUAL WILL DO SOMETHING? MY GUESS WHEN WE ARE OVERWHELMED BY POPULATION GROWTH AND A SHORTAGE OF OIL, ENERGY AND WATER, PEOPLE MAY TAKE NOTICE? YOUR HOME CAN BE IN FURTHEST STATE IN THE UNION, OR ANYWHERE ELSE BUT THE PESTILENCE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL FOLLOW YOU THERE.
All the US government has to do, is throw conniving business owners in prison, when they hire illegal aliens. Cross-Reference all documentation for person applying for welfare, seal the borders with troops and the double layer fence and amend the 14th Amendment. In addition every sponsor of family chain migration must be held accountable. Becoming a member of the Tea Party in your district will elect more positive thinking Candidates, to stop the bleeding of State treasuries, federal coffers and your rising taxes. Plain and simple-we cannot support the poor and indigent no more or we too will be sinking to a third world society.
I applaud the bravery of these undocumented youth to come forward and push for their rights. This is not about “rights for illegals”. These people, like all people, are not “illegal”, they just don’t have the documents that the US government wants them to have. Why don’t these particular youths have these documents? Because their parents brought them to the US, they did not have a choice. Now they are here, and we in the US have to accept that reality.
The left is often accused of being idealistic or out of touch with reality, but in this case, reality is that there are millions of undocumented immigrants currently living in this country. It is not possible economically or logistically to deport them all, we need to come up with a realistic solution. The DREAM Act takes away a huge barrier for a group of people who currently are prevented from getting a college education and therefore any kind of decent job. If we continue to have this barrier in place, it is not going to make the problem go away, it will make it worse. All these smart, motivated people, who live in the US, will end up with poverty jobs or no jobs, and cost the government and tax payers, much more in the long run.
So, congratulations to these brave youths, and their supporters, I hope that they keep up the fight.