Students at Arizona State University rallied Tuesday to bring attention to the pending Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also known as the DREAM Act. The legislation will permit undocumented students to continue studying in the U.S. and gain legal status.

The students demonstrated in front of the Memorial Union building of ASU’s Tempe Campus. They used chants and signs to push legislators to vote in favor of the DREAM act and to encourage more students to get involved in advocating for their peers. “We have an entire generation of students who were brought here (to the U.S) without a choice,” Debbie Robles, one of the participating students, told The Huffington Post.

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A California Supreme Court decision ruled students who are illegal immigrants may continue to receive in-state tuition. The court voted unanimously, overturning a lower court ruling.

The Los Angeles Times reports that there are about 25,000 illegal immigrants who currently receive in-state tuition rates. The ruing was written by Justice Ming W. Chin, who is one of the most conservative members of the panel. The new law will apply to students who attended a California high school for at least three years and graduated. The new law will also extend the in-state tuition to U.S. citizens who attended California residents but reside legally in other states. “It cannot be the case that states may never give a benefit to unlawful aliens without giving the same benefit to all American citizens,” Chin wrote.

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Image via The Daily Gotham

About 700,000 students in the U.S. look forward to deportation after high school graduation. But President Obama has provisionally allowed some of these students, who lack proper immigration papers, to stay. They would all qualify for the Dream Act, a bill that has been in congress since March of 2009.

If the Dream Act passes, students who arrived in the U.S. as illegal immigrants before the age of 16 will be offered conditional permanent residency and an opportunity at earning citizenship. Although the Department of Homeland Security has not changed its policy in light of the pending bill, they do feel that their resources are used on more pressing deportations. “Our time is better spent on someone who is here unlawfully and is committing crimes in the neighborhood,” said John Morton, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that gave the children of illegal immigrants the right to attend public school, many districts in New York are asking for visas. One in five New York State school districts are requiring students to present immigration papers to register for school.

Although there are no records of students being turned away for the lack of proper papers, the New York Civil Liberties Union says the practice will “discourage families from enrolling in school for fear that they would be reported to federal immigration authorities” in a letter to the state commissioner. They also gathered a list of 139 districts that ask for visa information.
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