New York DREAM Act aims higher
Photo:Alessandra Potenza
The New York State Youth Leadership Council is a youth-led group that is trying to advance the New York State DREAM Act
By Alessandra Potenza November 29, 2011
When Tania Mattos, 28, discovered that she was undocumented she was 15 years old. She was sitting at the kitchen table with her father in their house in Queens, and she was filling out the paperwork to get her New York State driver’s license.
“What do I put here?” she asked him, pointing at the application section where she had to write her Social Security Number.
“Well, you don’t have one,” her father answered.
From that day, Mattos began to understand the implications of having arrived in the United States from Bolivia, when she was four years old, undocumented, with her mother and brother. She began to feel different from her peers.
“I felt kind of constrained and restricted from being able to do the things that my friends could do,” she said. And she began to coexist with “shame and denial,” with the fear of being discovered and getting into trouble.
In 2010, with a bachelor of science degree in marketing and a master’s degree in political science, Mattos joined the New York State Youth Leadership Council, a youth-led organization that is trying to advance the New York State DREAM Act. She discovered hundreds of undocumented youth, just like her.
“Finding them changed my life,” she said.
Spurred by the failure of the federal DREAM Act in the U.S. Senate last December, New York Democratic Sen. Bill Perkins introduced the state version of the measure in March 2011.
Other states also have passed similar DREAM Act laws. Illinois passed one to offer private scholarships to undocumented students, and California would offer some public financial aid to them. But New York’s legislation would go even further.
It would grant them the right to have access to state-funded financial aid programs, New York State health insurance programs, New York state IDs or drivers’ licenses. It also would open work opportunities for undocumented youth within the State of New York.
Back in 2002, New York State already passed in-state tuition for undocumented youth. The New York DREAM Act would use public funds to help undocumented students.
The bill “is asking for a lot, but it’s not asking for a lot. That’s what we should be given,” said Felipe Baeza, 24, an undocumented artist and member of the NYSYLC.
Unlike its federal counterpart, if passed, the New York DREAM Act would not provide undocumented youth a pathway to legal citizenship.
To qualify undocumented youth should meet certain criteria. They would need to have entered the United States before age 16, be under the age of 35, have graduated from high school with a high school diploma, and have resided in New York State for at least two years before the law’s effective date.
Undocumented students would have to complete at least two years of a four-year degree in a college or university in the state, or serve at least two years in the NY National Guard, or complete 910 hours of certified community service.
Among the benefits the legislation would grant undocumented immigrants, the possibility of getting New York State drivers’ licenses is one of the most controversial. In 2007, when then-governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a plan to allow undocumented immigrants to get New York State’s drivers’ licenses, the measure was so unpopular that Spitzer himself withdrew it after much bipartisan debate.
The measure, included in the DREAM Act, could generate additional opposition to a piece of legislation that will likely draw criticism for granting undocumented immigrants the ability to hold state jobs, a measure that would break federal laws prohibiting the hiring of undocumented immigrants.
“The need of undocumented youth for a state ID and a driver’s license is greater than our fear about what Republicans might say,” NYSYLC member and activist Mattos said, adding that the right to obtain a driver’s license is a “basic need” that anyone should be granted.
The provision will not particularly worsen criticism of the DREAM Act, according to Mae Ngai, immigration history professor at Columbia University and author of the book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.”
“People who oppose it, opposite it,” she said. Opponents of the DREAM Act fear that by legalizing one group of undocumented immigrants, doors will be open for other groups, she said.
“They don’t want to legalize anybody,” Ngai said.
Roy Beck, founder and CEO of Numbers USA, an organization campaigning for immigration reduction, is against the DREAM Act.
“We are not permanently opposed to [legalization],” Beck said.
Beck said that he understands that undocumented students are in a difficult situation, but allowing them to access state-funded financial aid and health insurance programs will mean deducting resources from U.S. citizens and other immigrants who came to the country legally.
“I think it will never pass,” said Beck, explaining that allowing undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s license and to hold state jobs will “challenge federal authority on immigration.”
If the New York State passes the DREAM Act, the Supreme Court would overrule the law, Beck said.
If the New York State passes the DREAM Act, the Supreme Court would overrule the law, Beck said.
Numbers USA plans to mobilize its registered activists to campaign against the DREAM Act in New York State by participating in public events, making phone calls and sending faxes to legislators.
Mattos is more hopeful. She expects the bill to become law next June.
“We just wanna work and pay taxes and just have a normal life,” Mattos said.
