DREAM Act Portal Forum - Jessica Colotl: Kennesaw State Student Ignites Illegal Immigration Debate

Quote:

Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl studied political science and dreamed of becoming a lawyer until a series of minor traffic violations propelled her to the center of a nationwide debate on illegal immigration.

Colotl's family came undocumented to America from Mexico when she was 11. After she was arrested in late March for driving without a license, the sheriff's office turned her over to immigration officials and put her in an Alabama detention center. Her ordeal was only just beginning...

The Cobb County Sheriff's Office is one of 71 law enforcement agencies in 26 states that have entered into this partnership program, according to the ICE website.

Labeling the program a "civil rights disaster," Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said it "leads to racial profiling, distracts police from looking for real criminals and destroys families."

Beyond local immigration law enforcement, Colotl's case brings to light the thorny situation undocumented immigrants face when trying to pursue higher education.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that applicants to Georgia universities are only given three choices of citizen status disclosure; undocumented students are forced to lie on the application:

The form used by the 35 institutions that make up the University System of Georgia asks prospective students to disclose their citizen status. They have just three options:

* U.S. citizen;

* Nonresident alien: A person who is not a citizen or national of the U.S. and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely;

* Permanent resident: A non-citizen living in the U.S. under legally recognized and lawfully recorded permanent residence status as an immigrant.

Colotl, who is widely supported by civil rights activists and is being represented by lawyers free of charge, told the AP that she is "certain" she will graduate from Kennesaw State:

"I really believe that something positive should come out of this, probably an immigration reform or at least the DREAM Act," she said.

What do you think?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_578767.html

NY Times:

Quote:

Her ultimate goal, Ms. Colotl said at the news conference, is that proposed legislation called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — known as the Dream Act — will become law, providing students without legal immigration status a path to become legal.

In Georgia, the case has become intensely political. Ms. Colotl received in-state tuition, substantially reducing her cost of attending Kennesaw State. The university will charge her out-of-state rates in the future, but Republican politicians are calling for new legislation to make attendance more expensive, or impossible, for illegal immigrants.

I know a thread was posted about Colotl before but I added this because of the Dream Act mentioned.