Making dreams real

Each year, more than 50,000 undocumented immigrant students graduate from American high schools. Despite living here more than five years and having no choice but to follow their parents to this country, regulations force these young people to then apply for college as foreign students. But pending bipartisan legislation could help students like Sanchez.

Called the Student Adjustment Act in Congress and the DREAM Act in the Senate, the law would eliminate federal provisions that discourage states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented students. It would also create new avenues to help some students become U.S. citizens.

On April 12, a group of about 60 local Hispanic civic leaders, students and citizens gathered on the soccer field at Sanchez's school and held green and blue balloons as speakers stood on a small hill and discussed the need for the new law. Many filled out comment cards indicating their support for the legislation, supported by Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Julia Carson. Sanchez was one of the people who spoke to the crowd gathered in the grass on this sunny afternoon.

"I never thought coming to America would stop me from being who I wanted to be," she said after her speech. "I always wanted to be an architect and I did everything I could to keep my grades up to show other people I could be what I wanted to be."

For every determined student like Sanchez, there are thousands who give up. "I knew three other students who graduated the same year as me who didn"t care about their grades at all because they didn't think they could go to college," Sanchez said.

"This law will give students a bigger desire to get good grades to go to college and achieve their goals. Now, the system gives us a bad prediction of what we can do with our lives. People think we don't graduate because we're dumb. But a lot us think, "Why graduate when you can't go on anyway?" This is really holding back the Hispanic society because so many just give up when they face these obstacles."

Ernesto Herrera, one of the event's organizers and a teacher at the Hispanic Education Center and IUPUI, said this is an issue that concerns more than just immigrants. "My argument is about what's best for us in the future. We're not going to stop immigration," he said. "But if people don't have a chance to do something with their lives we could have more people turning to crime."