NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: student movements A Dream Detained: Undocumented Latino Youth and the DREAM Movement By Arely M. Zimmerman N OCTOBER 12, 2011, FIVE UNDOCUMENTED immigrant ordinances and laws are being consid- Latino youth wearing graduation caps ered in an unprecedented number of localities and Ostaged a sit-in at the Immigration and states. Laws banning undocumented immigrants Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices in downtown from renting homes, penalizing employers who Los Angeles. The sit-in was meant to urge the hire them, and barring undocumented youth from Obama administration to stop deporting undocu- universities are part of a larger trend in which im- mented youths.1 It also launched the national Edu- migration law and enforcement is transferred to the cation Not Deportation (END) Our Pain campaign, local and state level within the context of neoliberal undertaken by a network of immigrant youth or- restructuring.2 Over the past several decades, the ganizations and allies demanding an immediate United States has implemented two contradictory moratorium on deportations of youth eligible for policies: It has liberalized the economy—enabling the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien the free movement of capital—and increased Minors (DREAM) Act. If passed, it would grant border enforcement and the criminalization and conditional legal status to those brought here under surveillance of migrant workers and their families. age 16 if they attend college or join the military. These broader neoliberal agendas have fundamen- Despite recent announcements from the Obama tally and strategically been implemented in cities, administration that it would ease up on non- whose residents have consequently faced changing criminal deportations, U.S. officials continue to de- demographics and economic restructuring. The lo- port undocumented immigrants at a record-setting cal and state government anti-immigrant policies, rate. Federal programs such as Secure Communities, have largely been in response to the cities’ anxieties are at least partially responsible, essentially turning and impulses to counteract demographic and eco- local law enforcement into de facto Border Patrol nomic changes with exclusionary and restrictive agents. Tony Ortuño, one of the participants in the covenants that target undocumented workers. sit-in, explained his reasons for risking arrest: For the last four years the number of states that “We . were hopeful that the recent announce- allow undocumented students to receive in-state ments by President Obama would bring relief to tuition has plateaued.3 Only 10 states now offer in- DREAM Act-eligible youth . However, due to state tuition to undocumented immigrants. Instead, programs like Secure Communities . the num- many states are now looking to roll back in-state bers of undocumented youth who are incarcerated, tuition or pass laws preventing undocumented Arely M. Zimmer- shackled, and deported to countries they barely immigrants from attending. The most recent puni- man holds a Ph.D. know continues to rise.” tive measures have been passed in new immigrant in Political Science The civil disobedience reflects how the undoc- destinations such as South Carolina, Georgia, and from UCLA, and is currently an umented youth movement has transitioned and Alabama, which have gone so far as banning un- Andrew Mellon transformed—from a movement that was initially documented youth from universities. Postdoctoral Fellow focused on building support for the DREAM Act This is despite the fact that international free in Social Movements to one that has increasingly used direct action to trade agreements and current U.S. laws have been in the Department bring attention to broader issues of immigrant, largely responsible for transforming circular migra- of American Studies and the Program civil, and human rights as a strategy for social tion patterns into largely undocumented migrant for Environmental and policy change. The tactical shift has been in settlement, in which immigrant children are largely and Regional Equity response to a changing political context in which affected.4 In other words, while the United States at the University of the will to pass immigration reform has waned in has actively recruited, relied on, and imported Southern California. Washington, deportations are on the rise, and anti- Mexican migrant labor that was seasonal, temporal, 14 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 report: student movements A DREAM Act supporter with a graduation cap demonstrates in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in downtown Los Angeles on October 12, to urge the Obama administration to stop deporting undocumented youth. and largely unregulated, current immigration laws and neo- youth who have grown up in the United States to eventu- liberal trade agreements have combined to produce an un- ally obtain permanent legal status and become eligible for documented, settled labor force. U.S. citizenship if they go to college or serve in the U.S. In a 2009 report, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated military. (2) It would eliminate a federal provision that pe- that in 2008 there were 1.7 million undocumented youth nalizes states that provide in-state tuition without regard to between the ages of 18 and 24 living in the United States immigration status. and that Latinos represented 78% of this population.5 The Due to several compromises to secure bipartisan support, increasing numbers of undocumented migrants who have the DREAM Act has undergone significant changes. The mil- decided to stay in the United States has contributed to the itary option—which replaced the community service provi- larger numbers of undocumented children that are growing sion in earlier versions—incited criticism among some who into adulthood. Unfortunately, their legal status, poverty, and saw the new version of the bill as a military recruitment tool poor schools conspire to make political, social, and economic (see “Letter to the DREAM Movement,” page 18).6 When incorporation into society extremely complicated. The cur- the DREAM Act was included in a Defense appropriations rent moment represents a critical juncture not only in the bill, VAMOS Unidos Youth, an organization of street ven- undocumented youth movement, but in shaping policies dors and their children in the Bronx, New York, withdrew that will continue to affect the incorporation patterns of im- support, saying it was “a de facto military draft, forcing un- migrant youth for years to come. documented youth to fight in unjust wars in exchange for the recognition as human beings.”7 INCE 2001, CONGRESS HAS BEEN CONSIDERING A VERSION Some of their concerns are substantiated by the relatively of the DREAM Act, bipartisan legislation that would limited number of youth who would be able to access higher Sprovide an opportunity for undocumented students education in the current economic climate.8 Currently, only with “good moral character,” who have lived in the U.S. for 26% of undocumented youth enroll in college; compared to a certain period, to obtain legal status. The latest version was 56% of 18-24-year-olds who are U.S. born. In other words, introduced May 11. If passed, it would change current law the bill would primarily benefit those willing and able to af- POCHO ONE POCHO in two major ways: (1) It would permit certain immigrant ford college or serve in the military as an option for legaliza- 15 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: student movements tion.9 In a July 2010 report, the Migration Policy Institute sit-ins at Congressional offices, hunger strikes, marches, noted that while over 2 million unauthorized youth could and symbolic graduations, while amplifying their voices be immediately eligible for the DREAM Act, only 33% may through the sophisticated use of blogs, Facebook, You- benefit from the educational path in the bill. Tube, and other social media. In June 2009, the founders Despite these changes in the law, the DREAM Act has in- of DREAM Activist, an online undocumented youth advo- spired political participation and activism of undocumented cacy network, along with United We Dream, organized 500 youth in unprecedented numbers. Before the DREAM Act, youth to participate in the National DREAM Act Graduation immigrant rights activists had primarily focused their orga- in Washington, which combined a symbolic ceremony with nizing efforts on class action lawsuits to defend the right to legislative lobbying.15 Solidarity graduations took place the education for undocumented students at the state level.10 same day in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, While youth have been historically active in these issues, the Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, immigrant rights mobilizations in 2006 opened opportuni- North Carolina, and Texas.16 In another widely publicized ties for broader youth participation. campaign, on January 1, 2010, four undocumented youth Undocumented and immigrant youth participated in from Miami Dade College began a four-month, 1,500-mile- unprecedented numbers in the mobilizations of 2006 and trek to Washington to advocate for the DREAM Act. In what 2007, albeit with some initial resistance from some sec- they aptly called the Trail of DREAMs, the youth document- tors of the movement.11 Initially, student issues were not a ed their walk with active blogging, Facebook, YouTube, and prominent part of the immigrant rights movements’ broader twitter, and gathered 30,000 signatures to bring to President agenda.