For Illegal College Students, An Uncertain Future
By Dina M. Horwedel
Amy Chen* grew up in New York, living the life of a typical suburban American girl, with one exception — she's been living in the United States illegally ever since her parents emigrated from Taiwan when she was an infant.
Although Chen, now 27, was able to attend high school and even college, her professional aspirations hit a dead end halfway through law school. She discovered that in order to qualify to take a state bar exam, she would have to undergo a background check.
“At that point, I no longer saw any reason to continue,” Chen says. She dropped out of law school, but got further along in her education than most undocumented students.
With almost two million undocumented children in school and an estimated 65,000 graduating from high school every year, higher education is becoming the new frontier in the immigration debate. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the children of illegal immigrants have a right to a free K-12 education. But the court never extended that right to higher education.
What has resulted is uncertainty state by state — and often case by case — about how to respond to undocumented students. Some institutions summarily reject such students while others accept them as international students. Still other institutions play a quiet game of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Multiple immigration bills that hope to clarify the situation are currently working their way through the U.S. Congress, including the DREAM Act. In response to constituent pressure to resolve immigration problems, President Bush and Congress have self-imposed a deadline of Dec. 31, 2006, to adopt immigration reform. But with a contentious debate about immigration raging, the future of the act is uncertain. Its proponents argue that it should be considered on its own merits because it concerns fairness and children’s education, and ultimately impacts American competitiveness in the global marketplace.
