“I worry, perhaps irrationally, that [speaking in this public forum] might have a negative impact on my case,” Martine Mwanj Kalaw told a congressional panel at a hearing on the future of undocumented immigrant students. “But it is my obligation to do what I can to prevent this anguish for other students…help them by making it more likely that the DREAM act will become law this year.”

Kalaw, who has been living in the United States for 22 years, was one of three students who shared their stories with a House judiciary subcommittee in hopes of getting support for passage of the “Develop, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act” before they are deported to countries they were born in but do not consider home.

These students were chosen because their cases were already publicized through their advocacy in their communities.

The DREAM Act was reintroduced in Congress in March. If passed, the law would leave it to the states to determine whether to allow U.S.-raised undocumented students, ages 12 and older, to enjoy the same benefits for higher education as any other resident student.

The law would strike a section of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, a federal law that requires states that provide in-state tuition rates to undocumented student to do the same for out-of state students. 

Ten states currently offer undocumented students in-state tuition rates; California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington.

California and Texas are one of the four “majority-minority” states, according to the U.S. Census report released last week. 

The bill has its share of critics, including University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor Kris W. Kobach.

“This is a slap in the face to the law-abiding American citizen from out of state,” Kobach said. “This discriminatory treatment is particularly harmful in a time when the price of a four-year college education is beyond the reach of many U.S. citizens.”