WASHINGTON – They can’t get citizenship or in-state tuition rates, so they’re taking the next steps the Capitol and White House steps, that is.
A coalition of student immigrant advocacy groups in Massachusetts, Colorado and California on Wednesday launched a makeshift school in the nation’s capital, reminiscent of the “teach-ins” of the 1960s, to encourage a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants through college enrollment.
The first class at “Dream University” a school with informal classes and volunteer professors and instructors from around the country was held Wednesday outside the White House, with more planned in the weeks ahead. Students don’t get credit for the classes, but they’re free.
The first class of about 27 students, several wearing white DREAM University T-shirts, gathered at Lafayette Park, across from the White House.
Cady Landa, a former Boston public schoolteacher, led the students in a discussion of a report recently released by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
“It’s not only an education,” Landa said about the protest classes, “it’s turning around a terrible situation and making it a positive situation.”
