Guilford College Big Idea Proposal, 2010-2011


 

 

Big Idea Title: No More Dreams Deferred: Working Towards Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Pass of The Dream Act

 

Name of Congress Representatives: Hannah Seyb, Juliet Carrington, Neisha Washington, Megan Snider

 

Your Proposal: As anti-immigrant sentiments are at an all time high, more and more policies are being enacted that are affecting and impacting the immigrant community in various ways.  The ways in which the policy named 287 (g) is enforced is one example of these anti-immigrant sentiments.  That particular policy was passed in Guilford County in the summer of 2009 and authorizes local police to act as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.  287(g) has been deemed as a protective safety measure, allowing police to detain and deport the most dangerous undocumented citizens (who commit crimes such as rape, murder, etc), however this policy is targeting the law abiding undocumented community, most specifically the Latino community.  Citizen-born, documented, and unauthorized persons who are primarily Latino are being forced to live in fear due to the discriminatory nature of this policy. 

     As of right now, the US does not have comprehensive immigration reform.  The only solution being offered is to secure the borders; however, there are over 12 million undocumented citizens that reside within the United States and there has been no meaningful discussion as to what will happen to the futures of these people.  The DREAM Act is a policy that would not only provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented minors, but give them the opportunity to go onto higher education (or the military).  This upcoming year, over 65,000 undocumented students' dreams of going to college will die due to barriers such as policies at various colleges/universities that prohibit undocumented students from attending, giving citizens first choice over classes, and the denial of federal loans to undocumented students.  By giving these students the ability to go onto college and obtain degrees and become productive, contributing members of society, it will only better the United States as a whole.

     For our big Idea, we would like to continue to rally our campus and community to fight not only for the DREAM Act, but for meaningful immigration reform.  Due to many misconceptions and the miseducation on the reality of immigration and the reasons for why people are immigrating, we would also like to educate our campus and greater community about the truths and critically analyze the implications of these myths.  Through campus wide events, workshops, and community organizing, we would like to educate the community. 

     However, in order for our efforts to be successful, we must first get the students at Guilford outside the Bonner Program to become more involved in service.  At the moment a majority of the service work done by students is done by Bonners, not that this is a bad thing, but we would like to see more students giving back to their community.  We hope to create more opportunities that appeal to a wide range of students, so that they will be more motivated to participate.  Additionally, we would like to help build more support of the Bonner Program and Career and Community Learning Center by the general student population. After this is accomplished, our efforts with the DREAM Act and immigration will be more successful.