(NAME-MCE) In Support of Educating Immigrant Youths by the The Immigration Policy Center

[Chris Clark]

Dead-Ends and Deportation for America's Youth
2 Million Reasons to Find a Solution

As the school year ends, millions of children throughout the United
States are looking forward to summer vacations. Many will soon be
packing their bags as they head off to summer camp or to their first
year of college. But others are not so lucky. Some children are
packing all of their belongings and preparing to leave what may be the
only home they have ever known, as the U.S. government prepares to
expel them to countries they may not even remember. Others with the
potential for higher education and a professional career are resigned
to a life that's underachieving and underground.

* Arthur Mkoyan was due to be deported by the end of this month, just
after graduating from Bullard High School in Fresno, California. The
17-year-old valedictorian was to take his 4.0 grade point average, his
acceptance letter to the University of California at Davis, and his
talent back to Armenia - a country he has not seen since the age of
two. His deportation was delayed after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
introduced a private bill on his behalf in Congress on June 10. But
whether or not he will be allowed to remain in the United States, and
for how long, remains unknown ("Senator tries to keep valedictorian
from deportation, " CNN.com, June 11, 2008).

* Santiago Cordero graduated from Postville High School in Iowa on
May 25, 2008. In addition to starting the school's first soccer team,
his participation in varsity football and volunteer programs was
applauded by the Superintendent. Despite an immigration raid that tore
his mother from their family, Cordero graduated in the top ten of his
class. But because Santiago is undocumented, he faces an uncertain
future ("Raid mars future for 3 graduating today from Postville," Des
Moines Register, May 25, 2008).

* Laura just graduated from high school in Charlotte, North Carolina,
with a 4.0 grade point average and dreams of becoming an engineer. But
then she learned that Central Piedmont Community College, which she
planned to attend for two years before switching to a four-year
college, is no longer admitting undocumented students such as herself.
Now Laura's plans for college and a career are in limbo ("Yearning to
learn, but rule says no," Charlotte Observer, June 17, 2008).

As lawmakers keep trying to "deport their way out" of a dysfunctional
immigration system that has fueled a growing undocumented population,
they would do well to consider the cases of Arthur, Santiago, Laura,
and approximately 1.8 million others, whose deportation would be
traumatic not only for the students themselves, but for the American
workforce as a whole. An IPC fact sheet, Dreams Deferred: The Cost of
Ignoring Undocumented Students, details the financial and emotional
costs of deporting these students and wasting human resources that are
vital to our nation's future. The fact sheet is drawn from a larger
IPC report, Wasted Talent and Broken Dreams: The Lost Potential of
Undocumented Students, by Roberto Gonzales:

Lost Potential: Children account for 1.8 million (15 percent) of the
roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United
States. Though born abroad, these children primarily identify with
this country. Many were brought at such a young age that they have
attended most of their K-12 education here. Roughly 65,000
undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at
least five years  graduate from high school each year, but only an
estimated 5-10 percent go on to college, which means that the
potential of these honor students, valedictorians, aspiring teachers,
and engineers goes unrealized.

Lost Tax Dollars: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
workers with a bachelor's degree earned an average of $962 per week in
2006 (as opposed to $419 per week for workers without a degree). The
Department of Labor found that the wages of immigrants who legalized
their status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
(IRCA) increased by about 15 percent after only five years. Given the
opportunity, undocumented students will improve their education, work
in higher-paying jobs, and pay more in taxes.

Lost Workers: The BLS identified 15 occupations expected to grow at
least twice as fast as the national average between 2004 and 2014,
nine of which require at least an Associate's degree, and four of
which, in 2005, had a significantly greater share of immigrant workers
than native-born workers; 46 percent of medical scientists, 35 percent
of computer engineers, and 20 percent of postsecondary teachers are
immigrants.

States Step In: So far, ten states have passed laws permitting
undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they attended
and graduated from in-state high schools. New Mexico and Texas also
allow undocumented students to compete for financial aid. The
experience of these states reveals that the number of undocumented
students is far too small to deprive their native-born counterparts of
college admission slots or financial aid.

Contact:

Angela Kelley, Director
202.507.7511 (office)
202.441.5589 (cell)
akelley at ailf. org

Michele Waslin, Senior Policy Analyst
202.507.7521 (office)
mwaslin at ailf. org

IPC is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation.
Visit our website at www.immigrationpoli cy.org
———
Christine Clark, Ed.D.
chriseclark at mac.com
702.896.1527 Telephone
702.896.4529 Facsimile
702.985.6979 Cellular

"What are the standards that we have?  If we're concerned about  
unarmed truth--understanding this condition of truth is allowing  
suffering to speak--and unconditional love--understanding justice is  
what love looks like in public--then the question is, what suffering  
voices do we hear...and what kinds of concerns about justice are made  
manifest...?

									—Cornell West

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