The U.S. Senate voted down the DREAM Act on Saturday morning, and Juan Diego Catholic High School staff were watching closely since the school also has students impacted by the “legal” status issue many high school seniors face when applying to college.

Senior class counselor Roxanne Kammerer, who helps seniors apply to college, says during her years on staff she has seen many students learning they were 'undocumented' immigrants while they were in high school. “Because I have worked mostly with 12th graders, I have, on average, one student per year – that I know of – learn that she or he is an undocumented student,” Kammerer said.

According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately 2.5 million undocumented minors were living in the United States in 2002. That number has grown by now.

Kammerer believes these students bring great gifts and cultural diversity to the Juan Diego community. “To be honest, I am not sure what other students and faculty would say about this, but my experience has been that these students and their parents bring a wonderful diversity of life experience that most of our students have never been exposed to,” Kammerer said.

Students can apply to college without a problem, but there is a major obstacle that the DREAM Act would have solved for undocumented immigrants everywhere in the United States graduating from college, approximately 65,000 each year – how to pay for it.

“It is the tuition factor that often presents the greatest obstacle,” Kammerer pointed out. Nearly 40 percent of undocumented children live below the federal poverty level, compared to 17 percent of native-born children.

Federal law does not forbid illegal immigrants from attending universities and colleges in the U.S. State laws do vary on whether to grant illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates.

Ten states, including California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin have laws that allow undocumented students to attend college with in-state tuition, of course with a few requirements like having attended high school in the United States and graduated from one. These laws are challenged each year.

The idea behind these laws allowing in-state tuition that is often significantly easier to afford than a foreign tuition is that the high school graduates were brought to the United States. They had no choice when they were brought here and most of the time they know no other country than the United States.

“Regardless of citizenship, people who receive an education, especially education beyond high school, make more money in their jobs, take better care of their health, provide more educational opportunities for their own children and contribute back to society with both their knowledge and their financial resources,” Kammerer said.  “They pay taxes, buy more goods and services that stimulate the economy and tend to volunteer their time to help others more often.  Society only benefits from this.”

Kammerer believes the struggles the immigrant community has undergone on many levels inspires Juan Diego. “Often, though not always, these are low-income families who have made great sacrifices of family, personal professions, income, and travel to give their children a safe and ‘good’ life. These families have faced many hardships and adversities that many people will never experience in their lifetimes. I find these students are often the most appreciative of the education they are receiving because they realize the sacrifices their families have made....for them! What an incredible contribution to our ‘community’.”

Colleges and other education programs support the DREAM Act as well.

Kammerer belongs to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an international organization comprised of high school counselors and college admission professionals who work with students transitioning into college. It has been one of the first and loudest supporters of the DREAM Act.

“It knows that an educated population is a contributing (financially and otherwise) population in any society,” Kammerer said, “I have also had many, many discussions with college representatives and other high school counselors about this over the past few years. Most of them support the Dream Act, too.”

The College Board, which is very involved directly with Juan Diego, being behind the fifteen Advanced Placement exams many students take and the SAT exams every senior takes, voted unanimously to support the DREAM Act as well.

Speaking for the the College Board, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, co-director of Immigration Studies of New York University, said “We can do the right thing and give those whose lives are marked by a modern-day scarlet letter a fair shot at becoming full members of the only family they really know and love: the American family. It is this family who must, however ambivalently, embrace them.”

If the Dream Act does not pass, Kammerer is one of many who hope that it will be re-introduced in the near future, so “there won’t be an entire generation who suffers.” With more information and support for it, she remains positive that it will most likely pass.