Undocumented Students Protest Senator Feinstein's Delay On Dream Act

By Lauren Smiley Thu., Jun. 10 2010 at 2:25 PM

Categories: Immigration

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Dozens of college students - many undocumented - protested outside Senator Dianne Feinstein's Market Street office Thursday morning, urging her to act on a pending bill that would offer a path to citizenship to students who crossed the border while kids and have attended two years of college.

Students in New York City fasted for 10 days in support of the bipartisan bill known as the "Dream Act." Other students walked from Miami to Washington. Arizona students were arrested during a sit-in in Senator John McCain's Tucson office, three of which now face deportation. But the Bay Area protesters decided to go for theatrics - staging a mock graduation during which "ICE agents" came to deport them right off the stage.

Most of the students had been brought to the United States from Latin America while kids, and have found ways to attend universities without federal scholarships. They are now exactly the type of educated and ambitious people most lawmakers would want to stay in the country - except they have no papers. While they said that representatives from Feinstein's office met with them a couple weeks ago and promised to move on the Dream Act - of which the senator is a co-sponsor - there's still been no action.

So the students showed up again to chant "Education, not deportation!" and "No Dream Act, no peace!" in front of her office at 1 Post Street. In a faux graduation ceremony, recent graduates and students gave testimonials about pursuing higher education with the knowledge that no legal jobs await them. The "ICE agents" armored up in their masking tape uniforms, and then grabbed the students, kicking and screaming off the stage.

Bravo to the performance of this particularly dramatic journalism student, who will graduate from Santa Clara University on Saturday, and yelled "Don't steal my dream!" as the ICE agents pulled her away.

No one from the senator's office came out to talk with the students. Predictably, the bike messengers nearby didn't do much of anything either.

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