In a recent event, dubbed No Ceiling, and attended by Hillary Clinton, a member of the audience stood up and admitted to the world for the first time that she was undocumented.
“For the first time publicly,” she said as she began to tear up, “I want to say that I am an undocumented immigrant.”
The event highlighted problems faced by children whose parents brought them to this country, but have never attained citizenship or other legal status. There has been a push to offer these children help including legislation commonly known as the Dream Act. The latter has been considered at both the federal and state levels across the country with varying degree of success. Maryland is one of the states around the country to pass the Dream Act allowing in state tuitition of students who can to the country as children. The students are eligible for in-county tuition at Maryland community colleges and in-state rates at public universities as long as they meet the requirements which include graduating from a Maryland high school after attending for at least three years and proof that either the student or his family has filed income taxes for the three years prior.
Shining a spotlight on this particular immigration issue and the reform as a whole will hopefully get Congress to revisit the issue in the next term because it seems unlikely to occur before November’s elections.