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PIERCE'S IMMIGRATION LAW E-NEWSLETTER August 2011
Inside this month's issue:
Books on Immigration: Finding Manana: A Memoir of the Cuban Exodus by Mirta OjitoFinding
Processing Times and Case Status IMMIGRATION NEWS
 California Passes Part I of Dream Act
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Monday a measure that will allow undocumented immigrant students to receive privately funded scholarships administered at public universities and community colleges.
Since 2005, bills containing an identical measure were vetoed four times by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, but on Monday, Brown, a Democrat, ceremoniously signed the bill. The new law is called California’s Dream Act. It differs from a proposed federal bill called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — or DREAM — Act, which would create a path to citizenship for immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children under the age of 16 and have lived in the United States for at least five years, obtained a high school or general education development diploma and demonstrated “good moral character,” according to a White House fact sheet.
“Signing this Dream Act is another investment in people,” Brown said at Monday’s signing.
Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, a regional immigrant rights organization, praised the new law. “While many states have chosen to legislate hate and division by approving anti-immigrant laws, California’s governor sends a strong message that investing in today’s student population, regardless of their immigration status, is smart, practical, and the right thing to do,” Salas said in a written statement.
Los Angeles school board President Mónica García also praised the new law. “This is a great day for all of California in reaffirming our commitment to human rights, to opportunity and to education,” García said. “Today, we reaffirm our demand for comprehensive immigration reform and the passage of a federal Dream Act. Passage of AB 130 reaffirms our belief that in California, education is the great equalizer and that California remains the land of opportunity.”
The law requires undocumented immigrant students to have attended a California high school for three or more years, to have attained a diploma or a GED, to have filed an affidavit with the college stating they have applied for a lawful immigration status or will apply as soon as they are eligible to do so.
The University of California system’s 10 campuses have about 670 undocumented students who could benefit under the new law. The UC system has a total enrollment of 237,000. Figures for undocumented immigrant students in the Cal State and community college systems weren’t available. The Dream Act Part II, which would allow undocumented immigrant students to receive state-funded financial aid at higher education institutions, Quinonez said.
That measure, which passed the Assembly in June, is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 25, 2011.
Chronology of Immigration in the United State This book details the issues and events of immigration to America chronologically from 1600 to the present, beginning with the mass influx of Jamestown settlers, Pilgrim separatists, and slaves during the colonial period and concluding with a discussion of the ongoing contemporary legislative debates over illegal immigration and border security. Other topics include the development of the first immigration-regulating laws in the Alien and Sedition Acts of the late 1790s; the mass influx of cheap immigrant labor during the industrial revolution; the intended severity of the 1917, 1921, and 1924 immigration laws; and the effects of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act of 2001, and the Homeland Security Act of 2002 on reshaping the public’s opinion toward national security and immigration, particularly illegal immigration.
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