Students United for the DREAM Act Forum

Students United for the DREAM Act, SUDA, a student organization based out of St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX, held a DREAM Act Forum on Friday, November 20 at the University Center. 

Dream Act advocates, Maricela Martinez and Maribel Falcon traveled from nearby Austin to attend and participate in the forum. They both shared their personal stories of how and why they became involved in the DREAM Act advocacy movement, and how much the DREAM Act meant to them. 

Falcon, a student at Austin Community College, shared the story of having met a student who had graduated from the University of Austin's engineering program, and how surprised she was to learn that, despite his prestigious degree, he was unable to pursue his career and forced to work in a low-skilled job. "You would think that having that kind of degree would guarantee a great job, for most it does, but for DREAM Act students it's different." she said, "Instead he was denied major job offers because of his situation and found work as a dishwasher. His story inspired me to learn more about this issue as there are many other students who are in this very same position".

Such stories motivated Falcon to speak out for passage of the DREAM Act. 

Martinez, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, shares the same motivation. She spoke about her participation at the annual National DREAM Act Graduation in June of 2009. "Its amazing to see how many students would benefit from passage of the DREAM Act".

Veronica Lopez, who heads up SUDA at St. Mary's and who was the event's primary organizer, was moved to advocate for the DREAM Act after hearing of the story of a St. Mary's alumni, Benita Veliz, who is currently facing deportation to Mexico after having lived in the US for 16.5 years. Lopez felt the situation was unfair and knew she had to do something about it. "Our main goal is to get the word out, to get people to call in and collect signatures of people who agree that we need the DREAM Act." Lopez plans to have a larger forum in the Spring. "This was a smaller forum, but our goal is to get a bigger conversation going here on campus about the DREAM Act and why we need to see it pass.

If you live in the San Antonio area and would like to help SUD promote the DREAM Act, please contact the lead coordiantor at benitaveliz (at) gmail.com"