Four immigrant students walked 1,500 miles from Florida to Washington to urge President Obama to act on immigration reform.(Abby Sewell/MNS)
WASHINGTON — Felipe Matos, 24, arrived in Washington on foot this week after a four-month hike from Florida.
He temporarily abandoned his studies at St. Thomas University on Jan. 1 to join three other immigrant students who walked to Washington on what they dubbed the Trail of Dreams in support of immigration reform. All were brought to the United States as minors, and three of them including Matos, are not legal residents.
Matos was raised by a single mother in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, but she sent him to live with relatives in Miami 10 years ago when her chronic back pain made her unable to work.
“I remember that day like it was yesterday — eight hours in a plane, crying the whole way, scared because I was alone,” he said.
Abby Sewell/MNS
Felipe Matos (left) and Gaby Pacheco (right), speak to a small gathering of supporters and press outside the White House Wednesday. The undocumented students, who walked from Florida to Washington in support of immigration reform, will be present at a bigger rally Saturday.
He and the other walkers arrived as the immigration debate heated up — Arizona passed a stringent anti-illegal immigration law and Democrats are weighing whether to introduce immigration reform legislation in the Senate this year. The Florida students and another group of undocumented students who walked from New York will be part of a rally in front of the White House planned by immigration reform advocates this Saturday.
Other students will travel shorter distances to meet them, like Jaime, an 18-year-old undocumented high school senior from Prince George County, Md., who asked that his last name be withheld. He has been working with other volunteers in Maryland to spread the word.
Unlike Matos, Jaime doesn’t remember his journey to the United States. He was five when his parents brought him from Honduras.
“I don’t even remember my home country – this is the only country I’ve known,” he said.
Jaime wants to be a construction engineer like his father and plans to attend the New York Institute of Technology in the fall. But his dream of enrolling in West Point’s engineering program was derailed after he tried to join the Army, but was sent home when officials discovered that he was an illegal immigrant.
Abby Sewell/MNS
Jaime, an 18-year-old illegal immigrant from Prince George County, makes a sign to carry at a rally for immigration reform in Washington on Saturday.
Matos said he had similar disappointments growing up. He watched his high school friends get their drivers licenses and visit colleges while he was unable to.
“I remember my (high school) graduation day being the saddest day of my life because as I was crossing that stage I didn’t know what was going to happen. I felt so alone,” he said, fearing he was ineligible for college as an undocumented immigrant.
Eventually, he found out that he could enroll at a local community college, although he was not eligible for federal or state financial aid and had to pay out of state tuition. He graduated with an associate’s degree and is now enrolled at St. Thomas University, a Catholic university in Florida. Matos said he hopes to become a teacher.
The students want Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but a piece known as the DREAM Act is especially relevant to them. The bill, which has been introduced in Congress in various iterations since 2001, would offer legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the United States before age 16 and meet certain criteria, such as graduating from a U.S. high school. It also would give them a path to citizenship if they attend a U.S. college or join the military.
Matos said the walkers were spurred by frustration at the Obama administration’s failure to act on the president’s campaign promise of immigration reform. Matos was disappointed that Obama had not agreed to meet with their group in Washington.
An administration official said Wednesday that the students had turned down an offer to meet senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. The official said Obama has supported the DREAM Act since he was a senator and remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform.
But some consider the DREAM Act problematic.
Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for lower immigration levels, said the DREAM Act would be a mistake unless the government takes steps to secure the border and enforce existing immigration laws.
“It seems to me that the idea of having an amnesty for people who came as children has merit, and we should consider it, but we can’t have any kind of amnesty until we’ve enforced the law,” he said.
Camarota also said that offering a path to citizenship for students whose parents brought them to the country illegally would be unfair to people who followed the legal route to immigration.
“It makes everyone who played by the rules look like a fool,” he said.
For more information on the students from Florida, see http://trail2010.org/