By Andrew Zajic
While caramel apples were served, and a clown standing on stilts walked among the crowds, and people extinguished controlled fires flaring in a pot, there came a silent protest.
It wedged into Stony Brook University’s Homecoming Kick Off and Pep Rally on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The Stony Brook Social Justice Alliance posted the silent protest on a Facebook events page titled, “Do I Look Illegal To You?” It started off solemn and small that day, but over an hour later about 20 Stony Brook University students had joined the first three protesters.
Nadia Habib, 19, an undocumented student majoring in psychology and protester, talked with fellow protesters at the silent protest, “Do I Look Illegal To You?” on September 21, 2011 at Stony Brook University outside of the Student Activities Center in Stony Brook, N.Y. Nadia is in the midst of a deportation case involving her and her mother as of September 30, 2011. Photo by Andrew Zajic.
The protestors held signs questioning discrimination of a student’s immigration status, but awareness about the DREAM Act, a legislation bill that stands for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, was the more revered message. The effectiveness of the silent protest is questionable against the immigrant-friendly backdrop of Stony Brook University.
“There are undocumented students everywhere; in your classrooms, in your dorm rooms, everywhere in our society,” said Nazma Niles, 21, a protester and Stony Brook University student studying political science. She supported undocumented students at the protest because she believes they do not have a voice.
There are at least 98 undocumented immigrants enrolled at Stony Brook University, according to the Office of Student Affairs. The number comes from how many undocumented students live on campus, which does not include those commuting to the University. A Social Security Number is not necessary when applying to enroll at the University, but an undocumented student has to provide immigration status when applying for residency.
“I wasn’t born in this country,” says Nestor Vidal, 20, a protester and transfer student at Stony Brook University studying political science and philosophy. Vidal was born in the Dominican Republic.
“If I didn’t come here, I wouldn’t have as much opportunity as I did in my homeland,” he said. To him, the more people are educated, the more powerful they become. He believed it would not be fair to strip immigrants, whether or not they are documented, the same education opportunities by racial profiling. Vidal held a sign, smaller than his chest, with both hands, which asked, “Do I Look Illegal?” Other protesters also held messages high for crowds at homecoming to see, some of which read, “Education not Deportation” and “Everyone deserves the right to dream Pass the DREAM Act.”
The DREAM Act, Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, helps eligible children of undocumented immigrants whom already live in the U.S. to earn legal status in the country, according to the National Immigration Law Center, a leading expert on immigration for the past 30 years. To be eligible for the DREAM Act, undocumented children have to be 15 years of age or younger and they need to have lived in the country for a minimum of five years before the date of the bill’s enactment.
For an undocumented child to gain legal status in the US, he or she can either serve in the military or go to college for two years. Once legal status is earned, the undocumented child can later apply for US citizenship. Undocumented parents or other extended family of these children eligible for the DREAM Act do not benefit from this legislation.
“This whole entire country was built on immigrants, we need them,” said Julia Colon, 18, a Stony Brook University student majoring in social welfare with a minor in education.
“Who are you to say who can’t get education? Who are you to say who can live here?” she asked. She loves the idea behind the DREAM Act and thinks that it should be passed.
Nazma Niles, 21, a senior studying political science, led the protesters during the silent protest “Do I Look Illegal to You?” on September 21, 2011 at Stony Brook University through the academic mall, around a fountain and then around the Frank Melville Jr. Memorial and then finally returned near the Student Activities Center, in Stony Brook, N.Y. Photo by Andrew Zajic.
Although the DREAM Act passed in the U.S. House and then blocked in the U.S. Senate in December of last year, Stony Brook University’s President Samuel Stanley expressed his support for the Act. He urged the passage of the “federal legislation to provide a pathway to legal residency and remove barriers to higher education for thousands of students who are not legal residents of this country” in a joint letter to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham in 2010, as written in an email from James Montalto, the Media Relations Manager of Stony Brook University.
No federal or state law prohibiting the admission of undocumented immigrants to U.S. colleges and universities, according to College Board, a not-for-profit membership organization that promotes college success and opportunity. Ninety-eight undocumented students already reside on the University campus. According to State University of New York residency policy, undocumented students are eligible for in-state tuition when they have attended one New York State high school in their junior and senior years and graduated from that same school and secondly, they are required to complete the “Student Affidavit of Intent to Legalize Immigration Status.”
If the current version of the DREAM Act passed today, undocumented students at Stony Brook University would not be eligible for it since they over the age limit. When eligible and after following the proper steps, they can already enroll at the university, live in a dorm on campus, and pay the same tuition rate as an in-state student.
At the “Do I Look Illegal To You?” silent protest, the protestors talked the DREAM Act next to a question that implies non-white students experience discrimination based on immigration status.
“I have not heard of a case in the last year,” said Christina Vargas Law, the Director of the Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action at Stony Brook University. She has been at this office for 15 years and director since 2001. Although many complaints filed overlap with other types of discrimination such as those based on religion and sex, there are not many based on non-white students being discriminated against for looking like an illegal immigrant or illegal alien. The most common complaints filed are based on race and sexual harassment.
Discrimination based on immigration status would be filed under national origin, according to Vargas Law.
“Everyone is a member of the community. Our office door is open and everyone has the opportunity to file a complaint,” she said.
Stony Brook President Stanley and fellow university leaders back the idea of the DREAM Act. The discrimination based on immigration status hardly exists at the University. In the confines of Stony Brook University campus, the Stony Brook Social Justice Alliance protested against something that was not there like applying first aid to someone in good health.
If you are a student or employee of Stony Brook University and you have been discriminated against, you can contact The Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action at 631-632-6280, or visit the website.
