Crosses adorned the room in honor of unidentified immigrants who have died crossing the border, at Wednesday’s Marcha Migrante forum and candlelight vigil.
Marcha Migrante volunteers, faculty, staff and students gathered to address immigration reform, and to provide a place where students could express their own experiences in being undocumented immigrants.
“It is always good to enter a venue with a good energy. You feel it?” asked Juan Benitez, moderator of the panel and interim director for the Center of Community Engagement.
Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, Future Underrepresented Educated Leaders, the Center of Community Engagement, the Chicano/Latino Studies Department, HSI-Mi Casa: Mi Universidad, and staff from various CSULB departments, sponsored this event.
While the event consisted of various speakers and performers, in addition to a candle light vigil in honor of immigration-related deaths, three individuals stood out amongst the rest. Fernando Romero, Carlos Leon, and Giovanni Rodriguez are AB 540 students, as well as F.U.E.L. members, who have gone against all odds. These individuals shared their personal accounts of being undocumented, while remaining optimistic about their futures.
While Leon graduated last year, he explained that his struggles as an undocumented immigrant have not dissipated.
“I didn’t want to leave CSULB because I felt accepted … society calls you criminal, immigrant, alien. When you go to college you become a college student, not a criminal,” said Leon.
Post-graduation, AB 540 students are often forgotten, as they go from being labeled as a college to an undocumented immigrant, and they often find themselves jobless, according to participants.
“I don’t want to be silenced anymore … my future is uncertain,” Romero said.
Attendees assessed the pressing issue of passing of the Dream Act for AB 540 students, which would essentially assist AB 540 students in becoming permanent residents of the U.S.
Benitez emphasized the negative perceptions of immigrants that can be cultivated by the media.
“A lot of people are close-minded. Immigrants are not all transporting drugs or criminals,” said Vincente Gutierrez, graduate student at CSULB.
Panelist, Norma Chinchilla, chair of the sociology department, encouraged attendees to differentiate the myths from reality regarding immigrants. By dispelling these falsehoods, society can better assess how to handle immigration reform, Chinchilla said.
Participants also discussed the current economic situation and how it will play an essential role in whether immigration reform will take place. Many also said they remain hopeful that the recent election of President Obama will help cope with this pressing issue.
“The election of this new president gives me a lot of hope,” Rodriguez said.
It’s so sad to here the comments that people like “Shooster” and “No tu puede,” have to say about AB540 students. We don’t want any one to feel sorry for us. Matter of fact I am so damn proud for all my achievements I have done. As a graduate from a long beach high school, with highest honors and above 4.0 gpa, I feel I have the same right as any citizen or resident of this country to be able to achieve a higher education. We still pay the full tuituion and books. Most of us don’t get scholarships but yet we are here because we want a future and no matter how much we have to pay in order to get it, we will achieve it. All of this anti immigrant talk is just absurd to me. You think WE don’t pay taxes??? In March Migrante a professor said: “What do you call then when you go to a store and pay that .0825% on a drink, food, clothes, etc. Does the person you are buying from ask you ‘are you illegal or not, because if you are illegal then you don’t have to pay taxes.” Please, how stupid is that, no vendor asks you that. So don’t come with that absurd idea that we don’t pay any taxes. You are blaming us for the debt of Califonia? What a big excuse, the only person to blame is the stupid “governator” who should be impeached for SO many wrong decisions that have cost this state billions! For any little problem they blame the illegal immigrants. Yes I know that there are gang bangers that are illegal and who have committed “real crimes” and I don’t think THEY should be here. But you can’t put the blame on everyone for the acts of others. Most of us students are not harming ANY one we just want an education and our families do the jobs you’re families will never do. Tell me when will you see a white man working on a field, picking fruit and vegetables you eat everyday on a hot day breaking his back. When will you see a white person working as a cna (certified nursing assistant) cleaning the ass of the elderly. When have you seen a white person cleaning houses as a living. Most likely you haven’t. So next time you eat that damn fruit, or your hot soup with all those vegetables think of the hands that provided for you, we tend to take the simple things for granted. We are just the sons and daughters from all those different hardworking people. Whether we are Peruvian, Mexican, Argentinan, Guatemalan, Vietnamese, Cambodian it doesn’t matter. No one will stop us from acquiring a higher education because we have worked so hard since we were young to achive our goals. Say what you say in my heart I am not a criminal. Since when is trying to succeed and achieve a higher education a crime?
Many immigrants pay taxes because they have fake papers and take jobs that you despise, unless I’m wrong and your life long dream is to pick fruit and produce in the central valley in over 100 degree weather. In fact, many undocumented immigrants pay out of state tuition to attend college. They pour money into the economy not only by working but by buying products. And everyone can agree that with the state of the economy we should be buying more. Your ignorance is appalling. Read a history book and see how all immigrants have been accused of bleeding the system: the Irish, the Chinese, the Japanese, all were blamed for taking jobs. It’s sad that you allow your close minded nativist ideals to inhibit you from seeing the repetition of the past, and the resources that they provide. Immigrants only constitute about 12% of the country’s total population. Try that on for size. It’s easy to use undocumented immigrants as scapegoats for the state of the economy because they have neither the voice nor the resources to defend themselves, however any political scientist can assure you that the issues with the economy stem from greed in leadership and in the top 1% rather than those that work for living.
By the way it’s Tu No Puedes, not No Tu Puede, if you’re going to try to insult people in Spanish, at least grammar check your Spanish first.
*Correction on previous comment:
“to get hired”
This state is 13 billion dollars in debt. We are projected to be 42 billion dollars in debt in 18 months. Why are we in debt? 10 billion dollars goes to the ILLEGAL CRIMINALS families that are then sent to Mexico and other countries. If you want us to feel sorry for your journey here, then start paying our gov’t back!!! Start being patriots and return the money that was stolen from our state. But of course, that wont happen because of all you aliens like Enrique Morones are nothing like greedy, money grubbing savages who leach off our govt services. No se puede Socialistas Criminales!!!
These students are costing the state of California money that should be spent on legal citizens. Our infrastructure is falling apart due to ILLEGAL ALIENS costing the tax payers money on education, health, and general welfare. AB 540 students do not belong in college precedent should be giving to legal citizens not ILLEGAL ALIENS