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Students speak out in support of Dream Act

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Jeremy C. Fox November 30, 2010 09:24 AM

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(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)

Selvin Arévalo spoke of his seven-month incarceration after being arrested by immigration agents. Many attendees at the Dream Act rally wore caps and gowns to symbolize their ambitions for higher education.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Selvin Arévalo, 24, said he came to this country from Guatemala when he was 14 with a lot of dreams about what his life could be.

He was living in Portland, Maine, working full time while taking classes toward his high school diploma, when he was detained by federal immigration agents, he said, just one month shy of graduation.

“It was very hard to be there because I was away from my friends,” he said. “I wasn’t able to make a phone call to my friends and to my parents.”

Arévalo said he was held for seven months and released just three weeks ago. A lawyer recommended that he simply accept deportation, but he chose to try to stay in the United States.

“I could have decided to give up, to be afraid,” he said, “but I decided to fight for the Dream Act because I believe that … only the Dream Act is our hope to reach our goals.”

Arévalo was one of a half-dozen young illegal immigrants who shared their stories at a rally Monday to support the Dream Act at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Tremont Street.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would provide a pathway to legal residency for young people in this country illegally who came before they were 16 and who serve for two years in the military or attend college for at least two years. Opponents of the act say that it would give unfair preference to people who entered the country illegally over those who have properly waited for legal entry.

Monday's speakers also included supporters such as state Representative Denise Provost of Somerville; David Hildt, the former mayor of Amesbury, Mass., and now executive director of Adelante Youth Center; North Shore Community College President Wayne Burton; and Neil McKinnis-Barker, the student body president of UMass Boston, where the student senate has voted unanimously to support the act.

The rally drew more than 100 supporters, many of whom carried signs with the slogan “Let us learn. Let us serve,” and chanted, “Not deportation — education.”

The event was hosted by the Student Immigration Movement, a five-year-old, Boston-based group organized to gain access to higher education for illegal immigrants. It is one of a number of similar events taking place nationwide as Congress returns to Washington for its lame-duck session before the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January.

Of particular interest to local supporters of the legislation is Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, the only member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who does not support the act. Several speakers exhorted the crowd to flood Brown's office with calls asking him to change his position.

Some of the students, would-be students and aspiring military personnel spoke of coming to this country with their parents at a young age and not knowing that they were here illegally until they were getting ready to graduate from high school.

Savio Oliveira, 22, who lives on Cape Cod, said he came from Brazil at age 8.

“I grew up here, lived my life like anybody, and I didn’t actually realize — like most people who are undocumented — until you reach high school,” he said. “I played football all my life, junior high and in high school, varsity, with all my friends. American.”

When he graduated, it was his ambition to join the military, preferably the Navy. But illegal immigrants are barred from service.

Oliveira spoke of the country’s history and his admiration for the US military’s battles for freedom at home and abroad, and his desire to join in that struggle.

“Give us the opportunity,” he implored. “The rest we can do ourselves.”

Email Jeremy C. Fox at jeremycfox@gmail.com.