Gil Cedillo

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January 6, 2012 | 11:37 AM | By

It’s a no-go for California Dream Act repeal effort

Screen shot from StopAB131.com’s Facebook page

It looks like the just-enacted California Dream Act is here to stay, at least until the next attempt at a ballot initiative to repeal it. The “Stop AB 131″ campaign, spearheaded by Republican state Assembly member Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, has announced that the effort failed to gather enough signatures in order to place a referendum on the November ballot.

According to the campaign’s Facebook page, paid and volunteer signature-gatherers fell more than 57,000 signatures short of the 504,760 that were needed by yesterday’s midnight deadline. The initiative would have mandated a repeal to a measure signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown that provides financial aid for undocumented college students, making easier for them to pay tuition.

Here’s part of a statement from Donnelly posted on Facebook:

Although we put in a herculean effort the count as of late last night was 447,514 signatures, which precludes us from submitting the signatures today to the registrar of voters at each of the 58 counties.

This is disappointing news, but it is no less of a warning to Governor Brown, and every Democrat legislator who voted to create a new entitlement program for illegals while the state still has a budget deficit over $9 billion, and cannot even meet it’s obligation to legal California students.

Thank you for joining us in this historic effort as Californians of every age, race, religion, income and political party came together to fight to restore sanity to the Golden State. We may have failed in this first battle, but we will not give up in the war to save California from the reckless politicians who want to raise our taxes to put the college dreams of illegals ahead of our own children.

AB 131, signed into law by Brown in October, was the second of two bills he signed this year that make up what’s known as the California Dream Act. It was also the most contentious: While the first bill, known as AB 130, only granted undocumented college students access to private scholarships and grants, AB 131 allows these students to obtain the same publicly-funded state financial aid available to U.S. citizen and legal residents, including Cal Grants. Both bills were sponsored by Gil Cedillo, an Assembly member from Los Angeles.

In reaction to Donnelly’s announcement, the immigrant advocacy group Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles posted its own statement – an excerpt:

The California Dream Act is a fair, timely, and inexpensive bill that will support a limited number of financial scholarships to undocumented students who have been brought to the U.S. as children.  Contrary to Mr. Donnelly’s belief, California’s large diverse population supports the merits of the legislation and looks forward to its implementation in 2013.

Unlike the similarly named federal Dream Act, the California measure does not propose granting legal status to undocumented students, something that falls only within the jurisdiction of the federal government. Critics have pointed out that without a path to legal status, students receiving tuition benefits still won’t be able to fully utilize their degrees. Proponents say it at least gives these students an opportunity to prepare themselves for a day when they can adjust their status.

The failure of the referendum campaign is the second blow this week for Donnelly, who recently received a misdemeanor citation for carrying a loaded handgun into the Ontario airport. Donnelly said he’d been carrying a gun because he’d received death threats pertinent to his anti-AB 131 campaign, and that he’d forgotten to remove it from his briefcase before going to the airport. He has since admitted that he doesn’t have a permit for a concealed weapon.

FILED UNDER: California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Tim Donnelly
October 10, 2011 | 12:57 PM | By

California Dream Act 101: What it does, who qualifies, and what happens next

Photo by un.sospiro/Flickr (Creative Commons)

On Saturday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a landmark piece of state legislation that will allow undocumented college students to obtain publicly-funded financial aid, now only available to students who are U.S. citizens and legal residents. It’s part of a two-bill package referred to as the California Dream Act, the first part of which Brown signed into law last July.

The bill signed this weekend, AB131, has been extremely divisive in a state that’s undergoing a budget crisis. Opponents have said the state can’t afford it; supporters have pointed out that part of the funding for the measure is already set aside annually for low-income students, including undocumented kids who have so far been unable to tap into it.

So what does the California Dream Act do, exactly? A few basics:

What it changes: Undocumented college students can’t presently access state-funded financial aid, leading most to work several jobs while studying and to apply for a limited number of scholarships available to them. AB 131 gives these students access to Cal Grants, a program that provides aid to low-income students, and other state-funded tuition aid provided they meet the state residency requirements set by California law. They also become eligible for fee waivers at the community college level.

AB 130, the bill signed in July, allows undocumented students access to $88 million in privately funded university scholarships and grants that were previously not available to them.

What it doesn’t change: Unlike the similarly-named federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, neither of the two state measures proposes granting legal status to these students, a change that would be up to the federal government. The fact that they don’t have a path to legal status now has been pointed out by California Dream Act opponents, who complain that undocumented students can’t fully utilize their degrees after graduation.

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FILED UNDER: AB 130, AB 131, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown
October 8, 2011 | 2:40 PM | By

Tweeting the California Dream Act

The hashtag #dreamact has been trending on Twitter since Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law this morning a bill known as AB 131, which allows undocumented college students who meet state residency requirements to obtain state-funded financial aid for tuition. The bill is the second of two bills referred to as the California Dream Act, the first of which Brown signed in July.

The controversial measure has long drawn both ardent support and outrage, especially given the state’s financial woes. A few recent tweets, first the happy ones:

From @sigourneynunez:

Proud to be a Californian! #dreamscometrue #DREAMAct
From @lizap:
Yes! Jerry Brown passes #DreamAct in the Golden State. Are you listening, Alabama? http://ow.ly/6RvwZ #p2

From @joseiswriting, aka Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter who recently came out as undocumented:

Gov. brown just signed CA #DREAMAct into law. Congrats to all, especially to young CA activists #inspiration

From @48thave:

@JerryBrownGov Thank you for introducing sanity to CA immigration policy for my undocumented bros & sisters. Go, Jerry! #DreamAct

And some not-so-happy tweets:

From ruby4050:

#CA is doomed #DREAMAct Highest unemployement, lowest business prospects, highest taxes, foreclosures and now illegals!

From @jocatapi:
i guess i need to renig my US citizenship,go to mexico to get mexican citizenship, jump the border THEN my state will recognize me #DreamAct

From @VasquezMusic:

Hey, I’m Latina but I do not support the #DreamAct make the illegals LEGAL first!

And referring to Republican state Assembly member Tim Donnelly, an opponent of the measure, @davidsiders wrote:

Donnelly calls #DreamAct ”biggest mistake that Gov. Brown has ever made … other than unionizing public employees.”
Until now, undocumented college students in California have been barred from public financial aid. AB 130, the companion bill to AB 131, allowed these students access to privately funded scholarships and grants only.
A recent version of AB 131 can be downloaded here.
FILED UNDER: AB 130, AB 131, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown
July 27, 2011 | 1:18 PM | By

Readers react to the California Dream Act

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Students' t-shirts at the AB 130 signing ceremony at Los Angeles City College Monday, July 25, 2011

Readers have posted close to 30 comments since Monday on a piece related to the California Dream Act, half of which was signed into law that day by Gov. Jerry Brown in Los Angeles.

The bill that became law, known as AB 130, is the slimmer of two bills that would make it easier for undocumented college students to pay tuition. AB 130 gives these students access to privately funded university scholarships derived from non-state funds.

The more contentious AB 131, which remains hung up in a state Senate committee, would give them access to publicly funded financial aid, which only U.S. citizen and legal resident students are entitled to now.

Public funds or not, the idea of giving undocumented students an easier path through college clearly rattles some. California already allows undocumented college students who meet residency criteria to pay in-state tuition rates, unlike many other states.

Bobeast lamented:

“qualify for in-state tuition under California law”
So they qualify for “in-state” tuition, even if they had to sneak to get in-state? Have we lost our minds? By what theory, legal. moral,  or otherwise, should we afford the rights of citizenship to those who snuck into our country uninvited? I honestly think we’ve simply gone stupid as a society.

Several readers who back the tuition proposals argued that many of the young people who benefit came here at a very early age, brought by their parents with no say in the decision.

Getyourfactsstraight replied:

“uninvited” did you have a choice on where you were born or where you grew up? I think not. So technically you are uninvited here too.

Samantha echoed this:

most of these students had no choice coming here, their parents smuggled them illegally; and theyre just trying to live their life as best as they can. For some of us illegal immigrants, going back to mexico would pretty much be signing a death sentence especially where there are so many narcotics

Jennifer Luchsinger wrote:

I’m disgusted. While I am a firm advocate of education, if these students cannot obtain legal employment, then they will not be required to add to the tax base in our state, nor will they be required to pay taxes to the IRS. We pay taxes so that we can live in a safe society. I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for these students, or their families.

Some of the comments I won’t reprint, as the exchanges became heated and personal at times. But they do point to the highly controversial nature of these proposals, especially AB 131. The bill’s proponents in the state legislature are trying to move to the Senate floor by the end of August in a political climate that is complicated by the state’s financial crisis.

An estimated 24,000 undocumented youths graduate each year from the state’s high schools, according to the office of Gil Cedillo, the Democratic Assembly member who sponsored both bills. It’s estimated that AB 131 would cost between $32 million and $35 million annually, although a portion of this money is already set aside each year for high school students who qualify in terms of income and GPA for Cal Grants college tuition grants, according to Cedillo’s office.

FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, AB 130, AB 131, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown
July 25, 2011 | 4:01 PM | By

Now that half the California Dream Act is law, what’s next?

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Students' t-shirts at the AB 130 signing ceremony today at Los Angeles City College, July 25, 2011

As students peered through bookshelves to catch a glimpse, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a piece of legislation known as AB 130 in the library of Los Angeles City College, a community college serving students on the working-class southern fringe of Hollywood.

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Gov. Jerry Brown addresses the crowd at Los Angeles City College, July 25, 2011

The bill is one-half of a legislative package referred to as the California Dream Act, two bills sponsored by Democratic Assembly member Gil Cedillo that aim to make it easier for undocumented college students to pay for college. The mood was celebratory as Brown put pen to paper, granting these students access to scholarships based on private, non-state funding previously unavailable to them.

But afterward, the students in the library made no bones about being disappointed that AB 130′s companion bill, AB 131, has yet to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. That bill would enable them to access public state-funded financial aid, including Cal Grants, as U.S. citizen and legal resident students do now.

“It’s good that AB 130 passed,” said Shirley Santos, 19, a sophomore at Fullerton City College studying to become a biochemist. “But it’s not complete.”

Santos, who arrived in the United States at age five with her family and remains undocumented, wore a white t-shirt depicting a half-full glass with a question mark, as did several of her friends.

It’s a milestone just that AB 130 has come as far as it has, with similar legislation sponsored by Cedillo having been vetoed three times by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was the easiest to pass of the two bills. The prospects for AB 131, which would involve the use of state funding, remain unclear. Opponents have raised questions about how the state would pay for the student aid while it struggles through a financial crisis.

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FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, California Assembly, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown, Mike Eng
July 25, 2011 | 10:32 AM | By

What the California Dream Act’s AB 130 does – and doesn’t do

 

Photo by sea turtle/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Although his staff hasn’t come right out and said it, Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign part of a legislative package referred to as the California Dream Act today. Immigrant advocates expect the governor to sign legislation referred to as AB 130, recently approved in the state Senate, during a town hall meeting that Brown will attend this afternoon at Los Angeles City College. The meeting is hosted by Democratic Assembly member Gil Cedillo, who sponsored AB 130 and a companion bill.

If Brown signs the bill, it will be a victory for the state’s undocumented college students, long barred from most forms of financial aid at public colleges and universities. To some degree, it’s a symbolic one: Unlike its companion AB 131, which would allow them access to the same public financial aid U.S. citizens and legal residents are entitled to, AB 130 only allows these students access to privately funded scholarships.

Still, it’s access to funds not previously available to undocumented students who qualify for in-state tuition under California law. According to a Los Angeles Times editorial today, the University of California awarded more than $45 million last year in donor-funded scholarships to undergraduates. But advocates are holding out for what they consider the real meat and potatoes, the more contentious AB 131, which has yet to make it to the Senate floor.

Student advocate Nancy Meza, a recent UCLA graduate who was brought here by her parents as a child and remains undocumented, sent out this message from a student group today:

Undocumented students are thankful that AB130 will be enacted into law; however, the more substantial portion of the CA Dream Act, AB131, needs to be taken out of Suspense in the Appropriations Committee and signed into law in order to have a true CA Dream Act.

AB131 will have the greater impact for undocumented students in their educational journeys as it would provide state financial aid to undocumented students. Currently, undocumented students are not eligible for any state or federal financial aid making financing their education nearly impossible.

The other bill faces an uphill climb because it would employ state funds, and with the state in a financial crisis, there is particularly strong opposition. Republican state Assembly member Jim Silva recently wrote in the Orange County Register:

AB131 would give illegal immigrants access to that aid, even though they legally cannot obtain a job in the United States after graduation. It makes no sense.

There is a pending federal proposal, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, that would grant conditional legal status to qualifying undocumented youths brought here before age 16 if they go to college or enlist in the military. Unlike the similarly named federal bill, neither of the two bills comprising the California Dream Act proposes legalization.

That the slimmer portion of the state package has made it this far is in itself a milestone. Cedillo, of Los Angeles, has brought forward similar legislation for years that has won the approval of legislative peers, but been vetoed by the governor’s office.

FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown
July 14, 2011 | 4:55 PM | By

First part of California Dream Act headed to governor’s office

Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen/Flickr (Creative Commons)

One of two bills referred to as the California Dream Act was approved today by the state senate and is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office for approval. Known as AB 130, the measure would allow undocumented college students access to privately funded financial aid in the form of scholarships and other assistance as overseen by state colleges and universities.

The bill does not, however, provide them with the state-funded public financial aid that U.S. citizen and legal resident students are entitled to. A companion bill known as AB 131 that would allow undocumented students access to public financial aid remains in the Senate and has yet to move beyond the committee stage. Broader public financial aid programs such as Cal Grants remains off limits.

Here’s a legislative summary of what was approved today:

Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is an alien without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University.

This bill would enact the California Dream Act of 2011.

This bill would provide that, on and after January 1, 2012, a student attending the California State University, the California Community Colleges, or the University of California who is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the provision described above would be eligible to receive a scholarship derived from nonstate funds received, for the purpose of scholarships, by the segment at which he or she is a student.

The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California’s public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. Provisions of the act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make a provision applicable.

This bill would find and declare that the amendments to the Donahoe Higher Education Act described above are state laws within the meaning of a specified federal provision.

Unlike the proposed federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, neither of the two California bills proposes granting legal status to undocumented students.

Democratic Assembly member Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles, the sponsor of both bills, has introduced legislation similar to that approved today for years, but it was regularly vetoed by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Brown, a Democrat, is expected to sign it. According to a story on San Francisco’s KQED website this afternoon, Brown made a campaign pledge to sign bills that would allow undocumented students to qualify for aid.

FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, Cal Grants, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown
July 11, 2011 | 5:13 PM | By

Part of California Dream Act headed to Senate floor

Photo by dsb nola/Flickr (Creative Commons)

One of two bills that make up what’s referred to as the California Dream Act is now on its way to the Senate floor. The proposed legislation would allow undocumented college students to apply for and receive scholarships that don’t come from state funds.

According to the office of sponsor Gil Cedillo, a Democratic Assembly member from Los Angeles, the bill known as AB 130 cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee today 5-3; a floor vote is expected Thursday.

A more contentious companion bill known as AB 131 was put in suspense, with a hearing deadline set for late August. AB 131 would allow undocumented students who meet in-state tuition requirements, as allowed by California law, to receive publicly funded financial aid at state colleges and universities, including Cal Grants. Here are excerpts from synopses of both bills:

AB 130:

This bill would provide that, on and after January 1, 2012, a student attending the California State University, the California Community Colleges, or the University of California who is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the provision described above would be eligible to receive a scholarship derived from nonstate funds received, for the purpose of scholarships, by the segment at which he or she is a student.

AB 131:

This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act, as of July 1, 2012, to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the regents, to establish procedures and forms that enable persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the above-described provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to apply for, and participate in, all student aid programs administered by these segments to the full extent permitted by federal law, except as provided. This provision would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable.

This bill would provide that persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under the above provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, are eligible to apply for, and participate in, any student financial aid program administered by the State of California to the full extent permitted by federal law.

Unlike the similarly named proposed federal legislation recently heard in the Senate, neither bill proposes granting legal status to undocumented students.

FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo