Immigrant students praised for early role

ALBUQUEQUE, N.M. (AP) - When the Obama administration's announced earlier this month that some illegal immigrants would be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally, college-aged immigrants across the nation cheered and texted each other in excitement.

But one group took special pride in the announcement — immigrant students in New Mexico.

Long before there was a national student immigrant movement pushing the DREAM Act — a federal proposal that would give young illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship through college enrollment and military service — immigrant students in New Mexico were organizing in 2001 to change various state laws that eventually would transform New Mexico into one of the most immigrant friendly states in the nation.

The students convinced state lawmakers to pass a bill allowing illegal immigrants who graduated from New Mexico schools to attend state colleges at in-state tuition rates and get financial aid. They joined a coalition of religious and immigrant rights groups to successfully push a state law that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain state driver's licenses, and have led protests against Gov. Susana Martinez's recent attempts to repeal the law. And the students trained illegal immigrant students in high school on organizing protests, lobbying key lawmakers and sharing personal stories as a way to build sympathy for their causes.

The students, many who were brought over to the U.S. illegally as children, had grown up largely in New Mexico. Some barely even knew Spanish, organizers say.

During the first Immigrant Day of Action to support the DREAM Act in 2001, New Mexico sent a group to Washington D.C. and would continue to take part in national events.

"New Mexico played a big role in the shaping of the immigrant student movement," said Marcela Diaz of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe-based immigrant rights group. "They were ahead of the game in many ways."

Michael A. Olivas, director of the Institute of Higher Education Law & Governance at the University of Houston and author of a number of states' in-tuition bills for immigrant students, said in each state he worked to push bills in the early 2000s he did not deal with immigrant students, except in New Mexico.

"They would talk to lawmakers, putting their parents at risk," he said.

The movement in New Mexico, however, was relatively small and groups would disperse as fast as they were created, said Olivas, who pushed then-Gov. Bill Richardson to sign the state tuition bill in 2005. Still, Olivas said some students' personal stories helped convince state lawmakers to support the New Mexico version of the bill.

Diaz said the passage of that state law came after four years of work by immigrant students who pressed lawmakers and individual colleges to allow illegal immigrants access to in-tuition rates.

Mayte Garcia, now 27, was one of those students who helped organized New Mexico immigrant students as a teen. She said when President Obama made his announcement earlier this month, she couldn't help but reflect on the role the state's student immigrants played in the debate.

But even with the New Mexico friendly laws, the recent University of New Mexico graduate said that without changes in federal law that would affect her immigration status, immigrants like her can't get jobs even with college degrees.

And some of the early activists won't qualify under Obama's plan since it is only aimed at illegal immigrants 30 years old and younger.

"This wasn't just about us," said Garcia, who plans to apply for a work permit under Obama's plan. "It was about fighting for what's right."

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras.