Tag: Dream Act

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Daring to Dream: A Portrait of Two DACA Recipients as Young Adults

Frankie Paz and Jocelyn Vazquez, two Dreamers, have made Memphis their home since their last interview with the Flyer five years ago. (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Bright-eyed, fresh-faced, impossibly optimistic — they stand in their caps and gowns on the cusp of achieving their hopes and dreams, ready to take on the world. That is the vision of the Dreamers — the young immigrants brought to this country as children, planning to make their way in the world, if given the opportunity.

Twenty years ago, the bipartisan Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) proposed the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) to create a path to citizenship for Dreamers. On June 15, 2012, two years after Congress was unable to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass the DREAM Act, President Obama announced his executive action, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and said:

“These are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they’re friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents — sometimes even as infants — and often have no idea that they’re undocumented until they apply for a job or a driver’s license or a college scholarship.”

Just over five and a half years ago, on January 14, 2016, the Memphis Flyer published a cover story titled “American Dreamers,” which featured two DACA students, Jocelyn Vazquez and Frankie Paz, who lived here in Memphis. At the time, Vazquez was a senior high school student at Immaculate Conception High School in Midtown and Paz was a first-year student at Christian Brothers University. Just kids!

But like so many DACA recipients, Vazquez and Paz are no longer kids

For Vazquez (left) and Paz, Memphis is home — a place to grow with family, contribute to their communities, and follow their dreams. (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Dream On

Vazquez and Paz are still living here in Memphis. While the optimism still shines, it has been tempered by lessons we all learn when becoming adults. However, their particular paths to adulthood have been made more difficult by the political realities of the past five years, including a viciously anti-immigration administration in Washington, an insurrection merely five months ago, and a seemingly dim future for the kind of political reform needed to modernize our immigration system.

DACA has given hundreds of thousands of young people the opportunity to stay in the U.S., study here, work here, and contribute to the nation. President Trump tried to rescind DACA in 2017 during the first year of his presidency, but the courts intervened. On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled against the administration, finding its actions to be “arbitrary and capricious.” The 643,000 young people — their friends and family, teachers and employers — breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Durbin has not forgotten about the legislation he introduced 20 years ago. The Illinois Democrat remains determined to see the DREAM Act pass the Senate, and, speaking from the Senate floor on January 21, 2021, the day after President Biden restored DACA via executive action, he said, “Without DACA, hundreds of thousands of talented young people who have grown up in our country cannot continue their work and risk deportation every single day.” But even he recognizes how the prolonged battle has occurred while the lives of these kids continue to evolve, noting, “These young people, known as Dreamers, have lived in America since they were children, built their lives here, and are American in every way except for their immigration status.”

Jocelyn Vazquez (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Making Opportunity Work

For Jocelyn Vazquez, DACA has allowed her the opportunity to study and work with some protection, though she (like all DACA recipients) must re-apply to the program every two years at a cost of $495. Thanks to DACA, according to Vazquez, “I’ve been able to do something with my college degree. I have a driver’s license and a sense of protection.”

She graduated from Rhodes College in May 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and is now an eighth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Kirby Middle School. She takes a visible pride in the connections she has established with her students, a process that has developed despite the multiple challenges of being a first-year teacher, virtual teaching, and then switching to in-person teaching this past March.

Frankie Paz (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Frankie Paz began college at Christian Brothers University here in Memphis in the fall of 2015; he earned a full scholarship through an arrangement to help Dreamers, offered through an outside foundation in partnership with CBU. Paz studied business with a concentration in sports management but was unable to complete his degree due to shifting family dynamics, health concerns, and work.

However, CBU represented a fantastic opportunity for Paz. On campus, he met supportive people in the administration and on faculty, but he also learned that he was largely on his own — as a first-generation college student, he had little family support and now realizes he was growing up and becoming an adult. “I began to network and learned how to meet people, talk to them, and came to understand that interacting with a wider community is fundamental for success.”

From CBU, Paz took a job with United Airlines. He interviewed for a ramp agent position, but the interviewer quickly saw Paz’s potential and placed him in customer service. United management wanted to move him to Denver permanently, but Paz, in consultation with his girlfriend (now wife), decided their future was with family here in Memphis. He is now working at a company owned by his father-in-law that specializes in customized construction work.

While these professional paths might imitate those of any young Memphian, President Trump’s attempt to roll back DACA presented serious stressors for Vazquez and Paz. Vazquez remembers the tensions associated with waiting on the Supreme Court decision in 2020: “The long three-year period between Trump’s attempt to rescind DACA and the June 2020 ruling created a constant stream of anxiety.”

Vazquez adds that Trump’s anti-DACA rhetoric shaped her thinking about money and savings: “When you don’t know if protections offered here in the U.S. and the safety of home and community will be uprooted from one day to the next, you try to save more money — you never really feel completely safe.”

Mauricio Calvo, executive director at Latino Memphis, underscores Vazquez’s sentiments. He worries about the tremendous human potential that’s wasted as DACA is rescinded, then brought back — i.e., as the political process takes precedence over the needs and aspirations of young people living in our nation. “These DACA recipients have been in a state of limbo for so long. It’s a challenge, and it means people have to make really difficult decisions,” Calvo says. “Does a person decide not to attend law school, given that there is a question about whether she could actually practice law once she graduates? Does a company pass over someone for a promotion because there is a question of what will happen with DACA?”

Paz does not dwell too much on DACA, but it is always lurking in the shadows. The 24-year-old comments how “the threats during the last few years were always there.” He diligently renewed his DACA eligibility documents this past January. He followed the 2020 presidential election, and though he cannot vote, he supported the candidate “who I thought would work to bring the nation together.” Stating the obvious, Paz says, “There’s just too much division here.”

Making Memphis Home

Family dynamics define the day-to-day life of Vazquez here in Memphis. Vazquez’s family has taken full advantage of various opportunities here in the U.S. For example, her younger sister — following in Vazquez’s footsteps — graduated from Rhodes College on May 15th with a bachelor’s in pyschology.

Vazquez’s mother no longer cleans homes for a living; instead, she opened a small restaurant here in the city, reflecting the determination, drive, and resilience of our neighbors. Her father has shifted his work from construction to property management and real estate. Her parents, especially her father, still retain the belief of so many first-generation immigrants that if you work hard enough in America, you will be successful. Vazquez’s experiences and the tenuousness of DACA, however, have left her a little bit skeptical of that notion.

To a close observer of experiences like Vazquez’s and Paz’s, “potential” is the word that best defines DACA recipients. Daniel Connolly, a reporter and author, has been covering immigration and the local Hispanic community for more than a decade. Connolly authored the critically acclaimed 2016 work of immersive journalism, The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America, which is a moving account of Kingsbury High School student Isaias Ramos and his family as they navigate life in the U.S. — in Memphis.

“These young people — it’s in the interest of society to help develop their potential,” says Connolly. The hope, optimism, human capacity, and youthful promise of kids like Paz, who was also featured in his book, continue to inspire Connolly.

Developing and nurturing the potential of DACA youth makes sense for purely practical reasons: The 643,000 current DACA recipients arrived here on average when they were seven years of age and have lived more than 20 years in the United States. They are the parents of 250,000 U.S. citizen children. It is estimated that, over the next decade, Dreamers with DACA who continue to work legally in the United States will contribute $433 billion to this nation’s GDP and will pay more than $12 billion into Social Security.

While the Dream Act languishes in Congress — 20 years on — and the politicians in Washington throw DACA around like the political football it has become, the young DACA kids grow older and become adults. “While the political fight goes on, the DACA youth are moving on with their lives,” notes Connolly.

The journalist gently brings up the Samuel Huntington paradox. In 2004, Harvard political scientist and cultural theorist Samuel P. Huntington (d. 2008) published a polemical book, titled Who Are We?: The Challenges to America’s National Identity. Huntington predicted a total social, linguistic, and cultural bifurcation in the U.S. based on immigration and data trends from Latin America. “Samuel Huntington,” comments Connolly, “wrote of a societal split and tried to frighten us by writing of a Spanish-speaking minority that never assimilates.” The journalist continues, “It’s actually the opposite of that — people are quickly finding their place in society, and this is a very hopeful sign for this nation.”

Up until a couple years ago, Paz lived with his mother in Memphis, but he moved out on his own and settled in an apartment complex in Midtown. Ironically, his neighbor in the same complex was Daniel Connolly. This was a certain sign for the Memphis journalist that Huntington was simply wrong. Integration was prevailing past the Harvard theorist’s bifurcation.

Paz — a newlywed — recently moved to East Memphis with his wife and has grown through his experiences. He has learned how the concept of family expands and evolves as the years progress and told us about gaining expertise in “budgeting, how to live and share with another person, how to be a better person.”

Vazquez said she loves Memphis and wants to stay here as an educator. “I lived in a big city [Houston, Texas], and a small rural town in Mississippi — Memphis seems like a perfect balance between those two extremes.” She is getting ready to move into a rental home near the Crosstown Concourse in the city she has chosen as her home.

Paz, together with his wife, plans to work in property investment here in the city; Memphis is home. “I see such great potential in this city, so much improvement and such opportunity for growth.” Paz has been here for a dozen years; as a two-year-old, he traveled with his family from Honduras to California and then to Memphis.

Calvo reminds us why it is so critically important to listen to the stories of Vazquez and Paz. “You know, generally, as a society, we become less sympathetic to people as they grow older,” states the Latino Memphis director, a bit wearily. “We need to understand that DACA didn’t solve the larger problem, it merely cracked the door, and that door can be closed. It’s cruel to show them the possibilities in America while not finishing the [legislative] job and giving them a full and unhindered chance at life.”

Like so many DACA recipients, Paz and Vazquez continue to move forward and have grown from young idealistic teenagers into adults confronting the realities of life’s challenges. They are our neighbors. They have chosen Memphis. As Paz says, “I can see myself staying here. I have only vague memories of Honduras. I want to build something in Memphis. … I want to contribute to Memphis.”

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Opinion Viewpoint

Trump’s DACA Defeat

Ten years ago, 41 senators voted down the “Dream Act” which — if passed — would have allowed young people not born in America but brought here by migrant parents the opportunity to apply for U.S. Citizenship. Last week, the United States Supreme Court held that the Trump Administration’s decision to end the Obama-era protections for these vulnerable young people was “arbitrary and capricious.” Mr. Trump may not begin deporting these so-called “Dreamers,” at least for now.


In 2012, with the failure of Congress to pass the Dream Act, and right before his election to a second term, Mr. Obama took executive action in what is commonly referred to as DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This action acknowledged the political reality of that time, i.e. that if the Congress would not act to protect children from deportation, he would. 

[pullquote-2] In Tennessee, there are about 8,500 DACA recipients; in Memphis, approximately 1,800. They are young people who are not U.S. citizens but have lived here most of their lives, and hope to stay here. They attend public schools and universities, they serve in the armed forces, and they are working in healthcare as the nation faces the COVID-19 crisis.


Toward the end of his presidency, President Obama attempted to expand DACA and implement DAPA, which offered deferred action (concerning deportation) and some benefits, such as work authorization to the parents of DACA recipients.


Fast forward to 2015. Candidate Trump began his political campaign, as we remember all too well, by demonizing immigrants, especially undocumented persons, and with laser-like focus attempted to overturn any action taken by President Obama. During the notorious speech announcing his candidacy, the future president characterized the undocumented by saying, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Thus, the battle was engaged.


Upon assuming the presidency in January 2017, Trump continued his anti-immigrant rhetoric. In 2018, the president pushed to end DACA, but did not want to rescind it unilaterally, since 76 percent of the American population supports DACA.


Trump’s inaction, coupled with an increasingly vocal political base, together with anti-immigrant hardliners in his administration, including Stephen Miller, created a mini-judicial revolt when seven states, led by Texas, argued that Obama had overstepped his authority in signing DAPA and the expanded DACA. The Fifth Circuit ruled in their favor — that the Obama administration had overreached by offering benefits to DAPA recipients.


Based on this ruling, the Trump administration quickly (and haphazardly) declared that Obama’s 2012 implementation of DACA was illegal and announced its end. This ultimately led to a variety of legal challenges — the result being the 5-4 Supreme Court decision on June 18th declaring the Trump administration’s attempt to overturn Obama’s executive order as “arbitrary and capricious.” In other words, the administration failed to engage in “reasoned decision making” in coming to its resolution to rescind DACA.


Ironically, the surprise 5-4 decision (with Chief Justice Roberts writing for the majority) was not a declaration of immigrant rights, but a finding of a somewhat mundane violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. In arriving at this outcome, Justice Roberts cited a landmark case near and dear to the people of Memphis. Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe (1971), which declared that administrative decisions could not offer “post-hoc rationalization;” in other words, evidence and arguments cannot be added in after the fact as efforts to bolster earlier decisions, which the Supreme Court found objectionable in both cases. 

[pullquote-1] Yet, preservation of DACA was never intended as an end in itself; DACA was seen as a protective bridge toward Congressional action. DACA provides no lasting relief for its beneficiaries who continue to live, learn, and work in a quasi-legal status that provides no permanent protections. 


While we celebrate this temporary reprieve, it is only temporary. This November, with possibilities of a new president and stronger leadership in Congress, we could see some hope for Dreamers. They want to live here in America in peace — free to work, study, and contribute to our nation as we struggle forward together. Only voters, together with the government we select in the fall, can offer the affirmation of rights and relief that Dreamers deserve.

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Cover Feature News

American Dreamers

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

For Frankie Paz, a 19-year-old student at Christian Brothers University, it was a day like any other: up at 3 a.m. for an eight-hour shift at Starbucks on Union, then a quick change of clothes before heading to campus for a full load of classes. He arrived home at 8 p.m. for dinner with his mother and siblings, before a few hours of sleep and a new day, with the same mix of work and school.

This typical day, however, was interrupted by an invitation to accompany CBU President John Smarrelli Jr. to the White House, where President Barack Obama would recognize the university’s investment in Latino youth. A couple of days later, Frankie was photographed in the Blue Room flanked by the two presidents — Smarrelli and Obama.

From Memphis to the White House and back. It’s an unlikely journey for the Honduras native who entered the United States illegally as a 3-year-old, especially given the current national political climate and Tennessee’s reluctance to facilitate the success of kids like Frankie. But Frankie’s story and the story of Jocelyn Vazquez, another thriving young Latina in Memphis, personify the struggles, resiliency, strength, and hopes of the immigrant experience here in Memphis and in pockets across the United States.

“Despite the efforts of some to vilify immigrants and refugees, a key component of our national identity is a United States that symbolizes safety and opportunity for migrants,” said David Lubell, a former Memphian and the executive director and founder of Atlanta-based Welcoming America, an organization that seeks to develop inclusive communities that embrace immigrants. “The successes of hardworking young immigrants are the foundation upon which we continue to fight to preserve our reputation as a country that welcomes strivers from around the world.”

On June 15, 2012, recognizing the need for such a foundation after the hope of comprehensive immigration reform faded, President Obama signed an executive order providing for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This executive action, signed after months of unrelenting pressure from young Latino and Latina activists, offers relief for people who as children came to or remained in the United States without proper documentation. After filing an application and passing background checks, these DACA youth are offered a renewable two-year deferred status to work, study, and live here without daily fear of deportation.

DACA, of course, is a temporary status and could be rescinded with the stroke of a pen by any future president. In fact, most of the Republican Party’s presidential candidates have pledged to “correct” President Obama’s “executive overreach.” Meanwhile, DACA has given hundreds of thousands of people like Frankie the chance to pursue their dreams.

As a beneficiary of DACA, Frankie’s journey to the United States, and later to the White House, is harrowing but also typical. In Honduras, Frankie’s mother, immersed in poverty and with no path to a more promising future for her children there, looked North. She traveled north, crossed into the United States, and then arranged for Frankie and his siblings to make the overland journey to meet her.

The family reunited in Pasadena, California, and stayed there for seven years. They moved to South Carolina, then to Louisiana, and then back to South Carolina. Six years ago, they settled in Memphis. During the moves, Frankie’s mother worked as a waitress and in construction to make ends meet. For more than a decade, the American Dream proved elusive, with the family enduring periods of hunger and homelessness.

But here in Memphis, the Paz family has flourished. Frankie’s mother started her own cleaning business and saved enough to buy a home in Midtown for her family. She has always insisted that Frankie and his younger brother and sister would attend college.

During his final year at Kingsbury High School, Frankie looked at opportunities for higher education. Tennessee’s state universities were not an option because Tennessee mandates DACA students pay out-of-state tuition, which is nearly three times more expensive than in-state tuition.

Frankie considered traveling to West Memphis to attend Arkansas State University Mid-South, a school that offers tuition equity and recruits DACA students from Memphis. Frankie’s mother also thought about selling her house to help Frankie pay for college.

Justin Fox Burks

Then, in the fall of 2014, Frankie found an opportunity to study at Christian Brothers University. Thanks to a $3.5 million gift from an anonymous donor, the university created the Latino Student Success program, which gives DACA students who graduate from area high schools an opportunity to attend CBU at a reduced cost. Frankie was presented as a candidate to CBU through his contacts at Latino Memphis. The agency has served the Latino community for two decades and supports a program called Abriendo Puertas, or Opening Doors, which offers support to students who hope to attend college.

At the same time he began his studies at Christian Brothers, Frankie started his job at Starbucks. He works 35 hours a week, while taking six classes. During rare free moments, he plays soccer with friends.

Frankie often looks at the picture of himself with President Obama. “I told the president that thanks to DACA and CBU, my life has changed,” he says. “My dreams are being realized.

“But when I look at that picture, I don’t see me,” he says. “I see all of the people who invested in me so that I could be there. I see my mother and my teachers and my professors. A lot of people have believed in me so that I could become who I am.”

Justin Fox Burks

Frankie Paz

Frankie acknowledges the future is never completely predictable, but he knows one thing for certain: “I want to stay here in Memphis and give back to this community. This place has given me everything.”

Giving back to Memphis and having supportive parents who push for college education are two things that Frankie shares with Jocelyn.

Justin Fox Burks

Jocelyn Vazquez

Jocelyn, a senior at Immaculate Conception Cathedral School, was looking forward to the school’s December 12th formal dance at the Peabody Hotel. The dance was just the beginning of an evening when she and her friends would meet up with their families for the late-night Our Lady of Guadalupe procession and reception at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Despite these big plans, Jocelyn’s thoughts focused on college. Next year, she hopes to attend Rhodes College here in Memphis. Her other top choices are Davidson and Wake Forest, both in North Carolina.

Since she was a young child, Jocelyn’s parents have prioritized education. They made countless sacrifices to send her and her younger sister to Catholic schools in the city. First it was St. Therese Little Flower, then Saint Michael, followed by IC. “My parents value education. Homework always comes first. And they understand the importance of a solid education. That’s their main objective for me and my sister.”

The family’s journey out of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to the United States was challenging. Jocelyn said her dad moved here first, arriving in South Carolina, where he quickly found work. Shortly thereafter, Jocelyn, a 4-year-old at the time, her younger sister, and her mother arrived by bus from Mexico with tourist visas. They overstayed their visas and began new lives in the United States.

“My dad walked much of the way from Potosí to the U.S. border; he arrived in South Carolina with $20 in his pocket.”

Now he is a construction manager and owns the home where the family lives, along with two rental homes. Jocelyn’s mother works cleaning houses, and Jocelyn’s sister also attends Immaculate Conception.

Jocelyn’s parents sent her to Rhodes last summer to attend a writing camp. Motivated high school students interact with college faculty, focus on building writing skills, and get some experience as to how college works. Jocelyn studied international relations with professor Steve Ceccoli, which she says inspired her. Jocelyn now wants to attend law school one day and hopes to work with Latino communities in the South. “There is a lot of change that needs to happen here,” she says.

In her sophomore year at IC, Jocelyn learned that attaining a college degree in Tennessee would be difficult due to her immigration status. She decided to meet the challenges head on and now refers to her immigration status as a “blessing in disguise, because it’s forced me to be courageous and not to give up. And to be grateful for everything.”

Jocelyn was recently selected as a Golden Door scholar — a sort of pay-it-forward program. It’s a partnership between small, private colleges such as Davidson, Oberlin, Elon, Wake Forest and private donors that offers tuition support to DACA kids, provided the recipients promise to help younger DACA students attend college. It’s an extremely competitive scholarship. The organization funds 15 students a year and typically receives more than 700 applicants.

Jocelyn is well aware of the daunting prospects for children in her circumstances. “Only five to 10 percent of undocumented children in states that don’t support tuition equality ever achieve any type of post-secondary education,” she says.

Tennessee is one of 25 states that do not provide tuition equality to DACA students. Kids like Franklin and Jocelyn must pay three times the tuition rate of other in-state students at a state-supported school such as the University of Memphis. This translates to approximately $16,000 more per year, and DACA students are not eligible for federal student loans.

In the absence of a state legislative fix, private donors and programs like the ones mentioned above have emerged to support these driven young people, but there are still relatively few opportunities. Each year, thousands of kids graduate from Tennessee schools who could benefit from tuition equality.

The upcoming Tennessee legislative session in Nashville offers the chance to pass a tuition equality bill in Tennessee that would allow DACA recipients such as Frankie and Jocelyn to pay in-state tuition rates. The bill passed the state Senate last year and was one vote shy of passage in the House. State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) has provided strong leadership to help move the bill through the legislature. Leaders in the business community, educators, and the Tennessee Board of Regents have all expressed support for the bill. Governor Bill Haslam has promised to sign the bill if it makes it to his desk, but the outcome in the House is far from clear.

Meanwhile, some 200 miles away from the governor’s office, Frankie wakes up at 3 a.m. He’ll grab his green apron and start making coffee before a long day of classes. Across town, Jocelyn picks up her books and heads to IC, her dream of college still intact.

If, as Lubell suggests, the battle for our identity rests on the foundation laid by kids like these, then the future of our city and our nation certainly rests on solid ground.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Myopia in Nashville

Tennessee had the opportunity, on April 22nd, to join 22 forward-looking states by passing tuition equity, which would have benefited thousands of young people across the state. But a mysterious outbreak of myopia in the House chamber, moments before the bill came up for vote, defeated a nicely crafted Senate-passed bill that had strong support from Tennessee youth, educators, and immigrant-rights advocates.

The legislative push to secure tuition equity — which would have allowed in-state university tuition for undocumented youth — has been arduous. Legislators in Nashville have struggled to understand the ramifications of tuition equity in the context of stalled national immigration reform.

Ironically, the bill’s origin and defeat can be traced indirectly to persistent federal inaction on immigration policy.

Five years ago, the U.S. Senate voted down the “Dream Act,” a bill that would have created a path to residency and citizenship for undocumented youth in the U.S. The Senate’s failure to act essentially denied hundreds of thousands of teenagers the chance to pursue education beyond 12th grade. These youths were effectively assigned to the class of low-wage workers living in the U.S.A.

In response to congressional failure, President Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order in 2012. The order allows childhood arrivals who are pursuing or who have obtained a high school diploma to earn a temporary, renewable two-year immigration status. This frees these folks from fear of deportation and allows them to work and study legally in the U.S.

Some states, as a result of congressional inaction, have cobbled together legislation — sometimes called tuition equity — designed to support young people who hope to earn college degrees and embrace the American dream. Tuition equity can come in a variety of forms but generally means offering in-state tuition rates for undocumented youth who reside in the state and have graduated from the state’s high schools.

The Republican-controlled Tennessee state legislature came close to passing tuition equity in last week’s general session. The Senate recently passed it by a vote of 21-12. The House vote, 49-47, fell one vote short of a constitutional majority (50 votes) needed for passage. This vote divided the Republican ranks. For example, Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) did not vote but claims she would have voted against the bill because, to her, the bill represents a “slippery slope.”

We’re not sure which slope she’s sliding down, but opening up opportunity for more young people, as many as 25,000, to study at our state-supported universities seems more like a step-up. Her lack of leadership on this important initiative is worse than her uninspiring metaphors.

Others have led with conviction and grace: Carla Chávez spoke on April 7th before the Education Administration and Planning Committee. The young woman told of arriving in the U.S. at 5 years old with her parents. She never knew she was “undocumented” until it came time to apply to college. Carla graduated from McGavock High School in Nashville and gained eligibility to work with a work permit, as authorized through DACA. She worked at internships and studied on the side, preparing for college during her free time in the hopes that tuition equity would, one day, pass in Tennessee.

Chávez’s powerful statement had a therapeutic effect on some of our representatives. Kent Calfee (R-Kingston) described the moment as “an epiphany” because he was set to vote against the bill, but was swayed by Chávez.

Representative Johnnie Turner (D-Memphis) invoked the civil rights struggle during a moving, passionate speech.

Representative Mark White (R- Memphis) sponsored and shepherded the bill that ultimately fell short. He deserves credit for recognizing the moral imperative behind this legislation and the positive impact it would have in Tennessee. Last year, this same bill bitterly divided the state legislature and never made it out of committee. This year, a broad coalition led by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Latino Memphis, Inc., and hundreds of students organized a bold campaign that, while not managing to provoke new legislation, still made significant progress.

In these times of seemingly interminable partisan bickering, we need a state legislature that leads and helps us all look to our better angels. Offering young people the opportunity to take command of their lives through education, dedication, and focused work is the right policy option for Tennessee. We hope the myopia recedes, just a little bit, in the next legislative session.

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Opinion Viewpoint

A Failure to Lead on Immigration Reform

Progressives are still celebrating the fall of Eric Cantor, the Republican House majority leader defeated in a June 10th primary by a sleeper candidate, an economics professor named David Brat. The national media, asleep at the switch on this one, rolled out an easy, unconvincing thesis to explain this political collapse: Cantor’s willingness to consider some sort of immigration reform.

Yet a comprehensive immigration reform bill, passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate last summer, continues to languish in the GOP-led House of Representatives. The leadership in the House, including Cantor, has refused to take up the bill, offering a myriad of stall tactics and maneuvers to slowly smother the legislation, without having to go on record as actually killing it. The bill is moderate, sensible legislation that seeks to regularize the immigration status of millions of people who live in the United States, pay taxes, and contribute to our culture and society. The majority of Americans (62 percent), and 70 percent of Republicans in Cantor’s district, support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway for citizenship.

Cantor’s defeat is really related to his arrogance, his out-sized national political ambition, and his disingenuousness on the immigration issue. His refusal to actually lead on immigration, and his inability to produce any type of counter-legislation on this critically important question, exposed him to attacks as just another political opportunist. It’s no surprise, then, that Cantor’s negatives going into the primary stood at 63 percent. The surprise is the national shock over his defeat and the misappropriation of the meaning of this political collapse.

The national media, political pundits, and the Republican Party’s narrow focus on immigration as a factor in Cantor’s defeat has given the anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party an excuse to do nothing on immigration reform. Thus, a political implosion in a tiny corner of America means fear and fecklessness prevail in the nation at large: There will be no vote on a perfectly sensible Senate immigration bill this year.

House members are afraid of losing their seats if they vote on a politically perilous issue that’s become perilous only because we’ve let the bullies and the irrational define the issue. 

For example, Brat claimed Cantor would support “open borders” if elected to another term in Virginia. This is pure campaign fiction and political manipulation. By hiring and equipping thousands of additional border patrol agents, President Obama has done more to close down our Southern border with Mexico in the past five years than any previous president. Obama’s administration also has deported two million people in the past five years. Cantor has hardly supported this effort, or this president, but “Open Borders Cantor” is absurdist, magical rhetoric.  

But sometimes in politics, the truth is less important than people’s feelings and people — at least those in Cantor’s district around Richmond — are feeling besieged. Their public schools are collapsing, their Congress won’t support a raise in minimum wage, their purchasing power is declining, and good factory jobs left their city decades ago.  

We suspect the professor from Randolph-Macon College will be elected to the House of Representatives in November as an insignificant, back-bencher with no real Cantor-like political power. We can live with that. But we can’t live with the deception, disingenuousness, and lies that have become the new norm in American politics.

It’s truly disheartening to watch professors, tasked with seeking and telling the truth, become politicians and begin to speak in fiction. Professor Brat’s exaggerations have real consequences when the national outcome of a Cantor defeat is the concomitant tabling of much-needed immigration reform for our nation. Evidently, Brat is unconcerned with the millions of deportations, the tens of thousands of detentions, the separation of families, and the squelching of opportunity for kids who dream of studying and living in peace in the U.S.  

Cantor’s defeat points to the urgency of passing comprehensive immigration reform now. We can’t allow politics to be hijacked by cynicism, laughable exaggerations, and bullying of the most vulnerable among us. Comprehensive immigration reform is in our best interest as a nation. And it will happen. Politicians who tell half-truths and outright lies to score political points at the expense of urgent national policy are not patriots. They’re the enemies of free societies and open democracies.

(Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and board chair at Latino Memphis, Inc.; Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.)

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Opinion Viewpoint

Time for Tuition Equity

Nineteen U.S. states offer undocumented people tuition equity at state colleges and universities. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Tennessee isn’t one of them.

Some states with Republican governors — including New Jersey and Texas — have passed laws offering in-state tuition to undocumented students. It’s time for Tennessee to move into the fold and make every educational opportunity available to all students.

Tuition equity means anyone who lives in the state, regardless of their immigration status, pays in-state tuition to study at our state institutions of higher education.

As a rule, out-of-state tuition is paid by people who live … out of state. It is similar to a tax against those who do not pay into state coffers but hope to use scarce and expensive educational resources. On average, out-of-state tuition is three times more expensive than in-state tuition.  

By forcing the undocumented to pay out-of-state rates, Tennessee essentially applies a double tax, because — it’s important to remember — they already pay taxes. Undocumented people pay sales tax just like the rest of us. And, their rents help cover landlords’ annual property tax bills. Those with taxpayer identification cards pay into our social security system with almost no opportunity of ever receiving the program’s benefits.

Since 31 states require undocumented people to pay a 300 percent markup over the book tuition rates at public schools, it should come as no surprise that just 10 percent of the roughly 45,000 kids who graduate from high school each year without proper documentation — the so-called “Dream Act kids” — actually enroll in college. Private banks typically won’t loan these young people money, and federal financial aid is unavailable, thus creating serious structural hurdles on the road to higher education.

The Dream Act kids, the young people who came here as children in the arms of their parents, must be given equal opportunity for educational advancement. Sooner or later, these people’s immigration statuses will be regularized — hopefully soon, through congressional action. Moderate House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner, would like to pass some sort of immigration reform before the November 2014 election. However, they’ve been thoroughly thwarted by vocal, reactionary members of their own caucus.  

Regardless of what happens in Washington, The Tennessee Board of Regents, the entity tasked with setting fiscal policy for many of our colleges and universities, should align our state with the 19 states that already offer in-state tuition to undocumented students. We need more, not less, access to higher education for all people living in Tennessee. State officials need to work creatively to ensure affordable education for the people of this state, without resorting to discrimination. Where people were born or how they arrived in the U.S. should never prevent access to higher education.

In addition to opportunity, tuition equity offers hope for a better life. Offering tuition equity to the undocumented represents no additional cost to the state since students pay the same state-sanctioned tuition rate as everyone else. Right now, there are about 14,000 young people who could benefit from tuition equity in Tennessee.

As of this writing, about 4,000 Tennesseans have applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — a program authorized by President Obama in 2012 by executive order. This order offers undocumented people the opportunity for work and freedom from fear of deportation — but only for two years. Only Congress can write a new law permanently regularizing the status of these kids, and we believe that will happen soon, though unfortunately not through a large, comprehensive immigration overhaul.   Young people who would benefit from passage of a Dream Act will soon be entering the workforce. They deserve and need the training of our higher education system. The embattled governor of New Jersey apparently knows this, and so does the memory-challenged governor of Texas.

Let’s pull away from the pack of 31, join the enlightened 19, and move into the 21st century by offering tuition equity for all who want to study here in Tennessee. Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and board member at Latino Memphis Inc. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

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Opinion Viewpoint

A House Divided

The recent shutdown of the federal government is now behind us, and unsurprisingly it was America’s poor and those who depend on government services who suffered the most during the Republican temper tantrum.

But for the 11 million undocumented persons who call the U.S. home, the shutdown was nothing more than business as usual from a federal government that refuses to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

This Republican-led House of Representatives likely will be remembered for inaction and obstruction, because its most radical members do not believe in federal government as a promoter of social peace. As such, the current House has refused to act on immigration reform, which passed the Senate in July with broad bipartisan support.

Shutdown or no shutdown, the U.S. government continues to prioritize deportation: About 1,100 people are deported daily, a number that did not change during the recent shutdown. These mass deportations separate families, create enmity, and deprive a struggling economy of workers, purchasers, and taxpayers.

President Obama would like to sign comprehensive immigration reform, because nonpartisan economists, law enforcement officials, and human rights activists agree that providing a legal framework for undocumented workers benefits the country. Our best opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform in a generation, since the 1986 reform, is now in the hands of a House of Representatives that does not believe in its own mission statement: to govern.

The extremists who shut down the government are also responsible for failing to act on immigration reform. The Republican-controlled House does not support immigration reform that offers a pathway to citizenship for undocumented persons in the U.S. Calling such people “criminals” and referring to any pathway as “amnesty for lawbreakers,” this House of Representatives has demonstrated a single-minded tenacity that is neither principled nor courageous. It’s narrow-minded and mean, and it will have clear consequences in upcoming national elections.

Nearly 50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson — a hard-boiled Texas Democrat — predicted that by signing the enlightened civil rights legislation of 1964, his party would “lose the South” for a generation. He was proven right, and his commentary and actions in spite of the consequences show a principled politician placing important national aspirations over petty regional politics. Now, the Republicans, through irresponsible legislative inaction, are laying the groundwork to lose the national Hispanic vote for a generation and perhaps longer.   

The vast majority of voting Hispanics and others who understand that immigrants enhance our economy, culture, and society with energy and dynamism are bound to think twice before voting for the party that squelched comprehensive immigration reform at the final hour. 

Young people and others who believe that the so-called Dream Act youth should be given the opportunity to live in peace and achieve their potential in the only country they’ve ever known are turning away from this Republican Party, the party that offers neither creative solutions nor sympathy to youngsters who hope to contribute to our collective culture and economy.

So we’re stuck with Republican recklessness: They forced a shutdown of the government and threatened to push the country into default while rejecting any attempt to legislate on much-needed, extraordinarily moderate immigration reform. This sorry state of affairs can only be corrected through the democratic process.

The American electorate is certainly better, smarter, and more moderate than its congressional leadership, and the electorate will hopefully act to build a more harmonious Congress in the near future. Future historians will look to this period as a very strange (and, we hope, temporary) season of intolerance and intransigence, terms that never translate to good governance, social peace, or democratic expansion.

Bryce W. Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney. Michael J. LaRosa teaches history at Rhodes College.