Immigrant students inspired to keep dreaming
When HISD assistant superintendent David Johnston taught English as a second language at Wisdom High School 20 years ago, he tried to convince students that they needed to go to college.
“But to my chagrin, they weren’t having it, and when I asked why, they shared their stories of how their immigration status made college too expensive for them,” Johnston said. At first he didn’t believe the students, but a Houston Community College counselor told him his students would pay three times the tuition and not receive financial aid in college.
“A deep voice inside me said ‘David, you must work to change the law,’ but an even deeper, more powerful voice said, ‘You have the capacity to do it,’” he said.
Johnston said other advocates were able to help get the Texas Legislature to pass the Texas Dream Act, which allowed students to be classified as state residents regardless of their legal immigration status.
“We have it because young people just like you were not afraid,” Johnston told students in attendance.
“They listened to that voice that told them that they have the power to change their lives. But they also listened to a deeper voice, a voice that told them they had the power to do it. Listen to that voice that says you have the capacity, the brains, to attend college.”
At Houston ISD’s fifth annual DREAM Summit on Saturday, hundreds of students born outside the U.S. learned about their options from financial aid experts, lawyers, counselors, and college graduates. They encouraged students to pursue their educations and careers, despite the tumultuous path in front of them since President Donald Trump decided to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Barack Obama created in 2012 to allow children brought here illegally to gain work permits. They now await a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
This adds turmoil to the lives of thousands of Houston students. HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan estimated that roughly 10 percent of HISD’s 200,000 students are dreamers, including about 1,400 high school seniors.
“Dreamers are vital not only to American society, but also to the city of Houston,” Lathan said. “The United States is a nation of immigrants. Every child has a constitutional right to an education and we provide access so students can receive a quality education without looking at their or their parents’ immigration status.”
One HISD student, an immigrant from Honduras, was able to graduate college, and spoke at the Dream Summit on the day of his graduation from Texas A&M University with a Ph.D. in urban education. Jose Luis Zelaya migrated to the United States when he was 13 to be with his mother and his younger sister, traveling 45 days to the border by train and walking through the desert before crossing the Rio Grande, where he was found by an immigration officer.
“Today marks 19 years from the day I reunified with my mother at the border,” Zelaya said.
Zelaya said dreamers have a responsibility to set an example of success for their younger family members.
“Education gave me the opportunity to understand that a dreamer does not mean limitation, that a dreamer means we have a responsibility to make it a reality,” Zelaya said. “Because there are so many sacrifices that came before you for us to be able to be here.”
Zelaya told students there they would also have a family someday, and that they need to make sure they are able to provide for that family to give them the future they deserve.
HISD student Brian Castellon, a senior who was born in the U.S., but whose parents immigrated from Nicaragua, said he found Zelaya’s words inspiring. He’s already been accepted to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and plans to study kinesiology.
“I like sports, but I have no chance of playing,” Castellon said. “Instead of playing, why can I not help others that get injured on the field or on the court?”
Juan Aleman Martinez, another HISD senior who moved to the U.S. with his family three years ago from Honduras, said he is thinking about going to college and is interested in astrophysics.
“It inspired me more to continue,” he said of Zelaya’s speech. “He motivated me more.”