College Grads Who Are Illegal Immigrants Face Barren Job Market

Each year, thousands of New York City students earn college degrees and yet have no possibility of finding work. The reason is not a lack of job offers, but because they are illegal immigrants.

"We have people who graduate at the top of their classes and they can't get jobs," the director of the City University of New York's Citizenship and Immigration Project, Allan Wernick, said yesterday at a City Council hearing. By recent counts, he said, there are 3,000 undocumented students in the CUNY system. Nationally, 65,000 illegal immigrant students are thought to graduate from high school each year.

Alfredo, an illegal immigrant who is a senior at Baruch College, is facing the prospect of graduating this spring with a degree in business administration and no potential to work legally. At 10, his parents brought him to Long Island from Guatemala, but it was only years later that he realized the implications of being illegal. "I never thought it was such a big issue until I started hitting the roadblocks," the 21-year-old said, noting that teachers began to nominate him for awards he could not accept without a Social Security number.

On Friday, a glimmer of hope appeared for immigrants such as Alfredo. The Senate reintroduced legislation that would grant students the opportunity to become permanent legal residents. If President Bush signs it by the end of 2006, the bill, known as the Dream Act, would allow students to receive temporary legal status when they graduate from high school. Upon completing their studies or military service, the immigrants could then apply for permanent legal status.

Additionally, the legislation would increase the number of states offering instate tuition to undocumented students and make more financial aid available. Unlike most other states across the country, schools in New York offer in-state tuition to immigrant students who have lived in the state, regardless of status.

However, even the $4,000 tuition for senior colleges in the CUNY system or $2,800 for junior colleges can be a stretch for some immigrants. A teacher with dozens of undocumented students at Flushing High School in Queens, Martha Cruz, said some of her best students could not join their peers in college because their illegal status bars them from most forms of financial aid.

"I have one who graduated with over an 83 average and he's working at McDonald's because he wants to save to go to college, plus he has to help out at home," Ms. Cruz said. "If they continue to be undocumented they will work menial jobs." In Alfredo's case, his parents rented out two rooms in their Long Island house so he could attend Baruch. Unable to work legally while in college, he has helped cover his education fees by working at restaurants for under-the-table pay.

The evident humanitarian and economic case for providing students who had no choice in immigrating illegally to America with a chance to study and work make it a fairly popular bill. Critics, nonetheless, say it is a sugar-coated amnesty rewarding illegality.

Still, the Dream Act is generally considered the immigration legislation most likely to pass next term. Senators Clinton and Schumer were both cosigners of the initial bill but have not yet signed on to the reintroduced bill.

For Alfredo, who is heading a campaign with the CUNY Senate's newly formed immigration committee to bring attention to the issue, the Dream Act is a question of practicality. "Without it there's really no future for me. Even though I will have a bachelor's degree, I'm going to have to work some low-wage job," he said. "It makes sense for America to let me participate as much as I can."